Newsflash #47: “Caught Red Handed”, a Straightforward Protest Song about Human Response to the Current Political Climate of Division

thumbnail Caught Red Handed

These are disturbing times, if we believe the populists. Nowadays ‘fear’, ‘safety of our nation’ and back to the ‘splendid isolation’ are the most important topics of these politicians. Luckily the upcoming populism seems to have come to a temporary end.

After the inimitable Brexit of the British (June 2016) and the unusual American elections (November 2016), the Austrian people (December 2016) and the Dutch (March 2017) slowed down the populism in their countries. Anxiously we are looking at what the French are going to do (April/May 2017). Not at all reassured we will be waiting for the German elections (September 2017).

What does this current political climate of division mean for the trade of the protest singers & songwriters?

Before the summer of 2016 most of the newspapers, documentaries and press comments sounded as follows. Where are the protest songs of the current generation? Are the millennials not eager enough? Does the current generation take everything for granted? And so on. Since then a lot of new protest songs have been created: compare two websites, mentioned below under Links.

Vigg Strubble does not think that the millennials accept anything as true without questioning. On the contrary: (a) millennials backed one of the most radical senators of the U.S. with a lot of digital creativity, (b) millennials supported the left-leaning President of Austria strongly and decisively and (c) millennials did make the new success of the Green Party in the Netherlands happen. So to stop the dissension, disagreement & disruption globally Vigg Strubble is counting on the millennials!

That is why he wrote the protest song Caught Red Handed. Not to criticize the policy making politicians. That’s easy. For example: listen to Vigg’s mocking song Peeing with the Big Dogs about the U.S. President (Newsflash #44). Vigg’s new protest song Caught Red Handed is about the human reponse to the current political climate. More precisely: “We make this current political climate ourselves’’, as Vigg Strubble puts it. (#47/03/2017)

Watch the video now

YouTube video

More songs on the page Videos

Links

  • Not talkin’ bout a revolution: where are all the protest songs?
    (The Guardian, February 22, 2016)
  • Site “30 Days, 30 Songs” (from the Bay Area) U.S.
    McSweeney’s founder and famous author of several books Dave Eggers, and music entrepreneur Jordan Kurland, founder & owner of Zeitgeist Artist Management, took the daring initiative for a project of musicians and bands collaborating with 30 days, 30 songs in writing and performing songs about Donald J. Trump. Dave and Jordan worked together once again as a kind of follow-up to 90 Days, 90 Reasons, their 2012 get-out-to-vote project for re-election of U.S. president Obama.
    In all sorts of news magazines Dave and Jordan launched their joint project on October 10, 2016. A lot of artists have already contributed a song. Since the inauguration on January 20, 2017, they have changed the website into a 1,000 songs. Here’s why: “To combat apathy, entertain the citizenry, and provide a soundtrack to resistance, over the next four years, the producers of 30 Days, 30 Songs will assemble a playlist of 1,000 songs.” (website, page About)
  • Dutch website “What The World Needs Now”
    A website similar to the site mentioned above, which started on February 14, 2017. Mostly with protest songs but also with several other songs. Only performed by Dutch artists, in English & in the Dutch language.

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