The Times They Are A-Changing: The New Black

On The Drive every morning, DJ Bob Stroud has this thing called “10 at 10.” He picks a year & plays -oh you guessed it- ten songs from that year at -oh you guessed it- ten in the morning. Tuesday morning, the year was 1970.

At 10:00, he begins with sound bytes from that year, a brief description of current events at the time. The 1970 sound byte focused quite a bit on the tragedy at Kent State University in Ohio. This, of course, got me thinking about the song “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The train of thought then stopped briefly at protest songs of the late ‘60’s - early ‘70’s. I then wondered, “Where are our protest songs? Are we that apathetic that even our artists don’t give a crap anymore?”

Then it hit me. The hippies had songs. We have documentaries.

Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore & the rest of his movies.

Control Room by Jehane Noujaim, who also directed Startup.com.

Outfoxed

The Fog of War

The Corporation

Super Size Me

Shoot, even documentary filmmakers now have documentaries being made about them, as in the case of Michael Moore Hates America!!! (Remember, folks, in Sweet Home Alabama when Lynyrd Skynyrd sings this verse:
“Well I heard mister Young sing about her
Well, I heard ole Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow”?
It’s in response to Neil’s songs Southern Man & Alabama. (Here’s the story.)

So like when in fashion, brown was the new black a few years back & gray was the new black half a season later, the question begs to be raised:

Are documentaries the new protest songs?!?!?!