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Column - Culture

Background Music for Politics
election music

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Aimee Marcos
Amy Marcos / Born in New York in 1979. The youngest daughter of the Marcos family who grew up in a household with many shoes. Based in the Philippines, he is active in multiple fields as a musician and journalist.
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　In the summer of 2021, just one year after the Tokyo Olympics were held, the first issue of "almanacs", which I contributed, arrived. Among them, there was an opinion advertisement crossword, but when I answered the questions that were too silly, the letters "GO VOTE" emerged. In the United States, where I was born and raised, and the United Kingdom, where I studied at university, politics and culture were closely intertwined, regardless of whether the culture was high or low, main or counter, mass or sub. In the Philippines, where I live now, regardless of the degree or reason, people involved in culture have a high level of interest in politics. Not a few.

I asked Sugar Kane, an editor who lives in Japan and is the orderer of this column and a classmate of mine, about the situation in Japan. Then, in Japan, there are few independent media and cultural organizations that are distant from the so-called system and capital, and it is taboo for cultural figures and entertainers to raise their political voices, and there is a clear distance between politics and culture. It seems that there is After hearing that story, I somehow started to look up news related to Japanese politics on the Internet.

I have no intention of saying anything about the politics of my country, and the election may have happened by chance, but whether it's the Beatles or the Stones, they have spoken out against politics and society in their works and comments. Springsteen, Madonna, Kanye West in the last presidential election, although the meaning is slightly different, have clarified the candidates and political parties they support, and there are many artists involved in the election campaign. Furthermore, there are artists such as the KLF who clearly articulate their anarchism at the timing of elections and articulate that attitude.

In the last ten years or so, populist flocks that have traveled around the world have gradually changed their meaning, and I can't deny the feeling that the ideological claims of the cultural tribe have begun to be used in a different way than before. There is music, and empathy is born from there, and it becomes a big ridge. An election is a battle that can change the future of the community to which you belong, and at the same time, it is a place to come into contact with the opinions of those who hold different opinions. There are various voices there, and there is a kind of festival-like atmosphere where different genres of music intersect.

Especially since World War II, politics and culture have tended to be separated in Japan, and that is why the culture of anime and manga was born with a political tone. Yes, but given the culture of vocaloids, born from the same context and continuing to erode in the same way, what kind of music will be added to Japanese elections?

Published: almanacs Vol.02 (2022AW)
text: Aimee Marcos
translation & improvisation : Sugar Kane