The relationship between music and politics
A project by Chandni Sembhi
WHAT ABOUT RIGHT-WING MUSICIANS?
In all my research, I noticed that musicians are far more likely to come out and say they’re Labour supporters, as opposed to Conservative supporters. Finding an openly non-Labour musician was near-impossible. However, I did come across Daniel 'The Spaniel' Bostock who had spoofed Jake Bugg’s hit song, ‘Lightning Bolt’ to be about Brexit. It was a simple song about how he believes Brexit voters are often misunderstood, and generally called racist. Below is his 'Park Life' parody, about how some people think disagreeing with Labour policies, Brexit, and closing our borders is racist.
Daniel attributes most of his popularity to the fact that he uses songs that are already popular to get his point of view across in a non-aggressive and funny way. This is especially important because of the aggression he says he's faced on the internet, making it hard for him to get his point across without being attacked, because as he puts it, "it's overwhelmingly left wing". Although, he disagrees with people who say musicians should stay out of politics, as it goes against 'everything he believes in', even if these musicians are contributing to the left-wing narrative. That's probably where the similarities between him and the left-wing musicians end, if I'm being honest.
His songs have changed the views of some people, with his comedic and light-hearted take on more right-wing politics showing people you can be Conservative with a 'small c'. But, he doesn't think that's necessarily hard to do with young people now, as he thinks music has a huge impact on young people with not a lot of prior knowledge of politics. He said, "when you're young you're always looking out for people to look up to, so when you hear a song you like and it's got a message, you might just follow it because you don't know any better really".
two questions with daniel the spaniel
How do you feel about musicians being more likely to come out in support of labour than the tories?
It's a lot to do with the left-wing. A lot of these people have their hearts in the right place, you can't take that away from them, they mean well. I just think they're completely politically and historically illiterate. If they truly understood the consequences of the left-wing narrative they're pushing, they might back off a little bit and let others have their space.
Do you think music has the power to change peoples views?
With my songs, I think people who are indifferent to Brexit, or don't really care, they just like the music, and like the songs, and so end up liking the message and adopting that view. But I think changing views is more based on an emotions, you're getting the message across in an emotional way. So when you're hearing a message in a song together with those emotions, it's sort of like manipulation. I could have put any words in the song and made it about anything, but because the song connected with people who probably don't know much about the subject, it can sort of influence people to think in a certain way. They hear a song, change their view, and then maybe change their vote.