The NPR Politics Podcast - Our Favorite Political Music of 2021

Episode Date: December 31, 2021

Miles Parks, Juana Summers, and Ayesha Rascoe are joined by Stephen Thompson of NPR Music to discuss their favorite political music of the year.Connect:Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting and misinformation. I'm Maisha Roscoe. I cover the White House. And I'm Juana Summers. I cover politics. But today we are covering music and reviving something we did on the pod a couple years ago and going through the best political music of 2021. And to help us with that task, us political reporters not make a fool of ourselves, we're bringing in NPR music expert Stephen Thompson, one of my personal favorite music writers. Hi, Stephen.

Hey, Miles. How's it going? It is going well. Thank you so much for having me. This is a treat. Yeah, so I think we should probably lay down a few ground rules as we go through our best of 2021. First of all, best is in the eye of the beholder. So if you loved it, it is free game.

And number two, I think we should note that we're using the word politically pretty loosely here. I don't know how many songs were written about the child tax credit or the January 6th commission. So I think we can kind of talk our way into a lot of songs being political in this. And I think that's what we'll end up doing. So Stephen, with that in mind, why don't you start us off? What song did you bring for us today? Well, the song I brought is from an album by an R&B singer named Jasmine Sullivan. The album is called Hotails, H-E-A-U-X. And it is a collection of songs built around interviews with and the experiences of women. And the songs are about sex and race and class and relationships. And each of these stories, you know, really comes from a different perspective. And to me, this album is the truest example of music as an act of empathy.

This is stories being told about people who don't always have their stories told. My favorite song from this record is called The Other Side. Right? And there's this kind of twist in the song. The song starts out kind of like, I want to, I am poor, I want to be rich. But then the song kind of takes a turn from that as this fantasy becomes more curdled and compromised. I love this record so much. Let's hear a little bit of the other side. I swear I listened to this song so many times, I was convinced I needed to go marry a rapper. I was like I was like, alright, I guess that's my new life plan. That's the thing. It's like you're going to go to Atlanta, get a rapper,

he's going to buy you a booty, and then you might star in a movie. That's what I'm talking about. She does end up starting her own business, too, later in the song, too. That's later. That's possibly. That's possibly. She feels like it.

I could spend this entire podcast picking apart the contours of this fantasy and the way that it starts to curdle as the song goes on. There's a point in the song later on where she's basically saying, ultimately, she's getting facelifts. Have two kids with a surrogate. Fly mama, I'm a stay fit, get a facelifts. Like have two kids with a surrogate. I'm a fly mama. I'm a stay fit, get a facelift. And all of a sudden it's like, even in the fantasy you have laid out, there are compromises in order to perpetuate it. And so to back up slightly, one of the most influential songs in my entire life, one of, to me, the most important songs I have ever listened to is that when I was 16 years old, Tracy Chapman put out the song Fast Car. Yes.

And I think Fast Car is one of genuinely the greatest songs ever written. And hearing it when I was 16, it opened my eyes to songwriting as a window into lives that are unlike yours. And really feeling the feelings of other people. And this song, to me, taps into some of that same feeling. Like music can be a window into other lives in such interesting ways. To me, what I loved about that song is because it's dealing with the idea of here is a woman who is doing something, living a life she does not want to live. And it's like, I am going to use what I got to get what I want. And as women, there is often this idea of you better use what you got. And if that is your

body, if that is looking good, if that is going to the gym if that and you can use that to the i mean this is a tale as old as time marry up get the get the you know this crosses you know all you know this crosses race all of that but the idea that you're going to marry up get that man live that life to get that but it's all very tenuous because you can lose it and there's always gonna be somebody else at the gym looking good with the booty you can't it's very hard to hold on to that right like because what you have starts to slide starts so you get the wrinkles you get i mean this is real housewives on on uh you know steroids right like this is what this is what every season of real housewives is about i thought it was also

just like i love the songs it feels so confessional in a way and it's so thoughtful and the real housewives image and like the point aisha makes about black womanhood in particular i thought was what really resonates with me and what made me love this song and really the entire album so much. Yeah. Yeah. All right, Juana. So you're up next. What song did you bring as your best political song of 2021? All right, so we're gonna go in a totally different direction here. I picked a song that I learned about on Twitter, actually from a set that this band did at the LA Public Library. Oh, yep. Yep. I know the NPR music folks know this one because I read a great piece on it from them

when I saw this tweet originally. It's a band called the Linda Lindas, and they opened the Los Angeles Public Library's AAPI Heritage Month celebration back in May. And the song that I picked is a song called racist sexist boy. And as somebody who grew up and was in high school going to small shows in the early 2000s, this was just so nostalgic for me. They are saccharine, but angry and raw and just eloquent and don't mince words in a way that I wish I had that I certainly did not have when I was these artists age. They're all in their teens.

And I love the fact that they're angry. But in the song, they also talk a lot about renewal and rebirth. And they say, you know, I think the lyric is, we rebuild what you destroy after they're kind of taking down these closed mindedminded, untoward boys that they're singing about. I just thought it was such a fun but also really meaningful song, especially this year when I think about, you know, I cover race and politics and the amount of violence and racially directed violence that we've seen against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in this country. It just, I don't know, it just resonated so much for me this year I just didn't think there could be like a better anthem for the year and also as somebody who

spends a lot of time interviewing members of Gen Z, this seemed just kind of just like right on the nose perfect. There's something about the simplicity that like I just feel like we talk around a lot of these things so much. And just to have it just said over and over and over again, I feel like it really is. It's an earworm from the sense that it's catchy, but it also is like you come away from it. And then 15 minutes later, an hour later, it's like still that idea is still kind of swirling around your head even after you've heard the song. All right. We're going to take a quick break. And when we get back, me and Aisha are going to share our picks for the best political song of 2021. And we're back. And before the break, we were talking about how the Linda Lindas scream racist, sex, really gets into as well, which this song, first off, is just, I think it was on Spotify, my third most listened to song this year. It's just so unbelievably beautiful.

