Folk music has always been a vehicle used to convey messages of protest, of discontent.<\/p>\n
Artists like Joni Mitchell, Phil Ochs, and Judy Collins popularised the protest song and brought it to a 1960s audience who were both hungry for a new art form and discontent with their lot.<\/p>\n
Twenty five years later NWA were the first group to bring rap to a wider audience as a means of carrying a different type of message of dissatisfaction with their mean, meaty and very crude Straight Outta Compton<\/em>.<\/p>\n Almost another twenty years later and Eminem elevated rap higher when he introduced a new type of street poetry that highlighted his anger with and aspects of world-wide hypocrisy with his third album The Eminem Show<\/em>.<\/p>\n Yesterday, six years after I first heard The Eminem Show, I heard another voice – though the band Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy – vocalise its intense dislike of the modern world with the anger-ridden, media-focussed anthem Television The Drug Of The Nation<\/em>.<\/p>\n Adam Curry asked in a Daily Source Code podcast where today’s protest songs were.<\/p>\n I think they’re here Adam. In rap.<\/p>\n Here’s the lyrics to Television The Drug Of The Nation<\/em> – to get the full wrath you need to listen to the track – but you’ll get a good impression of the quality of DHOH’s artistry and articulation of anger from these words.<\/p>\n Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy – Television The Drug Of The Nation<\/strong><\/p>\n One nation under God has turned into Television the drug of the Nation TV, TV, Absorbed in its world it’s so hard to find us. Television, the drug of the Nation T.V. is the stomping ground for political candidates It’s the perpetuation of the two party system, Race baiting is the way to get selected Television, the drug of the Nation T.V., is it the reflector or the director? T.V. is the place where armchair generals and quarterbacks Sugar sweet sitcoms that leave us with a bad actor taste while Well, the only cola that I support Television, the drug of the Nation Back again, “New and improved”. Where oxymoronic language like T.V. is the place where phrases are redefined T.V. is the place where the pursuit of happiness has become the pursuit of trivia, Television, the drug of the Nation Folk music has always been a vehicle used to convey messages of protest, of discontent. Artists like Joni Mitchell, Phil Ochs, and Judy Collins popularised<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","two-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\none nation under the influence of one drug<\/p>\n
\nBreeding ignorance and feeding radiation<\/p>\n
\nIt satellite links our United States of Unconsciousness,
\nApathetic therapeutic and extremely addictive.
\nThe methadone metronome pumping out 150 channels 24 hours a day,
\nyou can flip through all of them and still there’s nothing worth watching.<\/p>\n
\nis the reason why less than 10 per cent of our Nation reads books daily,
\nWhy most people think Central America means Kansas,
\nSocialism means unAmerican
\nand Apartheid is a new headache remedy.<\/p>\n
\nIt shapes our mind the most, maybe the mother of our Nation
\nshould remind us that we’re sitting too close to…<\/p>\n
\nBreeding ignorance and feeding radiation<\/p>\n
\nWhere bears in the woods are chased by Grecian Formula’d bald eagles.
\nT.V. is mechanized politics,
\nremote control over the masses,
\nco-sponsored by environmentally safe gases (watch for the PBS special).<\/p>\n
\nwhere image takes precedence over wisdom,
\nWhere sound bite politics are served to the fastfood culture,
\nWhere straight teeth in your mouth
\nare more important than the words that come out of it.<\/p>\n
\nWillie Horton or
\nWill he not get elected on…<\/p>\n
\nBreeding ignorance and feeding radiation<\/p>\n
\nDoes it imitate us or do we imitate it – because a child
\nwatches 1500 murders before he’s twelve years old
\nand we wonder why we’ve created a Jason generation that learns to laugh
\nrather than to abhor the horror?<\/p>\n
\ncan experience first hand the excitement of warfare
\nas the theme song is sung in the background.<\/p>\n
\npop stars metamorphosize into soda pop stars.
\nYou saw the video, you heard the soundtrack?
\nWell now go buy the soft drink.<\/p>\n
\nwould be a union C.O.L.A.(Cost Of Living Allowance)
\nOn television.<\/p>\n
\nBreeding ignorance and feeding radiation<\/p>\n
\nWe return to our irregularly programmed schedule
\nhidden cleverly between heavy breasted
\nbeer and car commercials
\nCNN ESPN ABC TNT but mostly B.S.<\/p>\n
\n“virtually spotless”, “fresh frozen”
\n“light yet filling” and “military intelligence”
\nhave become standard.<\/p>\n
\nlike “recession” to “necessary downturn”
\n“Crude oil on a beach” to “mousse”
\n“Civilian death” to “collateral damages” and
\nbeing killed by your own Army is now called “friendly fire”.<\/p>\n
\nWhere toothpaste and cars have become sex objects,
\nWhere imagination is sucked out of children by a cathode ray nipple.
\nT.V. is the only wet nurse that would create a cripple<\/p>\n
\nBreeding ignorance and feeding radiation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"