This Week with David Rovics

"When You Listen and You're Here"

What makes a piece of music good? What makes a song a good song?

The music industry has, for a century or so, been obsessively oriented with creating mysterious and exciting identities for artists they want to turn into stars. The industry emphasizes the artist, rather than the art. The art itself, along with the producers, lyricists, session musicians, engineers, and promoters, are all those kinds of things happening "behind the curtain" that, like the Wizard in Oz, are meant to be ignored.

But if you extract all the PR and music business hoopla, what makes a song a good song? Is it actually about the artist recording or performing it, or is it about the music itself? If it's the artist that makes the song, then what about the artist? Does the artist need to have lived a virtuous life in order to make likeable art? Does the artist need to be from a certain part of the world, and not another? Does the artist need to be human?

My take on these questions is in the end, other factors may play into how a song is perceived in a big way, but what really matters is the song itself. If it's delivered well by a competent performer live or recorded, and the listener is in a good place for really listening, then a sad song will make the listener cry. A song about memories of your youth will evoke such memories. A satirical song about current events the listener is following in the news will likely make the listener laugh. These reactions of the listener are the measure of the song's impact.

That's what this song is about. I invite you to close your eyes and give a song your full attention. You might try doing that every day, and call it meditation.

"The Red and the Blue"

I sat down this morning with the intention of writing a bit of a travelogue about my recent travels in Texas and Georgia, but then I wrote this song instead. I'll probably eventually write the travelogue, too.

"To Hide a Genocide"

British members of Palestine Action on hunger strike are close to death, Israel's "ceasefire" is just a continuation of the famine, disease and slaughter Israel continues to deliver to the Palestinian people, and across the west, leaders express their deference to the genocidal killers, ship more weapons, and ban words and phrases that make fascists uncomfortable.

The hunger strike continues
In the British prisons
As the courts refuse
To reach a decision
Will they judge this time
As they have before
That the crime is sending 
Weapons to the war

Because the terrorists here
Are the Zionists
Who’d try to hide
A genocide

It's a holocaust 
And it's happening now
A hundred thousand lives lost
And no one knows how
How many more
Will ever be found 
Under the rubble 
Beneath the ground 

Chorus

The Palestinian people
Beneath plastic sheets
There's no ceasefire, just a famine 
As history repeats
History from the Nazis
Brought down on the holy land
Beside the bloody sea
With an F-thirty-five at hand 

Chorus

As the Israelis go on
With their endless killing spree 
While Egypt plays the pawn
With their new refinery
And throughout the west 
They ban phrases and words
As our leaders do their best
At being completely absurd

Chorus

"Globalize the Intifada"

Members of Palestine Action are being held without bail or trial in England for trying to stop a British-sponsored genocide.  Many are on hunger strike, and the doctors say they are dying, as their organs are beginning to fail due to some of them now going on 6 weeks without eating.  Meanwhile in Australia, they are talking about passing a law to say that the phrase, "globalize the intifada" is hate speech.  Resisting genocide is apparently a very hateful thing to do.  Terroristic, even.

NPR, BBC and the New York Times: Arranging the Next Massacre?

In the aftermath of an event like Bondi Beach, media can play the role of building bridges and finding mutual understanding, or it can play the role of being the propaganda arm for a genocidal regime.

Clearing the Fog: How Corporate Platforms Are Suppressing Artists Who Dissent

David Rovics is an activist musician who composes songs that educate about historical events, provide political analysis about current events, and raise up people from social movements. His solidarity with Palestinian liberation is deep, spanning his entire musical career. Recently, his entire 50-album catalog on YouTube Music was deleted. Clearing the FOG speaks with Rovics about the retaliation he has faced, some of his recent songs, how platforms like Spotify and YouTube are impacting the music industry, his artificial intelligence band, Ai Tsuno, and calls to boycott Spotify. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

Capitalism, AI, Musicians & The Future Of Labor With David Rovics

Steve Zeltzer and I talked for over an hour about all sorts of interesting things the other day.

Talking YouTube Blacklist Blues with Sam Husseini and friends

On the daily news and information show broadcast out of KPFA in Berkeley, California, every Friday host Dennis Bernstein is joined for the first half of Flashpoints by Sam Husseini to talk about the latest in Israel's genocide. Today journalist Robert Inlakesh and I joined Dennis and Sam to talk about our respective experiences getting blacklisted by YouTube, or in Robert's case, by Google altogether.

Rage Bait: a guided tour

The latest David Rovics musical production, Ai Tsuno's eighth album, drops on all the streaming platforms later this month. In this podcast special, Ai Tsuno herself presents a guided tour of Rage Bait, and introduces you to songs such as Pogroms of the Occupied West Bank, Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber, Let's Talk About Sex, They Deleted David Rovics, and the title track.

Talking YouTube Blacklists and AI Music on Counterpoint Radio

I had a conversation with Scott Harris on Counterpoint Radio earlier this week. The first half is about news of all my albums being deleted from YouTube Music, and the second half is about the double-edged sword of AI and AI music.