You Didn't Come here to Sit and Think, You Came here to Play and Sing!

I don't make it my habit to watch CNN's Showbiz Tonight. For some reason what Eminem said today or what will Britany Spears wear tomorrow is not my kind of news. However todays question for the audience was one that sparked my interest. The question to the audience was "what do you think of artists having their political songs against the war in Iraq?". One of the debaters who objects to that said that they're only in it for the profit, taking advantage of Bush's low approval rates. I tend to agree.

"Where were all those voices in the past three years? The war hasn't become messy in the past year alone" asked the debater on CNN. A good question. One might also ask where were all the artists during the 1980s and 1990s when Saddam was slaughtering Shia and Kurd Iarqis more frequently than we kill chickens? I will tell you were they were. In the 1980s they were too busy filling up the gas on their 1980s equivilant of an Escalade (just as they do on today's Cadillac Escalade); and in the 1990s President Clinton enjoyed too high an approval rate for ignoring the Rwanda situation for them to make any profit of. Now it has become fashionable.

So what's the conclusion to take from all of this boys and girs? It's simple: forget about university... go produce an album!!! Who cares if someone spends years studying International Relations, International Law, Human Rights, Development or Political Science to get the whole picture? Even the UN takes aging artists as goodwill ambassadors rather than youngsters who foolishley spent a few years in university. But I'll tell you who will care in the end: I will; but more importantly, the people on the ground will.