Why are music stars left wing?

[ArseInTheCoOpWindow]

Lady Gaga yesterday.

Tony Blair hobnobbing with Oasis.

I remember the Red Wedge. Loads of stars in it.

No one except the Beach Boys have any right wing tendencies.

This is a good thing of course, but just wondered why!

Didn't the spice girls say that Margaret thatcher was their hero?

Generally speaking though pop stars are young, from urban areas and well travelled. Which all tend to make people left wing.

Queen (my favourite band, incidentally) were lambasted in the day for playing Apartheid-ridden South Africa and for recording in Switzerland for tax-haven reasons.

Lots of bands recorded abroad, so that isn't necessarily a stick to beat Queen with (I think the tax rate got to 97% at one point, so fair play).

However choosing to perform at Sun City - presumably with a personal approval of Mrs Thatcher (who hated sanctions and thought apartheid should be tried in the UK) pretty much blew any suggestion they were liberal out of the water (I have a memory of Freddie being suspiciously Toryish).

Generally speaking though pop stars are young, from urban areas and well travelled

Well, thanks to Mr. Daltrey and chums, used to be. Although a good knowledge of ones own country should never be a bad thing.

@DGRossetti

Queen (my favourite band, incidentally) were lambasted in the day for playing Apartheid-ridden South Africa and for recording in Switzerland for tax-haven reasons.

Lots of bands recorded abroad, so that isn't necessarily a stick to beat Queen with (I think the tax rate got to 97% at one point, so fair play).

However choosing to perform at Sun City - presumably with a personal approval of Mrs Thatcher (who hated sanctions and thought apartheid should be tried in the UK) pretty much blew any suggestion they were liberal out of the water (I have a memory of Freddie being suspiciously Toryish).

Yes, Queen were little capitalists! (I personally have no problem with this!)

Christ, that Clapton quote

They're not.

Joe Biden is only "left wing" compared to neo-facist Trump and the like. In reality he's well on the right, almost all US politicians are.

I suspect many aren't left wing, but probably too shy to admit to it.

@HandInGove

Christ, that Clapton quote

To be fair he has apologised - and given his long history of "problems" it's not necessarily a true reflection.

However I suspect all the reaction did was to teach him about discretion, rather than a prolonged deep soul searching about what he had done.

I suspect Mick Jagger tends to the right too. And I'm not talking dressing preferences ...

I think in the UK pp comment about being young, urban, and well travelled sums it up.

I was just reading about a band who have had their contract cancelled because their singer was at the capitol riots, another bands singer left the group because his views and bands 'wern't compatible'. My fav band of the 90s singer likes to get drunk and shout about white power O_o This is why I have a never meet your heros policy :p

I really don’t like the assumption that being left wing is “ right” and any other position is wrong or some aberration. It’s easy to be left wing if you’re a creative industry I would have thought. Certainly not many people are going to challenge your beliefs. Young people are naturally idealistic and find beliefs around freedom and human rights appealing so it’s pretty easy for musicians to tap into that ideology. I dare say there are quite a number buying financial expertise to ensure their fortunes are squirrelled away comfortably overseas. All in all it’s easy to be left wing if you don’t have to worry about the economics of a situation.

I really don’t like the assumption that being left wing is “ right” and any other position is wrong or some aberration.

sadly nuance is dead, so that's how it is.

Personally I agree inasmuch as it's possible to have a spectrum of views, which when aggregated so not lead to a comfortable 1:1 mapping with an "-ism".

Just in these past few posts, Mick Jagger, for example. Described as "conservative", and yet seems quite Extinction Rebellion on climate change.

Phil Collins was an ardent Thatcher supporter.

@Gilead

Phil Collins was an ardent Thatcher supporter.

I think that's a bit like Godwins law for debate. Once you have to mention Phil Collins, you've lost.

He never did fuck off to Switzerland when Blair won did he ?

Mr Collins never did fuck off to Switzerland when Brexit happened either. As did none, as far as I'm aware, of the other luminaries who said they would..

Right leaning - Eric Clapton, Roger Daltrey, Gary Barlow, Morrissey ....

the BBC are/were accused of being left wing, ditto commedians. artists too? thinking Grayson Perry. I think its because conservatism with a small or big c doesn't go with the thinking-outside-the-box mentality needed to not follow a traditional career path

I don't like the assumption that left wing is correct

Whole heartedly agree, as someone who falls to what's called the left or right on various issues.

Tribalism just obscures stuff,problens and solutions are far more complex than a simple dichotomy can describe.

I'm not talking dressing preferences ...
Rossetti