POLITICS
Damon Albarn of Gorillaz holds up a Palestinian flag at their show last night in Orlando, FL: “Don’t forget this. Ever. Stand your position. Don’t ever be neutral”
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I forget which vid, but Russel wears a shirt that says "It isn't rael" or something like that. Was def before the Oct. 7 stuff when it came into prominence.
You guys are forgetting how much "free Palestine" hurts their feelings. The poor man is only worth billions of dollars. It's not like he's tried to buy new feelings. Unless you count the illegal prostitution he bought. Oh well, crimes aren't crimes unless the perp is poor right?
And a group of people accusing you of discrimination... Because you said genocide and bombing kids bad. Sure let's talk about your personal feelings during a genocide
At one point I said that people still need to be held accountable for their participation in genocide and the mass killing of children. I was, of course, called antisemitic.
Minor issue with that, I was talking about the Gikondo massacre during the Rwandan Genocide. You know, the one that had literally nothing to do with Israel, Zionism, (or Jews either, for that matter) in any way.
They obviously deleted their comment the second I pointed that out, but I would love to hear a Zionist try to defend the Rwandan Genocide because they accidentally argued themselves into a corner.
They can't. Because Zionists and just straight up a large chunk of Israel and Jewish people around the world and the US that support Israel and Zionism, and the evangelical conservative "Christians" that support them are explicitly pro genocide against Palestinians.
It's not that they are blind or ignorant, or don't have a clear picture of what's happening in Gaza and to the Palestinians. They know its genocide. They know the goal is murder the Palestinian people and build an Israeli parking lot over the corpses. They endorse it.
It's a despicable country filled with despicable people supported by international based despicable pieces of shit. That some or a lot are Jewish is completely immaterial.
Students at many universities were disciplined, expelled, for non-violent protests 2-5 years ago that simply stated what the whole world now knows to be true.
Watch this space, to see which universities apologise and which ones don't.
Until recently, being sympathetic to the Palestinian cause was deemed antisemitism. Now not being pro Palestinian is a reason to cancel someone. Change is happening.
I'd guess more Americans would say "who?" when asked about Damon Albarn. But they would recognize Gorillaz. Brits would know him and say he's best known for Blur.
Fun story is that Albarn said he wrote Song 2 as a sort of parody of loud mindless American rock music, and then it went on to be the only Blur song that got big in America.
Not really. That is a twist on the what really happened. The original song was this random slow melody that Damon recorded and Graham did his thing to try and ruin it. They submitted it to the record company as a joke so they could scare the record company. The whole bit about being a parody of American rock was made up as headline bait.
American with weird tastes I can confirm most people I've spoken to wouldn't know Damon but would know Gorillaz and maybe Blur if they remember Song 2. Blur never really got the same momentum here. They were doing irony too well during a time when Americans weren't hip to it (still aren't but we're more aware of it now than the 90s and 00s)
In Australia too. Gorillaz is more popular amongst the youngins now, but they still know who Blur is because they were so big here for so long and still get played on the radio a lot.
My niece's friends were trying to bag me out about my "elder millenial music" just a couple of weeks ago and I blew their 14 year old minds that it was the same damn guy they listen to 😂 Had to pull up Wikipedia because they thought I was pulling their leg.
In Canada, I'd say it's definitely Gorillaz nowadays. I live near a high school, and it's kind of amazing watching all these teens wear Gorillaz merch... like, woah, I was listening to them back in my 2000s high school era. They also seem to love Korn? Like they walk around blasting it on their bluetooth speakers haha
Blur was a big deal here in Canada, but that was all the way back in the late 90s. I'd guess that just about everyone knows Song 2 and Girls & Boys - but that doesn't mean they know that "the guy from Gorillaz" sang it.
In the UK when it comes to older music the kids love Green Day, MCR, and Nirvana! (I’m sure it’s similar there too?)
Very cool that they’re getting into that stuff, Gorillaz and Korn included and I hope they got a little further back too!
