🎡 Monthly Song Challenge 🎡

Day 10: A song that makes a statement

When we tell them we need to move forward,
all they ask us is "Left or Right!?"
The Colours are at war and our future shifts to Grey.
Though their props are different shades,
the Reds and the Blues are dancing to the same tune.


Kapten RΓΆd - FΓ€rgernas Krig (the War of Colours)
The war is not fought between the people in power; it's a front. No, their target is us. The people.
It doesn't matter whoever's in power in Sweden, they're all fucking over the working class.
We used to pride ourselves on our Folkhemmet, the People's Home, our term for a well established social security system, but it's being demolished brick by brick, stone by stone, legislation by legislation.

 
Day 10: A song that makes a statement

Menace were an early and overlooked punk band. They were making street punk before sham69 and before street punk/Oi! was even a thing.

Obviously never saw the original incarnation, but it did see the reformed group twice in 2013/14 ish! Well worth it - my calves ached for days from all the pogoing.

So Fuck You! It’s Tuesday morning and I don’t wanna go to work.

Menace - Fuck You
 
Day 9 - A song that reminds you of someone

A girl that I dated in HS and college, dumped me and got married to her college bf. I feel like this song was constantly on VH1 the summer we spent together. The other song that was on repeat was ....

Friendly reminder to only post one song per day/prompt, please

✨One. Song. Per. Day.✨
This is pretty much the only rule, so I’ll ask that you please follow it, or risk public ridicule.
 
Day 10: A song that makes a statement

Man, I love this prompt. I'm a big fan of good protest and statement music, and there are a lot of examples across eras. I almost posted a different Pearl Jam song, but @Cjbdd took one of the very good options.

CCR was absolutely on fire in '69 (no, I wasn't there to see it, I'm not that old, ya' jerks). This was from the THIRD record they put out that year. And it's just an easy, biting indictment of LBJ and Nixon, who absolutely fucking deserved it.

 
Day 10: A song that makes a statement

Hannah Rose Collins, who records as Scene Queen, has two real topics: overt sexuality (think a more explicit Chappell Roan vibe, and let that marinate for a minute), or pointing out the hypocrisy, misogyny, and outright crimes within the music industry, and society in general. With a title like 18+, you would probably think it is the first. It is not. Musicians using their position to have sex with underage girls is not a new problem, nor is it limited to just The Scene subculture. It has been a part of rock, rap, blues...hell, Elvis was well known for it. But with changes in the culture, how we have grown as a society, #metoo, and everything else, it is supposed to be better. Bands, claiming to be enlightened now, are supposed to be better. We are supposed to be better, better at pointing it out, at not tolerating it, at holding people accountable.

We are not better.

Collins knows of what she speaks. She was a Scene kid. And that is what hurts.

"Headline spot goes to the abuser
Half my idols are fucking losers"

"Pink wristbands on the guest list
Bras hanging on the bus
Yeah, you get a lot of girls
But not one is eighteen plus"

Pink wristbands go to underage fans, to verify they don't get served alcohol. Bras have been a trophy on band buses for years. This has been an open secret, justified by "well, they know what they are getting into." No, they are children.

Scene Queen knew the vitriol she was going to face for this. There have been so many to push off her points by saying she is capitalizing on a tragedy without facing the fact that she is talking about a tragedy. (As to "capitalizing" on it, the proceeds from the single and merch go to RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, a non-profit aiding sex abuse victims.) She eviscerates bands for this, without naming a one. There is a point in the song where what sounds all too much like a standard press conference trying to do damage control. In both the song recording and the video, the announcer says the band "blank blank blank," which is then beeped out. Per Collins, four bands have threatened legal action because they say she used their names. She also points out the arguments of the enablers.

"Slap on the wrist, no one gives a shit
It is what it is
it is what it is"

Musically, it is a combination of pop vocals and grindcore. And it an anthem, and could almost sound like a parody. But there is a point near the end of the song where she screams. We are supposed to be better. But that scream feels real.

"18+," Scene Queen

 
Day 10: A song that makes a statement

Women of the lower classes in Italy were the ones who weeded the rice paddies. It was miserable work made worse by the cruel padroni. Bella Ciao dates back those workers in the 19th century. So much changes, so much doesn't.

In the morning as soon as I get up
oh goodbye beautiful, goodbye beautiful, goodbye beautiful, bye, bye, bye
In the morning as soon as I get up
I have to go to the paddy fields.

And between insects and mosquitoes
oh goodbye beautiful, goodbye beautiful, goodbye beautiful, bye, bye, bye
and between insects and mosquitoes
I have to work hard.

The boss is standing with his cane
oh goodbye beautiful, goodbye beautiful, goodbye beautiful, bye, bye, bye
the boss is standing with his cane
and we work with our backs curved.

Oh my goodness, what torment
oh goodbye beautiful, goodbye beautiful, goodbye beautiful, bye, bye, bye
oh my goodness, what torment
Every day I beseech you.

