Power to the people

By Michael Tardif

“Power to the people!”, fists raised, sounded a crowd of 10,000 as Arrested Development led the chant which opened their second Sydney concert.
Let it rain, take my pain, I'm glad to meet you ...
It's raining revolution
It's raining solution
In South Africa it's raining revolution.

Despite the packaging and the hype, Arrested Development's performance was unashamedly political. You couldn't ignore it, you had to be part of it.

New World Order: for who? End of history? Certainly not. There are those still posing the questions, and Arrested Development are among them.
Got to get political
Political I gotta get
Grown but I can't handle my own
This government needs to be overthrown.
Brothers with their AKs and their 9mms
Need to learn how to correctly shoot them.
Save those rounds for revolution.
Poor whites and blacks, bumrushing the system.

Relevant, accessible and political, Arrested Development's approach pushed things past mere consumption. The focus was on participation. The politics was there, the culture was there, and everyone was being invited to be a part of it.

And almost everyone did. Arrested Development's stage performance reflected the dynamism of their music. Making the event was an appearance by the Bangala Dance Company, ramming home the relevance of Arrested Development's message to the situation faced by Aborigines in Australia.

Arrested Development's experience of our establishment media was less than desirable. Anybody watching Molly Meldrum and Darryl Sommers' attempt to interview the band couldn't have helped but be embarrassed. In the space of five minutes Meldrum managed to explain to Arrested Development that they were fairly good --

for a black band -- and that yes, it had been discovered recently that racism against the Aboriginal population does exist in this country.

Unknown to Arrested Development, the word “nigga” was deleted from the radio and video versions of their song “People Everyday” for “audience safe consumption”. Arrested Development makes a distinction between Africans, who recognise their oppression and join the struggle, and niggas, who submit to oppression.

Censorship! It wasn't offensive to the band, Arrested Development's Speech explained in Sydney's The Drum Media: “It should sort of offend the listener because it's really robbing the listener of a chance to get the actual music the way that we wanted it to be”.

Speech went on to explain the role of their music in overcoming obstacles like censorship, racism and sexism.

“I think that the music can't break down those barriers but that it can inspire people to break down the barriers. No one should ever take away the power of the people. Ultimately it's up to the people to make those changes and the music I hope can motivate and inspire people to say yeah I can do this.”

This article was posted on the Green Left Weekly Home Page.
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