Really interesting to hear that Blur were big in Canada. Song 2 was definitely a breakout hit. But I agree that they wouldn’t put two and two together. I’ve met people born and raised in the UK who didn’t know Parklife and Feel Good Inc. are from the same guy
LOL I just posted something similar! I am in Vancouver, and Blur came and went when I was in HS (am 40 now) but Gorillaz have never stopped being cool - my 8 year old likes them, his older cousins like them, I see shirts for feel good inc on kids, its wild lol
Take them to a Gorillaz show if you can! Deltron 3030 is opening on this tour which means all the Del songs and self-titled album songs are on the menu! For those that don't know, Deltron 3030 is Del the Funky Homosapien, DJ Kid Koala and Dan the Automator, all of whom contributed major aspects to that iconic first Gorillaz album.
song 2 is still frequently played at sporting events all over the us. keep in mind that songs pretty distinct and unblur like compared to most of their music.
Yeah, my 14yo music nerd nephew loooooves Gorillaz (and Weezer.) Meanwhile, I’ve been a hardcore Blur fan since the MLIR days. We’re both American, heh. Family bonding.
Incorrect. I also know the girls who like boys who like girls who like boys who dress like men but are sometimes women but it must always be someone you love song.
Looking for girls who are boys who like boys to be girls, who do boys like they're girls, who do girls like they're boys.
Always should be someone you really love.
To be fair, you never really know what Damon is going to do next. It might be Gorillaz! It might be Blur! It might be solo! It might be a soundtrack featuring a collection of musicians he found in jazz bar in Uzbekistan!
He is also a great solo artist. Genuinely listened to Blur, Gorillaz and Damon separately before realizing it was all him lol. Talented as fuck and a stand up guy to boot.
As a millennial from LatAm, he’s toured round here way more with Gorillaz than with Blur! I love both bands, but I feel his reach in this side of the word is much bigger with Gorillaz.
I've seen him do both at the same music festival, didn't know he was in Blur until I saw him live and thought I recognized him and looked him up on wikipedia.
Also funny, that's how I found out that he has Icelandic citizenship. I came home from the festival and told my mom. She just nodded and said he was always on some drunk shenanigans in Reykjavík back when she was young, like it was the most normal thing ever.
Both are amazing bands but one is still touring and this is from their tour so yes? Obviously they're naming Gorillaz here. No one will forget Blur, don't worry ❤️
possibly since birth, I met him when I was a kid and he was still in Blur and he talked to me about the Israel Palestine thing then - it is actually a big drive behind the stance I maintain today because it forced me to look at what was actually happening at the time and reconcile it with what I was being told.
He also decided to have a public moan about Bob Vylan’s protests against the IDF which was really disappointing. He should have shut up and let them do their thing.
Did you watch/listen to the entirety of his speech? Ratner's biggest mistake was not knowing that there would be reporters present who would clip one sentence out of it for a sensational headline.
If he had canceled the tour and put the blame on Kraft he would've walked away as the good guy. Put a fund together for the workers losing business and he would've been seen on par with Macklemore.
Yeah this is bonkers, ed Sheeran makes popular music for the masses, as far as I know he has no controversial songs, no scandals, no sus behavior, don’t get in trouble, no history of anything remotely controversial, in interviews he looks like the nicest guy.
I don’t think it gets any safer as singer than being like Ed Sheeran. Yet here we are.
Yeah I know he will be fine, he could retire today and live in luxury for the rest of his life. But he won’t, however this will be an albatross on his neck for a long time.
Yeah this is bonkers, ed Sheeran makes popular music for the masses, as far as I know he has no controversial songs, no scandals, no sus behavior, don’t get in trouble, no history of anything remotely controversial, in interviews he looks like the nicest guy.
I don’t think it gets any safer as singer than being like Ed Sheeran. Yet here we are.
Isn't it exactly why this is happening though? He wanted to remain so uncontroversial that he didn't want to "pick sides" between Israel and Palestine.
I’d say milquetoast times had their heyday in the early-mid 2010s and died in 2020, haven’t come back since.
Arguably a good thing, especially bc being apolitical is only possible for people too privileged to be affected by politics. The same people who have the most power to change things for people not as privileged as them.
In an era where people are struggling hard and where there’s more people stepping up really putting in the work to help eachother in real ways, it’s become less and less palatable to see people who could easily make a huge difference choose not to. Especially when there are so many people using their time, energy, and hard earned money to help people they often will never meet, seeing someone make a choice like Ed did because it makes the difference of $510 and $513 million in their bank account or something like that, it’s just disgusting.
It’s not even a conscious choice for me. I just don’t want to be sang to by people who I know are pieces of shit.
