To still enjoy songs that I know are politically incorrect?

[Thisismynewname123]

Sitting here watching MTV's Christmas hits. My favourite song is still Band Aid's Feed the World, despite knowing it's clearly ignorant and racist (or at best, no longer appropriate). Then next co es on Michael Jackson's Earth Song. I usually make an effort not to listen to MJ anyway, but I still love singing to his songs. Can you separate the musician from their life, or their message, or just enjoy listening to a song that is no longer politically appropriate?

The lyrics to Feed the World can only be sensibly discussed in the context of what they were actually about - the famine in Ethiopia.

"Nothing ever grows, no rain nor rivers flow" - this was true at that time. People were starving. Those listening to the song in 1984 knew it was about Ethiopia and that those lyrics reflected what was happening there.

@Fatladyslim

My favourite Christmas songs are Santa Baby, Baby It's Cold Outside and Fairytale Of New York

The lyrics may not be pc now but they are bloody good songs.
Feed the world is okay, bit the best but certainly not the worst. I ways took the 'tongiht thank God its them instead of you' line to mean you should count yourself lucky if you had the privilege to be born out of extreme famine and poverty. Nothing odd about that at all.

Precisely! It's about thanking God for what you have - if you have food on the table and good health, you are privileged indeed.

I'm an atheist, but the point of that lyric is pretty obvious.

I’m not enjoying this recent slide into Puritanism whereby everything that doesn’t fit into society’s current norms must be erased from existence

Same and I’d go so far as so say that it concerns me. It’s a bit like the cancel culture.

I read my daughter Enid Blyton books and they’re horrifically sexist but to erase them is a bit like erasing history. They were a product of their time and we always discuss afterwards why girls were equally as proficient as cycling up a hill as the boys.

Anyway I love Fairy Tale of New York.

@SpongeBobJudgeyPants

I enjoy the Macc Lads. I like to think a lot of it is ironic, but who knows. Very un PC.

Amen! They definitely had the right idea :)

Fairy tale of New York and Money for Nothing I see as both being songs where characters are voicing their thoughts. To change their words is ridiculous imo.
Feed the world , picked apart now but well intentioned. The line Thank God it's them instead of you, I hear as meaning that if you're living a comfortable existence you should be thankful for it.
MJ is a difficult one. I absolutely loved Thriller at the time , less so other albums, but I really wouldn't choose to listen to it now.

Yes clearly racist,I mean people were dying in droves little children and babies were starving to death ,the song raised millions yet nearly 40 years later are now offended by the lyrics

I've seen posters say that Feed the World was racist because why should 'Africa' know or care that it's Christmas time - they have their own 'native religions'. Given that Ethiopia is a majority Christian country, as well as being one of the earliest centres of Christianity in the world, this assumption seems a bit, ooh I don't know - racist?

@Orf1abc

If we actively avoided every song/ movie associated with someone accused of a crime, we'd have nothing left to listen to.

Or... we'd be happier and less conflicted!

@TriflePudding

I’m not enjoying this recent slide into Puritanism whereby everything that doesn’t fit into society’s current norms must be erased from existence.

This. Also see cancel culture.

Indeed @cornbread, but Ethiopians were starving to death at the time I remember the footage it was horrific I doubt they cared it was Xmas .

Yes Lostprophets is the only band I feel this strongly about. His crime was fucking abhorrent though rather than him being charged considered mildly racist or having a few allegations made against him that were never proven beyond reasonable doubt. Maybe that's the difference.

Yes I prefer the non PC ones!

Fairy tale of NY
Do they know it’s Xmas?
Don’t let the bells end
Baby it’s cold outside

All those ones

@TroysMammy

Feed the World - "Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you" not racist but quite nasty.

I’ve always taken this to mean “Count yourself lucky / for the same money it could have been you in that position / there but for the grace of God” type thing. Not like “I’m so happy it’s happening to someone else and not me!”

@Polyxena

woke virtue signalling

This kind of language is what I was driving at in my post when I said about these discussions becoming polarised. It’s not ‘woke virtue signalling’ to recognise that attitudes have changed over the years and something that was acceptable 40 years ago is now not and want to discuss how we deal with it now.

Why does it need “dealing with” at all? Why can’t we simply acknowledge it for the era it was created in, accept that it what it is and move on?

I think there is an element of resentment at 'white saviours' inherent in Band Aid and over the years a louder voice for Black and African activism in solving their own problems has arisen ..this is a minefield of good intentions and racial politics within which some very unpleasant reactions and attitudes have bubbled up ..I once heard a very senior white european aid director saying there was an element in activism which felt it was "better to be starved by a black hand than fed by a white one "...I looked at him in shock , he just shrugged.

I don’t think this is fake woke or virtue signalling

Take R Kelly for example. I like bump and grind (2014 house remix). But the lyrics

“My mind is tellin me no
But my body, my body's tellin' me yes”

Amongst other lines, just make it hard to separate the music from the artist. R Kelly is infamous for his sexual attraction/abuse of minors, so I can’t in good faith listen to those lyrics and not think of the fucked up side of him as it’s like he’s directly referring to his perversions

@x2boys agreed - but my point is that they absolutely would have known it is Christmas time - Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas lasts from the end of November to early January so it's kind of a big deal.

The woke can fuck off, gangster rap about raping women and taking drugs gets a pass but a couple of songs "of their time" get dragged over the coals, fuck off, either nothing is acceptable or they are all fine, just don't buy them or play them if you don't like them.

‘Do they know it’s Christmas’, to use the song’s correct title, was written, arranged, produced, performed, recorded and mixed in a single morning in order to get it Into the shops and start raising money as fast as possible. It succeeded in raising many millions of pounds for famine relief.

Given the circumstances, I’m prepared to give Midge Ure & Bob Geldof the benefit of the doubt, however much I may cringe at some of the lyrics.

There are only 2 xmas songs allowed in our house. Neither appropriate.
Fairytale in New york - Pogues
Rudolf - Ultima Thule
:)

Exactly, Agedlikewine.

@x2boys agreed - but my point is that they absolutely would have known it is Christmas time - Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas lasts from the end of November to early January so it's kind of a big deal. smile

Yes, but at the time it was an awful famine, people were barely alive there, I would imagine that the calendar was not the main focus in Ethiopia that year, do you not remember it?