Protest Music: Grunge Pt. II
Moral Temperature, Chomsky, Gulf War, Yellow Ledbetter (1992) and American Jesus (1993)
The 'milieu' (moral temperature) is responsible for the atrophy or development of individuals, especially crucial for artists and their art, as if ‘‘Oliver Cromwell had not lived in the milieu of Great Rebellion, he would have remained what he had been- a stern Puritan concerned more with his farm and family than with public affairs’’ (Blaukopf and Marinelli, 1992,p.29). The melancholic aspect is a key element of grunge music and it`s identity. Political factors had shaped such music. Hippolyte Taine indicates that :
‘’the physical temperature (the environment) is responsible for natural selection, the moral temperature of society affects the selection of talented individuals. A certain moral temperature is required in order for certain talents to develop; should this be missing; talents fail to develop’’ (Blaukopf and Marinelli, 1992, pp.28-29).
Likewise, Theodor Adorno argues that the environment (social fabric) and the ideology of the environment and society hold an important part in the formation of art and artists (Read here). Music is not only a reflection of the individual but a reflection of the environment which has shaped it. Without the social fabric of Generation X, grunge would not have come to prominence and therefore such music is naturally political due to the social construction of it. Its messages and ideology speak for a great portion of American society, especially Generation X. Whilst, there is a presumption that grunge is more concerned with personal struggles (and media`s perspective often focuses on the movements drug issues), it is a musical genre which took on political activism.
Protest Against The Social Fabric: American Punk And Grunge
Richard Hell in his memoir I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp (2013), makes it clear that he was affected by the American political situation and strongly disliked former president Richard Nixon. The Vietnam War (1955-1975) had greatly affected American society and Nixon recognized that a military victory could not occur. However, a withdrawal would undermine U.S credibility in the world. With the Cold War (1947-1991) playing a big part in the Vietnam War, Nixon continued to order military bombings and the provision for South Vietnam of training and military-equipment. In 1970, Nixon announced the invasion of Cambodia, leading to great protest and marches across university campuses. In 1973, the United States had signed the peace pact and pulled U.S troops out of Vietnam.
The controversial Watergate Scandal resulted in the House Judiciary Committee indicting Nixon for impeachment. Nixon resigned, yet, when President Gerald Ford became 38th President, he granted Nixon ‘’a full, free, and absolute’’ pardon (Ford pardons Nixon, 2009). Despite all of this, New York punks did not vocalize their political ideas to the level that the Sex Pistols did. Instead, they gained a junkie reputation which exuded egoism. However, Hell explains that:
‘’things had become so extreme that you were confronted everywhere, every day, with the conflicts. Nobody trusted or respected anybody. Nearly everybody thought they had the answers, but nobody agreed with anybody else. Frightened and distraught and angry writings about Vietnam and Nixon fill my notebooks from the time. I especially sympathised with the Black Panthers and hated and despised Nixon and was horrified by what was happening in Vietnam, but all I ever did was express those feelings in journals and in talks with friends’’ (Hell, 2013, pp. 85-86.).
Isabelle Anscombe and Dike Blair conclude that ‘’American punk has more to do with boredom than with unemployment; it bears a closer allegiance to comic books than politics’’ (Curtis, 1987, p.310). Anscombe Blair’s view is subverted by 1980s. As discussed in West Coast Hardcore Punk & Grunge: Protest Against Police, Religion and Reagan and Every Single Sound Speaks In The Plural: West Coast hardcore punk and grunge. 80’s punk became politically driven and changed American punk identity. After 1980s American hardcore punk had taken on a political nature, the example of grunge indicates a further trend and continuity of such an approach. Grunge music had also taken on a political activism. Grunge band Pearl jam had set up a:
‘’75-watt 'pirate' radio station on every bus stop on its tour. The station broadcast selections from their best albums. But there was something else besides the crashing chords, and this is what was interesting about Pearl Jam's venture into radio. In between cuts, a male monotone voice oozing vulgar Marxism droned on about manipulation of the media, the evils of corporations, and the sins of America generally. The recorded voice belonged to Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Noam Chomsky, the linguistic theorist and hard-core leftist whose career has bizarrely breached into the music business’’ (Barsky, 2009, p.14).
Just as William S. Burroughs had become an idolised figure in the 1970s New York punk scene, 1980s hardcore punk and grunge idolised Noam Chomsky. Likewise, outside of grunge and punk, R.E.M and Rage Against the Machine showed support for him. Rage Against the Machine (after frontman's Zack De La Rocha's departure, turned into Audioslave with Chris Cornell) interviewed Chomsky in 1999. In 2007, at the Rage Against the Machine reunion show at Coachella, Zack De La Rocha made a speech in which he revealed that:
‘’a friend of ours said if the same laws were applied to U.S. Presidents as were applied to the Nazis after WWII, that every single one of them, every last rich white one of them, from Truman on would be hung to death and shot. And this current administration is no exception. They should be hung and tried and shot as war criminals’’ (Dasgupta, 2021).
