A-Lyric.com

There must be a job somewhere choosing music for politicians in campaigns and at rallies. I sometimes cannot believe how wrong they can get things. The McCain camp has been very publicly slammed by Heart’s Nancy Wilson for using the song “Barracuda” during the recent republican convention. In a comment to Entertainment Weekly, she had [...]

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The issue of homophobic reggae lyrics is back in the news yet again, with an announcement that the German government is considering blacklisting homophobic lyrics from Jamaican performers. Artists such as Elephant Man and TOK are under scrutiny. Censorship is always a touchy issue – but no less touchy than the protection of minorities. So [...]

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There were red faces galore the other night at the Swiss TV channel SRG during the Germany-Austria Euro 2008 match. Someone had the bright idea of subtitling the national anthems. Unfortunately, that someone was using an outdated lyric book, as the German anthem came with the words, “Deutschland, Deutschland Uber alles… (Germany over all)”. Yep, [...]

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If you’re a regular reader, you are probably aware that I have come to the conclusion that most anthems are dark, mean-spirited affairs. When they’re not calling for the spilling of blood (Ireland, France), they are stomping on other people (like the infamous sixth verse of “God Save the Queen”). It looks like someone in [...]

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I’ve always been a little uncomfortable with the campaign against dancehall, as it has echoes of the thought police in action. But I’ve always been very uncomfortable with some of the extremely violent anti-gay lyrics as well. Now the British resort Brighton has become the first UK town to officially ban licensed venues from playing [...]

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I always thought that national anthems were ancient texts passed down from generation to generation and sung with pride. As the recent news in the UK has shown, they can still be works in progress. And now Spain is at it, struggling to find lyrics that fit the national psyche. There is a simple reason [...]

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So the unthinkable has happened: a country has decided to NOT take part in the Eurovision Song Contest. I remember hearing comments in Dublin after multiple wins that it was costing too much and that Ireland couldn’t afford to win again. But to not take part at all is quite dramatic. Why the fuss?

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Who can and cannot call black women “whores”? Who can or cannot call coloured people “niggaz” (as if the z makes any real difference)? It’s funny that it took an aging loudmouth radio presenter to finally bring the issue of bling lyrics into the public arena. And since then, a lot of the debate has [...]

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National anthems are, on the whole, a bloodthirsty genre. It’s funny that while debate rages around violent or pornographic songs and video games, we still stand up to shout (I can hardly say sing) encouragements to kill, seek revenge, conquer and ethnically cleanse. If you think I’m exaggerating, I invite you to check the anthems [...]

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No, of course it’s not true. It wasn’t really Tony Blair. It’s a well-known fact that the British Prime Minister was in a band briefly in university. Ugly Rumours never went very far. But a British pressure group decided to record a version of “War” with a Blair lookalike and try and get in the [...]

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