The Bush Administration

The Bush Administration

The 9/11 attack was one of the most present memories in the minds of Americans. “The Al Qaeda strategy was precisely to use terrorist attacks to instill fear and provoke a war with the United States, and they succeeded in their aims by producing perhaps the most dramatic media spectacle in history and provoking the Bush-Cheney administration to declare a ‘war on terrorism’.”1 In the aftermath of 9/11, the United States geared up for war with Iraq, framing this as an extension of the “war on terror” that responded to the attack.2 Some were unhappy with this, and wrote music in protest of this war along with other of the administration’s policies.

Pink (2006)

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About the Artist

Pink, or Alecia Beth Moore-Hart, is a singer and songwriter from Pennsylvania. Her father, a Vietnam veteran, had very different political views to her, with him being much more conservative, and they often avoided discussing politics together.3

About the Song

Upset by some of Bush’s policies, Pink recorded Dear Mr. President, a song which addresses issues such as homelessness, the Iraq War, and gay rights.4 The song was released as a part of the album “I’m Not Dead”, which is the fourth album she released. This song provided much more direct critique than those of Fitz and the Tantrums or 4 Non Blondes. It is addressed directly to George Bush, asking him “How do you sleep while the rest of us cry? How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye? How do you walk with your head held high? Can you even look me in the eye?”. The song is most likely intended for its audience to hear, and be moved by the unjust imagery that the song generates. This may have been fairly effective, as the song appeared to change the mind of her conservative father after listening to it.3

“For Moore, the most fulfilling part of recording ‘I’m Not Dead’ was her father’s reaction to ‘Dear Mr. President.’‘I saw goose bumps on his arms,’ Moore recalls. ‘He said, I feel like I’m back in the ’60s. Isn’t it great that you live in a country where you can say those things and they can be heard? Good for you for exercising the right that we fought for.’ In Moore’s view, ‘Bush is the worst president the United States has ever had.’ After hearing ‘Dear Mr. President,’ her father told her, ‘I think you’re right.’”3

This song makes use of appeals to empathy and compassion as its primary way of making its points, in the hopes of sharing concerns about policy and convincing leaders to change these in order to help the people they are hurting. It focuses on a variety of concerns about the Bush Administration, and is intended to be persuasive and sympathetic.

By http://www.hitradio-star.de/images/pink.jpgDerived from a digital capture of the single cover (creator of this digital version is irrelevant as the copyright in all equivalent images is still held by the same party). Copyright held by the record label or the artist. Claimed as fair use regardless., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11084115.

By http://www.hitradio-star.de/images/pink.jpgDerived from a digital capture of the single cover (creator of this digital version is irrelevant as the copyright in all equivalent images is still held by the same party). Copyright held by the record label or the artist. Claimed as fair use regardless., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11084115.

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Fredwreck (2004)

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About the Artist

Fredwreck, or Farid Karam Nassar, is a Palestinian-American hip-hop artist from Flint, Michigan. He had been involved in political activism since he was five years old.5 The Iraq War prompted him to start making political music, which he thought was lacking in mainstream hip-hop, as “the industry is so commercially led, artists are scared of taking risks.”5 He created the STOP movement, to spread his anti-war message. 6

About the Song

The STOP movement released two songs, “Down with Us” and “Dear Mr. President”.6

Unlike the song by Pink, Fredwreck’s Dear Mr. President aims for a tone that is much more harshly critical, rather than appealing to the president’s sympathy. It is an anti-war song that was inspired by protest music in the 1960s.5 It opposes the Iraq War, and criticizes George Bush and his involvement, even saying “I can’t see no difference from Mr. Hussein to Mr. bush”. The song is written for an audience that likely includes those in poverty and African Americans, as issues faced by these people are brought up in the song to emphasize the point. It features multiple artists, each performing their own section of the song.5 “It’s not anti-American. Each person is saying what their thoughts are. Every person got to put their own message across, and all their separate messages was the message I wanted to put out there.”5

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Comparison

Both songs critique the Bush administration, but go about it in different ways, with Pink being more sympathetic, and Fredwreck being much more harsh and attacking in his critique, in order to spread awareness about the issues. These songs represent different approaches to political music around the same subject, and how this can affect its effectiveness in different contexts, as well as how social location may affect the ways that ideas are expressed or presented.

  1. Douglas Kellner. “Bushspeak and the Politics of Lying: Presidential Rhetoric in the ‘War on Terror.’” Presidential Studies Quarterly 37, no. 4 (2007): 623. ↩

  2. Amy Gershkoff and Shana Kushner. “Shaping Public Opinion: The 9/11-Iraq Connection in the Bush Administration’s Rhetoric.” Perspectives on Politics 3, no. 3 (2005): 526 ↩

  3. Tamara Conniff. “Think PINK,” Billboard 118, no. 10 (2006): 22. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. “IN THE STUDIO.” 2006. Rolling Stone, Feb 09, 26. ↩

  5. Al Jazeera, “Putting Politics Back into US Hip-Hop,” Al Jazeera, August 17, 2005. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  6. Nasrine Abushakra, “FredWreck: Stop War One Song at a Time,” Haute Living, March 25, 2015. ↩ ↩2