The friend addressed was Noam Chomsky. Chomsky identified himself as an anarcho-syndicalist and libertarian socialist. A respected figure within left wing politics in United States, he gained popularity in hardcore punk and grunge communities. Chomsky is critical of religion and, as previously mentioned, Chris Cornell was too [ CLICK HERE for Protest Music: Grunge Pt. I :) ]. This is a trend across grunge and hardcore punk where atheism dominates. When considering hardcore punk's explanation of straightedge need to stay in control, atheism in both musical scenes appears as a protest to stay conscious. One of the reasons why hardcore punk and grunge found appeal in Chomsky is due to sharing similar beliefs. Chomsky explained that ‘’we should also remember that there is a secular religion which is even more devastating and that’s things like the concept of American exceptionalism’’ (Chomsky's Philosophy, 2015).
This is something Bad Religion had touched upon in their song ‘’American Jesus’’ (1993) which features Eddie Vedder on back vocals. Bad Religion addresses American exceptionalism and its contradictions through sarcasm. The song proposes that religion is a tool to advertise patriotism. In such a protest, the song is unpatriotic.
‘‘I don't need to be a global citizen
'Cause I'm blessed by nationality…
I feel sorry for the earth's population
'Cause so few live in the U.S.A.
At least the foreigners can copy our morality
They can visit but they cannot stay…
We've got the American Jesus Bolstering national faith’’
(Graffin and Gurewitz, 1993)
Bad Religion addresses American exceptionalism and its contradictions through sarcasm. The song proposes that religion is a tool to advertise patriotism. In such a protest, the song is not patriotic at all. The song states that American ideology can be copied but foreigners are not welcomed, contradicting the idea that America is the land of the free. The outro section of the song features choir vocals singing ‘’One Nation Under God’’ (Graffin and Gurewitz, 1993) but they lack any specific emotion or dynamic. This is one of the most significant sections as it proves to be emotionless and soulless. When considering its sarcastic lyrics, the song suggests that America has been propagandised with Christianity.
If Christian groups believe and promote that their religious duty is to help others, especially the poor, a line like ‘’I don't need to be a global citizen’’ suggests otherwise. The following line ‘’Cause I'm blessed by nationality’’(Graffin and Gurewitz, 1993) infers American nationality's superiority over Christianity. To be American is more important than to be a global citizen, in such Christianity's benevolent ideology is not important or practised in American Exceptionalism.
Just like Pearl Jam, who had played Chomsky's voice on their pirate radio station, Bad Religion released an album with Chomsky's political analysis. New World Order: War #1 (1991) featured two Bad Religion songs, with side B being left for Chomsky. The political analysis focuses on Mideast history, ‘’the war that didn't have to happen, the media's role in it‘’ (Bad Religion and Noam Chomsky, 1991). Once again highlighting hardcore punk and grunge values like being conscious and in control. This hardcore/spoken word album from Bad Religion addresses American media propaganda regarding the Gulf War. Specifically, it was released in order to protest the first Gulf War (2 Aug 1990 – 28 Feb 1991). Similarly, the Pearl Jam 26 song ‘’Yellow Ledbetter’’ (1992), released as a B side for ‘’Jeremy’’ in 1992, is also a protest against the first Gulf War. Eddie Vedder explains that it:
‘‘was originally written about the first Gulf War, and I'd created this image of a young guy with long hair and grunge-wear clothes who had just got a yellow telegram telling him that his brother had been killed in action. He's walking by these conservative- looking, older folks on a porch, flying an American flag, and he waves to them in a show of solidarity, and they brush him off and give him the finger. So, you know, what did his brother die for?‘’ (Pearl Jam LLC and Monkeywrench INC, p.280).
The Gulf War was significant for the United States as it was an armed campaign waged by the US military and 35 coalition countries against Iraq. This was done as a response to the Iraqi annexation of Kuwait. Iraq’s dictator Sadam Hussein was responsible for the invasion of Kuwait, a state producing oil in the Persian Gulf. The invasion was due to the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) in which Iraq was left with debts of $37 billion to gulf creditors. Hussein asked the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait to cancel the debt, arguing that ‘’loans should be considered payments to Iraq for protecting the Arabian Peninsula from Iranian expansionism’’(Milestones: 1989–1992 - Office of the Historian, n.d.). The refusal to obey such demands led to the Gulf War. The United States asked for Iraqi forces to leave Kuwait by 15th of January 1991, however, this was ignored and resulted in President George W. Bush deploying U.S forces to force Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.
Both Bad Religion's song ‘’American Jesus’’(1993) and Pearl Jam's ‘’Yellow Ledbetter’’(1992) appear anything but patriotic and reflect Chomsky's stance on American exceptionalism being more devastating than any religion. Pearl Jam’s decision to play Chomsky on their radio indicates how politicised grunge was. ‘’Yellow Ledbetter’’(1992) is a melancholic song which emotionally, through the narrator's brother's death, protests conservatives and Republicans. Unlike hardcore punk, which is harsher in its approach (as example Dead Kennedys “California Über Alles”) Pearl Jam, through careful use of poetics, do it more subtly. The song is carefully constructed in order to emotionally engage with the listener and after the emotional engagement is reached through melancholy the listener is faced with the question, what did his brother die for?
