Anthems for the working class man

It’s not that the songs aren’t being written, but they and the artists that record them are not getting the airing. Some explanation for this rests in the current composition of the music industry.

Five major recording labels have reduced to four who control 75 per cent of the world’s music output. The demise too of Festival Records and its ultimate takeover by Warner has meant Australian artists have, to a large extent, lost a long-standing avenue for their music. Indeed the 2001-2005 period contained considerably fewer Australian artist recordings in the top 50 ARIA album charts than the previous one.

Take “retros” and “best ofs” out of the equation and the statistics look even worse (62 against 45). Rob Hirst’s comment when accepting Midnight Oil’s lifetime achievement award summed this situation up by describing the industry as “hypnotised by get-famous-fast TV shows”.

Yet there is another message here and it could just as easily be argued that this shift in music reflects a genuine shift in the way people think about work. After all, the music industry merely produces what it thinks the public wishes to purchase.

Rob Hirst’s comments could therefore also be applied to the purchasers of music - though this was clearly not what he intended. As he observed, hundreds of thousands rallied to protest the war in Iraq, yet war protest songs have been unexplainably absent.

When fears were expressed about WorkChoices and “fair dismissal” and later tens of thousands rallied, where were the popular protest songs to defend the rights of workers?

As James Hardie victims fought so vigorously and bravely for their entitlements; where was the number one hit that highlighted their plight?

If popular music reflects an attitude, then the attitude about work is about self. This was almost immediately confirmed in questions I’ve riposted asking why it wasn’t OK to sing about sex and relationships. Of course it is! That’s not the point. What is the point is the absence of popular songs that address real work issues.

For recording labels, take heed of the tens of thousands that rallied against WorkChoices, take heed also of those who were threatened with dismissal for taking a day of their holidays to take up the cause. Consider the hard-won, but not yet complete victory of the James Hardie victims and their fight against the seeming supremacy of corporate interests. Perhaps the “working class” song is on its way back.