Lost In Translation

I found our discussion about the politics of musical artists and how it is often met with resistance by fans to be very interesting. We sometimes see that when a band tries to give some sort of input into a subject rather than just being an output for their music they are belittled, booed, ignored, or misunderstood. This says something about a fundamental difference that exists between a band's mentality and a fan's when dealing with live concerts and political insight in general.

Any band has some political value within their music (whether inferred or blatant), so why does the fan try to resist any sort of spoken political activism?

If I had to provide an answer I would say the animosity exists because it is created by the mass media.

The "larger" or more renown a band becomes, the easier it is for their message to be lost in a sort of translation. Because artists put themselves out to the mercy of the media it becomes easier and easier for fans (especially the stupid ones) to infer more and more about a certain group. These inferences are made, generally, with little or no background knowledge of the background of the band and its political values. These inferences are being made, generally, in a mob mentality (where the bigger brute force is the winner), whether on an online blog or in the midst of a crowd at a concert. These two factors feed one another and you get the viscous cycle that, the more famous a band becomes the less openly political they can become.

The Solution! Steadfast political values of band members, expressing these values whenever there is danger that they may be misinterpreted, or inferred that they are in agreement with something that they disagree.

For an example just check out At the Drive-In:

Not afraid to piss people off...