It’s been two weeks, and many people are still reeling from the Nov. 2 broadside. The fact that a relatively untainted democratic election resulted in a sweeping ban on gay marriage and another four years of Cowboy George comes as a disheartening blow to those who would rather not let the Midwest make their moral decisions for them. The sad truth is that this is the will of the people, and there is nothing anyone can do to change that until 2008. The only thing left to do is to look on the bright side and hope that it can carry you through the next four years.
All right, so the bright side is not so easy to find this time around. The economy is bad, our civil liberties are being threatened and most of the world thinks we’re a bunch of losers, but there is one good thing that has come out of most bad presidencies: angry political music.
During the Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon presidential one-two punch that spanned from 1963 to 1974, LBJ set the bar for modern civil rights violators in the U.S. government, then let Nixon step in and make sure that any iota of faith remaining in our democratically elected officials was obliterated. The actions of these presidents and their political contemporaries forced a latent counterculture to the surface that changed the course of history. Musical artists such as Bob Dylan, Edwin Starr and Janis Joplin brought a defiant new face to the American musical culture with songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “War (What is it Good For).” Even British pop sensations The Beatles were affected by this culture, departing from their early dulcet jangle to the more orchestrated, psychedelic sound that resulted in one of the greatest albums of all time. In a way, “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is the blue ribbon tomato that grew out of the 1960s presidential manure.
In contrast, the relatively uneventful Carter years yielded a sickly crop of catchy but fairly mindless dance hits in the States. The fumes of American punk rock were wafting through the air with groups such as the Ramones, Television and the New York Dolls, but the spark that set the scene ablaze was yet to come.
In 1981, a terrible thing happened to the United States, but a wonderful thing happened to music: the Reagan years. The gung-ho conservatism of the Reagan administration provided the vitriol needed to bring American hard-core into fruition. This era marked the birth of the pissed off rock band. Reagan was a favorite target of punk satirist and Dead Kennedy’s front man Jello Biafra, who’s mock anthem “Kill the Poor” paid a sneering tribute to the economic tendencies of the Gipper & Co. Black Flag, Minor Threat, Mission of Burma, Hüsker Dü and Sonic Youth are all products of this angst-ridden period, which gave way to the rise of grunge during GW1.
The Clinton administration didn’t seem to piss too many people off, which may be the reason that ska made a comeback. In the past few years, Bush-mania has forced angry musicians out of their shells and into the fray. Fat Mike of NOFX led the charge for punks to revisit their roots and get active. The steady lull in songwriting that followed Green Day’s
album “Dookie” was broken when the childish pop-punksters grew up and released their latest album, “American Idiot.” Even electronic bands such as The Faint are weaving Bush jabs into its butt-shaking beats, and record labels such as Hopeless and Fat Wreck Chords are dedicating entire compilations to lambasting G-dub.
The dangers that the past four years have presented to democracy and civil rights have shaken up a lot of musical artists, and as a result, music has become a little more relevant. Our political climate might be in the toilet, but now that bands have another four years of frustration to inspire them, we’ll at least have something to listen to on the way down.

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