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Songs of Rebellion

by Sarahana | February 2008

We [Americans] don't have a Bob Dylan; where are all the great writers? We don't have enough new great talent. We just don't have the inspirational songs that pop out.
- Kirsten Dunst, actress.

Whether history repeats itself or not, it certainly gets longer. The burden of its weight deepens with every generation, which must understand human existence in light of this ever-expanding, complicated past. It is again history that informs us that rebellion has constituted human experience for as long as love, creation and violence have. The emergence of revolutions and civil wars in the last few centuries have brought the concept of rebellion to the forefront of discussions, and not without posing difficult questions. The twentieth century, in particular, saw rapid changes in the way we live. Justice and equality, the two topics that have tossed in the philosopher's mind ever since his conception, solidified into codes, while commerce, comfort, livelihood all raced to new meanings with no return in sight. Now that the century has turned twenty-first, a Hollywood actress wonders, Where is our Bob Dylan?

Before we go looking for Dylan, we must ask, what is the state of rebellion today? We have seen the uprising of peasants turn into tyranny, and we wonder if equality isn't just a change of hands in power. We have seen a fervor of change grow dim under implementation, and we wonder if rebellion isn't naive. We have seen one nation swallow another, and we wonder if war isn't an act of honor. We have seen attempts at recreating the anti-war movements of the 60's and the 70's, and we wonder if peace hasn't become a cliché. We have seen radiant leaders limp as they assume a role of power. We have seen victims repeat the crime of their offenders. "This isn't right," after all, will be answered with, "It doesn't matter, if you haven't a better idea." And which is more important, to have a solution that makes the wheel turn, however feebly, or to be right? This is the climate under which we seek our Dylan, the man who asked:

How many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?

Violence and art are the two mediums in which we have seen rebellion expressed. As one has clearly out-shined the other, art has turned shy, especially since there is plenty of what passes as art, which is no more than a mockery of its origins. The truth is, it has been decades since Dylan was found, and his era has now passed. To look for another is of no use, since the present demands something else. The era of ideals has to succumb to the era of action, but bloody experiments in mass rebellion has tired us of revolutions, and the framework of politics has deflated our fervor for peace movements. The action is now survival, implementation: how to keep the wheel turning, how to stand by the value of life. So what can be said of the present? We return to the twentieth century and its rapid changes. Ever since the advent of modern life, men have outdone “the Creator” in the role of creating, i.e. in shaping the environment in which we struggle daily to survive. These changes have gathered unapologetic speed since Dylan sang his famous tune, and a big blob of history has formed between then and now. The burden of this generation, and those to come, is that historical rebellion is increasingly metaphysical in experience. As this paves way for nihilism, today’s songwriters are faced with problems far more multi-faceted.

With this in mind, we turn our attention to a small selection of songs of protest, all released after 2000, from today's American songwriters. In the treatment of rebellion that is sometimes subtle, sometimes humble, we find a few obvious changes since Dylan. In some, we hear a bitter memory of history, and in others, a longing to reconnect with nature. It is no longer only war and injustice we rebel against, it is what society has agreed to make of modern human experience.

"There Is No There" by The Books
"In Our Talon" by Bowerbirds
"Garden Rose" by Lavendar Diamond
"Paris Is Burning" by St. Vincent
"Anti-Anti" by Snowden

Comments

February 9th, 2008

1 | BoxCutter's Fiend:

Jimi Hendrix might have been influenced enough to cover Bob’s song “All along the watchtower” and make it famous but Jimi also said, if Bob can sing with his (terrible) voice, so can he …

and the moral of my story is ??? :)

AS THE SONG GOES :

“No reason to get excited,” the thief, he kindly spoke,
“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.” :)

February 12th, 2008

2 | rakesh:

This post is the outcome of outbrust of suppression, subjugation and social injustice and discrimination of the Madheshi people for last so many centuries. They have been crying for their fundamental rights but none of the ruler elites listen to their genuine demands, let alone the solution of the problems facing the Madheshi community. Basically I am a writer of culture and literature. But circumtances compelled me to write such a post of political exploitation in order to support the fundamental rights of the Madhesi people. My main motto here is to internationalize this issue and attract the attention of the international community which is not well acquainted with this problem yet.

February 12th, 2008

3 | Chuck:

“Before we go looking for Dylan, we must ask, what is the state of rebellion today?”
Whatever followed after this almost made me puke. No seriously.

February 12th, 2008

4 | settled gypsy:

Shut up Chuck!! Did it really make you puke? It must have been your tummy acting up and not your brain ‘cause obviously you don’t have much of the latter to appreciate Sarahana’s quite profound ideas.

February 12th, 2008

5 | maya:

are we all unwitting victims then of some abstract agreement that we have locked ourselves into? agreement implies some form of consent does’t it? anyhow that is the great myth perpetuated by liberalism, an ideology that asserts itself in America since its independence, that we are all equal and belong to civil society through our own consent, a society of equals. in fact servitude, slavery, colonialism, usurpation were implicitly sanctioned even as equality was the ostensible front for this ideology. seems like we are all in it now, fighting tooth and nail to become one of those i’s equal to all the others,hoping that by giving ourselves up to be controlled and overpowered we will be designated the badge of equality. perhaps i should stop to wonder who sarahana means by “we” in this article since i too have used it indiscriminately. but maybe that’s not so bad. it might be a start to define that we a bit more, the only way to rebel is as us.

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