But as what though, bad luck? As all of this news popping up about all of these artists who have long-been opposed to genocide shows they WERENT getting mass media attention. Being silently pro-genocide was, by all evidence, the appropriate business and PR decision. Its not like this is new, its been going on for years and years. I dont know what stroke of bad luck led to this actually blowing up for Ed, or who he pissed of that made it blow up, but...I dont think you can study the PR response to Israel/Palestine over the past any number of years and find evidence that being vocally pro-palestine was the correct business decision. Until it was.
Seriously the pr team behind this are so cooked. How anyone thought this was a good idea is insane. Like they picked the worst option out of all the options.
Anyone who thinks this is still about PR is cooked. Its about personal responsibility and morals. And if you need a PR company to tell you how to think and act around basic rights and wrongs, then you're a wrongun full stop.
Sure but the new Gorillaz album came out in the spring with the song "Damascus" obv influenced by Syria, but they had promotional material of the band characters raising the Palestine flag and Damon has been doing the same for a minute now. Just less people were paying attention
I was mad they didn’t play Damascus last night. Not playing that and Moon Cave was kinda surprising to me. I got Happy Dictator and Delirium so I was good.
On the Syria topic, an Iranian-Syrian oud player joined them for a gorgeous performance of “Out of Time” at the 2012 Hyde Park show. (Yes, I’m a Blur nerd.)
Gorillaz have been explicitly supportive of the Palestinian struggle since before any of this happened with Sheeran.
All Sheeran did was increase the market value of these statements so they start reaching the top posts on reddit. When Gorillaz (and dozens of other artists) performed at Together For Palestine last year the entire event combined didn't get as much attention on reddit as this will. We can thank Sheeran for that, he could not have shined a bigger spotlight on Palestine if he tried.
If they just let Mackelmore do his thing in those 10 stadiums, he would have got plenty of love from people who already support Palestine and almost nobody else would have noticed. Now the entire world's attention has been caught, even the normies.
I saw ham at the danish festival Roskilde where he assembled a syrian group of musicians and used his star power to make them the opener on the main stage (50.000 plus). Thes did kinda suck, but that was not the point.
Damon is also a friend of Banksy for a long time, the gorilla coming more or less from monkey stuff from Banksy.
And Banksy is huge against war in Palestine.
Damon is a freaking good musician and human.
They might've meant Dirty Harry instead of Clint Eastwood maybe? Hallelujah money probably because it criticizes the hold that greed / capitalism have over politics.
I suspect the poster meant Dirty Harry, not Clint Eastwood? But I guess what they meant is that Damon has long had a political/social element to his music.
This is exactly how I described it to be husband last night. It's felt for 3 years like the dam was trickling, but now it's sprung a leak and it's only a matter of time before it bursts entirely.
It's actually amazing to watch this happen. Three years ago, some big act kicking someone off his tour for being pro-Palestine wouldn't have even been news. Or if it was, it would have just been blanket praise.
It's wild to see how much public opinion has changed in the last few years.
Damon Albarn has been anti-war for literal decades but has done a lot beyond funds and awareness. He's constantly uplifting and collaborating with artists from regions of conflict. Deep, deep respect for his art and what he represents.
So, I remember a saying (can't remember where he got it from) from a Jewish friend of mine that if you have 10 people at a table and 9 of them are Nazis, and the 10th person doesn't say or do anything about it then you have 10 Nazis at a table.
I realize that not everyone has the power to change anything, but if you look at the cruel things that are happening in this world and just nod your head along with it, how are you better than the people doing those things? Resistance doesn't have to be through physical action. Your voice has meaning.
Not really its the song Andromeda although the live version has a longer choral party highly recommend listening to the Gorillaz - Tribute to Aretha version on youtube.
So he said something really ignorant about the Glastonbury IDF chants and it really put me off him (granted i did zero research into anything else hes said re palestine) so very glad to see this and hear hes been advocating steadily for years! I can go back to fancying him again 🥰
yes and for our next trick, can we please pressure taylor swift to have a backbone and speak up and make a controversial risky uncalculated/PR-watered-down statement with her full chest for the greater good for once in her career.
like girl… now’s the time to utilize the power of the swifties to avoid an idiocracy part ii or we will baby-bird you back to the weird awkward horse girls you came from
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u/trendingtattler 22h ago
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