Photocopied Histories

Third-Generation Photocopy

 

Social commentary in songwriting rides the waves of the generations, and is driven by what young songwriters experience in the world when they are in their 20s or 30s, when the world seems more hostile.

Sting was in his early 30s when he wrote Russians, as well as They Dance Alone, both which have traveled well in terms of historical themes. He was a strong voice for human rights and democratic values throughout his early career--especially in the 1980s in the Reagan/Thatcher era amid the nuclear arms race.

Music is a form of news and a way of being proactive in a democracy when you're pre-middle age. It still is, but I don't think that same awareness is on the front burner as much as celebrity now is.

History will teach us nothing.

In retrospect, it affected my songwriting as well circa 1991 with this lyric bit. I was feeling cynical about the fall of the wall.

The west has lost its rival
And the bureaucrats are dead
But the circumstance we face
Is just a different shade of red