And every hour that we pass here
oh goodbye beautiful, goodbye beautiful, goodbye beautiful, bye, bye, bye
and every hour that we pass here
we lose our youth.

But the day will come when all of us
oh goodbye beautiful, goodbye beautiful, goodbye beautiful, bye, bye, bye
but the day will come when all of us
will work in freedom.


The lyrics were reworked in the 1940s by the anti-fascist resistance. The partigiano version is definitely worth a listen.

Bella Ciao - Giovanna Daffini
 
Day 10: A song that makes a statement

When we tell them we need to move forward,
all they ask us is "Left or Right!?"
The Colours are at war and our future shifts to Grey.
Though their props are different shades,
the Reds and the Blues are dancing to the same tune.


Kapten RΓΆd - FΓ€rgernas Krig (the War of Colours)
The war is not fought between the people in power; it's a front. No, their target is us. The people.
It doesn't matter whoever's in power in Sweden, they're all fucking over the working class.
We used to pride ourselves on our Folkhemmet, the People's Home, our term for a well established social security system, but it's being demolished brick by brick, stone by stone, legislation by legislation.


Day 10: A song that makes a statement

Hannah Rose Collins, who records as Scene Queen, has two real topics: overt sexuality (think a more explicit Chappell Roan vibe, and let that marinate for a minute), or pointing out the hypocrisy, misogyny, and outright crimes within the music industry, and society in general. With a title like 18+, you would probably think it is the first. It is not. Musicians using their position to have sex with underage girls is not a new problem, nor is it limited to just The Scene subculture. It has been a part of rock, rap, blues...hell, Elvis was well known for it. But with changes in the culture, how we have grown as a society, #metoo, and everything else, it is supposed to be better. Bands, claiming to be enlightened now, are supposed to be better. We are supposed to be better, better at pointing it out, at not tolerating it, at holding people accountable.

We are not better.

Collins knows of what she speaks. She was a Scene kid. And that is what hurts.

"Headline spot goes to the abuser
Half my idols are fucking losers"

"Pink wristbands on the guest list
Bras hanging on the bus
Yeah, you get a lot of girls
But not one is eighteen plus"

Pink wristbands go to underage fans, to verify they don't get served alcohol. Bras have been a trophy on band buses for years. This has been an open secret, justified by "well, they know what they are getting into." No, they are children.

Scene Queen knew the vitriol she was going to face for this. There have been so many to push off her points by saying she is capitalizing on a tragedy without facing the fact that she is talking about a tragedy. (As to "capitalizing" on it, the proceeds from the single and merch go to RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, a non-profit aiding sex abuse victims.) She eviscerates bands for this, without naming a one. There is a point in the song where what sounds all too much like a standard press conference trying to do damage control. In both the song recording and the video, the announcer says the band "blank blank blank," which is then beeped out. Per Collins, four bands have threatened legal action because they say she used their names. She also points out the arguments of the enablers.

"Slap on the wrist, no one gives a shit
It is what it is
it is what it is"

Musically, it is a combination of pop vocals and grindcore. And it an anthem, and could almost sound like a parody. But there is a point near the end of the song where she screams. We are supposed to be better. But that scream feels real.

"18+," Scene Queen


Day 10: A song that makes a statement

It’s very subtle. You may not pick up on it at first.


Three new discoveries and rabbit holes I can fall down today 😍 Thanks, guys πŸ€—
 
Three new discoveries and rabbit holes I can fall down today 😍 Thanks, guys πŸ€—
Yaaayyy!! Welcome to the wonderful world of Swedish reggae!! πŸ’• πŸ’•
Just because of that I'll use my Second Song, which I won last month, to promote another one by the Captain!

Day 10 - Song that makes a Statement (part deux!)

This one's hard to translate, but it's about police violence and their constant oppression of the working class.

"BlΓ₯ljus och Siren har bli'tt ett blΓ₯gult problem"
"Blue Lights and Sirens have become a blue-yellow problem" πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡ͺ


This has also become my #1 favorite song to rap after @morelikeasong got me to start rapping πŸ˜‚

Kapten RΓΆd - In Kommer Ting

 
Yaaayyy!! Welcome to the wonderful world of Swedish reggae!! πŸ’• πŸ’•
Just because of that I'll use my Second Song, which I won last month, to promote another one by the Captain!

Day 10 - Song that makes a Statement (part deux!)

This one's hard to translate, but it's about police violence and their constant oppression of the working class.

"BlΓ₯ljus och Siren har bli'tt ett blΓ₯gult problem"
"Blue Lights and Sirens have become a blue-yellow problem" πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡ͺ


This has also become my #1 favorite song to rap after @morelikeasong got me to start rapping πŸ˜‚

Kapten RΓΆd - In Kommer Ting

Another fabulous song 😍 Sounds like it has a really important message too. I'm naive so I didn't even realize that was an issue in Sweden πŸ˜”
 
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