Music for Objectivists?

Posted by davidmcnab 9 years, 1 month ago to Culture
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One of the greatest bonding and energising agents for a culture is its music. However, I'm scratching my head to think of music in the 20-21st centure popular repertoire that promotes Objectivist identity, at an intellectual, emotional or spiritual level.

So much of the pop repertoire is taken up by X wants to mate with Y, X is overjoyed at being with Y, X is pissed off an leaving Y, X got left by Y and is feeling blue, X feels ripped off by Y, etc. How many songs are there which glorify the individual human spirit?

One very vague possbility I can think of is Bob Marley's classic Get Up, Stand Up, whose lyrics exort people to give up their afterworldly dreams and focus on bettering themselves here on Earth.

Can anyone suggest any songs? Yeah, there's a ton of great classical music which promotes the good feeling, but what about the contemporary genres? Surely there's gotta be some good folk, pop, metal, reggae, techno etc pieces which put across those beautiful lifted liberated feelings.


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  • Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 1 month ago
    Snowden's Song
    http://liberty.me/create-music/snowdens-...
    Snowden bringing truth to light
    Exposing dark lies for us to see
    All our lives
    We’ve been told we’re living in
    The land of the free

    Snowden bringing truth to light
    Exposing the State’s hypocrisy
    Land of spies
    Will you stand and fight
    For your liberty?

    Thank you Ed
    Thank you Ed
    For risking your life to open our eyes
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  • Posted by RonC 9 years, 1 month ago
    nothing comes to mind. I have wondered what elevator music will sound like 20 years from now. Today many of the old swing era Sinatra songs have been trimmed down to musak. With unique melodies even without lyrics they are still recognizable. Will the next generation of elevator music be, "boom-chaboom, boom boom-chaboom, yea baby"?
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  • Posted by BradA 9 years, 1 month ago
    OK, I'm going to get a lot of blow back from this suggestion, but here goes. One of TSwift's current pop hits, Shake It Off, is about not giving a crap about what other people think or say about you. It's about rising above the jealousy and hate and following your own path regardless of the consequences. Seems highly Objectivist to me. OK then, you're all welcome to start hating me now.
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    • Posted by eddieh 9 years, 1 month ago
      I agree a lot of people think she's really stuck up, but that song is about doing something for yourself and not giving a crap what everyone is saying. No blow back from me.
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    • Posted by Robbie53024 9 years, 1 month ago
      Yeah, that's pretty good - and she's nice to look at while she's "shakin' it off." Just a bit older, so generally take to other tunes ('though Shake it Off, is catchy).
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    • Posted by 9 years, 1 month ago
      As I said, I don't care about the genre. Bubblegum pop, gangsta rap, techno, metal, MoR, folk, jazz, R&B, reggae, soul, country, ballad - all fine with me. What matters is the message these songs deliver :)
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  • Posted by Rex_Little 9 years, 1 month ago
    "Sunshine", by Jonathan Edwards, was mostly nonsense, but it had one great line: "He can't even run his own life, I'll be damned if he'll run mine."
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  • Posted by xthinker88 9 years, 1 month ago
    "It's my life" by Bon Jovi.

    It's my life
    It's now or never
    I ain't gonna live forever
    I just want to live while I'm alive
    (It's my life)
    My heart is like an open highway
    Like Frankie said
    I did it my way
    I just wanna live while I'm alive
    It's my life
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    • Posted by xthinker88 9 years, 1 month ago
      "No Apologies" also by Bon Jovi.
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      • Posted by xthinker88 9 years, 1 month ago
        And "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake
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        • Posted by xthinker88 9 years, 1 month ago
          "Where my heart will lead me" from Star Trek Enterprise series

          'Cause I've got faith of the heart
          I'm going where my heart will take me
          I've got faith to believe
          I can do anything
          I've got strength of the soul
          No one's going to bend nor break me
          I can reach any star
          I've got faith
          I've got faith
          Faith of the heart

          Even though it uses the word "faith", which might prickle some objectivists, in context it is talking about faith in yourself.
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  • Posted by khalling 9 years, 1 month ago
    Superstition
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CFuCYNx...
    Very superstitious, writings on the wall,
    Very superstitious, ladders bout' to fall,
    Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin' glass,
    Seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past.

    When you believe in things that you don't understand,
    Then we suffer,
    Superstition ain't the way.

    Very superstitious, wash your face and hands,
    Rid me of the problems, do all that you can,
    Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin' strong,
    You don't want to save me, sad is my song.

    When you believe in things you don't understand,
    Then you suffer,
    Superstition ain't the way, yeh, yeh.

    Very superstitious, nothin' more to say,
    Very superstitious, the devil's on his way,
    Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin' glass,
    Seven years of bad luck, good things in your past.

    When you believe in things that you don't understand,
    Then you suffer,
    Superstition ain't the way, no, no, no.



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  • Posted by DaveM49 9 years, 1 month ago
    A fair amount of the music from "Les Miserables" suits me nicely--"Can You Hear The People Sing" could almost be a strikers' anthem, and since the core of the story is that of an honest upright individual versus "the law".... There are some delightfully trenchant songs about looters as well.

    Inspector Javert would be a great Cuffy Meigs.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 1 month ago
    The formula is x + y = 0 with very little since MTV turned music from an audio to mind experience to a mindless visual experience.

    Not all...still some good music out there

    In Classical I would look for anything that matched the ability of Sibelius' Finlandia.

    Listening to music like reading has nought to with Y the X Generation ends sentences with a question mark and makes zero impact.

    For your quest go to the beginning, the roots and follow them through the changes. Folk, Blues, the originals and the trend setters like Alan Lomax, Leadbelly, and Dylan. At some point they all were people individuallyl struggling for an emotional, spiritual and intellectual expression. And it's generational. My Dad always asked why I listened to rock'n'roll'even though my classical, folk, and blues collections were equally as large. One day i sang to him a song from his generation Oop Oop Diddim Daddum Waddum Chew... three fish swimming over a dam.

    I started to say the same thing to my daughter then bit my tongue. Of course that was before MTV and when a singer became an instrument not a voice.










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  • Posted by radical 9 years, 1 month ago
    "Forever Young" sung by Rod Stewart, "Flashdance" from the movie. "I gotta Be Me" as sung by Sammy Davis Junior.
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