I can listen to it when I'm waking up, when I'm getting ready for interesting theme that I covered a lot this year as I was covering the hearings on Capitol Hill around social media. This whole record, the weather station's whole record really looks at the cost of human advancement technology and just basically says, we've done all of these things over the last hundred years. And what is the cost of that? Whether that means climate change, whether that means when it comes to social media, you know, the human cost, have we sacrificed human connection to be, you know, able to talk to anyone anywhere? And I think this song just really gets at that idea and basically says, you know, we need to look really hard at all of this advancement and what it's doing to us as people.

I love that line the song ends on, would it kill you to believe in your pleasure? Like this idea, how much time we all spend staring at these screens thinking we're getting pleasure or enjoyment out of them and then we kind of wake up i feel like one day and we're just like oh that that was my life or that was that week or that was that month you know and i i don't know there's a darkness behind this song but there's also this optimism still kind of that that's underneath it yeah that's a little depressing but i think you know but life can be very depressing. We got to talk about these things. We have to. We have to have the conversations so you can make a change.

You can make a difference. Yeah. It's such a perfect example when we talk about political songs, right? Like, it's really easy to approach the political songs of the year and you start to look at, like, well, here's a song about climate change. Here's a song about lockdown protocols. Here's a song about lockdown protocols. Here's a song about racism. But like, there's so many nuances in politics and in life and in songwriting, where songs can be

acts of politics without necessarily being explicit and blunt about it. This song is kind of a perfect example of that. It is questioning the state of the world in ways that feel really personal and specific and relatable. Yeah, she's so rad. Aisha, why don't you close this out for us? What song did you bring? Yes. And this won't be a surprise to probably anybody, but definitely to no one, to anyone that knows me. But I have spent much of this year listening to the women of rap. And, you know, we are right now, I would say in a renaissance and just in like, you just have so many strong women rappers. I love the City Girls and I love Meg Pete, Megan Pete, aka Megan, Meg the Stallion. And so she had a song that really addressed really a lot of the criticism. You have all of these women rappers and there is a criticism of them and she addresses, really

in the video, for her song, Thought Shhh. And we can play a little. Can we play any of that? We can play a little bit. Right? Okay. Oh, that is it? Okay.

That's it? That's all we get. That's all you get. If you want to listen to the song, go to Spotify, go to Apple Music. What I feel like what she did in this video is basically she shows this white male senator complaining about the women's video, saying that she, you know, these whores are out here and need to have their mouths washed out with holy water because there are all these criticisms, right, of the music that these women make. There was all that criticism of WAP. And, you know, it was just ridiculous.

But what I felt like was so ridiculous at the time was these news outlets would play videos of WAP and say, look at this. Isn't this horrible? Let's play 18 more minutes of it on a loop. Isn't this, I can't believe it. Oh my gosh, did you just play that one more time? Let me hear that again.

I mean, truth be told, that is kind of how I reacted to that song. It was like, oh my goodness, I can't believe there, let's just hear that one more time. That's the thing. I mean, so this is what the video, which is, you know, a bit graphic, but it's just people shaking their hands. But it's, and you know, it gets a little graphic at the end. But the whole point is this man is saying this when he's clearly gratified from it. And you are upset at women for taking back their power. But women are doing all of these things.

They are taking care of you. They're taking care of your children. They work in jobs. They're doing a, why piss off the women in your life? So that's what I thought was political about that. Yeah. I mean,

kind of what I was saying before about how we define political music, like Megan, the stallion being on top of the pop charts is an, is a political act. Like that is political. Lil Nas X, being on top of the pop charts is a political act. Yes. That is political. Lil Nas X having a number one single in 2021, NPR Music's Song of the Year, in fact, in 2021,

with a pop song about gay sex. That being black and queer at the top of the pop charts in 2021 is a political act. And it's really hard to separate. And I don't think we should even try to separate the political and the personal and statements of identity and strength. And I love the song so much. And I'm so glad you picked it because I think one of my favorite parts of the song is where she says, are they supporting you or really just attacking me? And she just really drills down so eloquently in every line of this song, just how much she knows herself. She knows her worth. She knows her immense talent, even with

all of these these kind of naysayers who are not necessarily on the level or making good faith arguments about her music and i just think that is i just think she's just such an eloquent spokeswoman for this like wonderful moment of black music that we are in right now and and i think and just to be clear yes it's a lot of twerking first of all twerking is not easy it is an art form in and of itself and like of herself. And like, the dancing that Meg Thee Stallion does, the show that she puts on, that is work. That is hard work.

That is not something that you can't just get out and do that. Right? Like, I certainly can't do that. So, you know, put some respect on Megan and her knees. Put some respect on them. That's what I'm saying. Twerking is not easy, says NPR.

No, it's not. All right. Stephen Thompson of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. Thank you so much for joining us and happy new year. Happy new year to you too. And here's to a 2022 in which nothing political or bad will happen. I'm sure that'll be good. Famous last words.

Thank you to all of our listeners for listening on a holiday. And of course, all year long. We cannot wait to do this all again next year. I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting and misinformation. I'm Aisha Roscoe. I cover the White House. And I'm Juana Summers.

I cover politics. Thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.