From what I’ve heard of Kneecap’s music, I don’t particularly care for it and wouldn’t want to go to one of their gigs. And their political stances on Ireland and Palestine carry the scent of the obnoxious self-confidence and certainty of the student activist, when both issues demand nuance.
That said, they have played the recent spate of controversies like Karajan drove the Berlin Philharmonic and frankly who can blame them? Consciously or not, they are following the tradition of the Sex Pistols (swearing at Bill Grundy) and John Lennon (bigger than Jesus) and whatever the rights or wrongs or realities of the situation, the politicians and journalists demanding they be banned will ultimately be seen as the fuddy-duddy bad guys. When so much contemporary music seems to consist of bland platitudes and whiny solecism, at least they’re saying something about something that matters. I’m glad they exist.
PS: And, in case there’s any doubt, calls for Rod Stewart to be banned from Glastonbury should also be ignored, despite his support for the preposterous Farage and his acolytes. Basically, censorship in all but the most extreme cases is usually a bad thing and inevitably causes more harm to the censor than the censored. The fact that Stewart hasn’t made a decent record since about 1974 is probably more significant...
No comments:
Post a Comment