The Green Day video, ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’, is on heavy rotation on MuchMusic (Canada’s music video channel). I suppose we all see in these things what we want to, but I find it a very compelling little story about the evil nature of the occupation of Iraq from the point of view of a typical US recruit, and the song is playing in my head…
I’m not sure I agree…
I’ve
I’m not sure I agree…
I’ve long seen Green Day as the embodiment of the “Vote Kerry” Brigade who did so much damage to the US anti-war movement and I can’t help feeling that “Wake Me Up…” repeats many of the mistakes made previously.
That it focuses on the plight of a US recruit is pretty obvious, but note that we only see glimpses of real Iraqis. If memory serves, all screaming women, removed from any context.
The US soldiers are moving through a devestated city (with no explanation of who destroyed it) when they come under an attack. This is apparently unprovoked and the attackers remain unseen and faceless throughout.
Anybody watching the video without any further knowledge could easily conclude that American forces in Iraq are being ruthlessly attacked for no reason by a bunch of faceless evildoers. As such it could go down just as well with the pro-war camp as with the “antis”.
It’s also a fairly shitty song… For some proper anti-war music check this out: http://americasarmy.ca/
Hey kid.
To the extent we
Hey kid.
To the extent we disagree, it’s just because I have much lower expectations, and am pleased to see anything get through. But it might also be a case of me seeing what I want, obviously. Your observations about the video are completely right. But I saw it all as revealing how little Americans understand about who and why they’re fighting. I also saw the alternative to ‘faceless enemies’ and context-free ‘victims’ as much more racist and jingoistic imagery, celebration of firepower, disgust at their ‘ingratitude’, white men’s burden stuff, etc. etc.
I don’t see how it could be pro-war though. It’s pretty clear that the point is that he/they shouldn’t be there. There’s certainly no sense that they’re doing anything good or decent there…
But then again, as I said, a lot of what we see, especially when we like it, is what we want to see, in these things.
Maybe context has something
Maybe context has something to do with it. Here in the UK it’s hard to imagine any band coming out as pro-war. Therefore somebody taking an anti-war position doesn’t really surprise me. Maybe that serves to raise my expectations.
Green Day’s politics (which,
Green Day’s politics (which, as a matter of statistical likelihood, probably suck) aside, American Idiot is a nice little album. The band seems to be significantly focused on making good, culturally engaged music rather than the usual reasons that multi-platinum artists stick with it. The record has, I think, a few good insights as a work of social criticism.