Tyler HarrisAfter reading “Politics, music mix together” by Megan Barber, I felt I had to express my frustration. Since September 11th music with political undertones has become more mainstream, but to say that since the early 70’s political belief has not been incorporated in music is incorrect. Some of the most prominent commercial successes in the 80’s and 90’s had heavy political ideals. U2 wrote lyrics about Ireland, Rage Against the Machine spat lines about injustice in South America, and Bruce Springsteen sang about the blue collar working man. Artists like Bob Marley, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and the Clash all sang about political issues. System of a Down’s music had lyrics such as “the percentage of Americans in the prison system has doubled since 1985”. Being more outspoken then that is tough. We all know what happened September 11th so we can relate to the music on the subject, but not all of us know what growing up in poverty stricken Jamaica was like, or what Che Guevara did. Just because we can clearly see politics in music videos today doesn’t mean it has not been there all along. In closing, Brandon Boyd of Incubus in an interview with MTV told viewers what “Megalomaniac” was actually about. The video seemed to be extremely politically motivated, the lyrics and song are actually about the character of El Guapo from the 3 Amigos. Things are not always as they seem.