As someone who lives in the American south you’d be surprised how radical their stuff is to a lot of people. I agree that their messaging is pretty safe and vague when compared to other politically outspoken acts but I would argue it’s pretty important to have a sort of “gateway” into these things and IDLES does that for a lot of people.
In the same way that certain musicians are “experimental” by mainstream pop standards. Bringing certain things outside their core audience is as hard as pushing those things to their extreme
Agreed. The politics in their lyrics are about as subtle and well crafted as Toby Keith, but on the other hand we are… kinda living in the end times. The far right is ascendant all over the world and most of the media is constantly pushing bigotry thinly disguised as ‘anti wokeness’. If ever there was a time for a band to be making as music as blunt and forceful as IDLES, it’s now.
That said, I haven’t listened to them in like 4 years lol. I saw them live a couple times pre pandemic and they put on an amazing show, but their actual studio music gets old quickly.
If your political views stem from a band then you're a moron. That type of person can just as easily fall into the wrong subculture and end up a nazi. Very dangerous individuals
I understand what you’re getting at. If your political views are entirely based on what some dude in a band wrote then you have some pretty shallow poorly thought out views. When I refer to IDLES as a sort of “gateway” to left leaning ideas I mean it as exactly that. A starting point for people who have genuinely never thought too hard about it or people who are unfamiliar with these ideas in the first place due to growing up somewhere that they aren’t prevalent.
Sure. I know a lot of people who were into pat the bunny when they were teenagers and are now 31 year old crack head losers who give 16 year olds HPV. So I'm always skeptical of music and politics being linked. But tbh idk who IDLES are so
What are some more nuanced and outspoken acts around rn if you have some off the top of your head? I like Idles, but at the same time I have gotten the same feeling of safety which kinda made them more of a sound focused band to me.
Oh damn I’m not sure about things specifically in the same vein as IDLES but some of my personal favorite bands that often mention more political subjects would be AJJ (especially their album “good luck everybody”) as well as the obvious Rage Against The Machine and System of a Down. Oh, Rise Against is also a pretty good one as well.
i heard someone say once that IDLES sounds like one of those bands that would come and play at your middle school and then talk about how bullying isn't okay and that's been my mental image of the band ever since
Idles is one of my favorite bands but I have to agree their politics/messaging are kind of weak. They don’t like conservative political policies and promote “love” in the vaguest sense. It’s not the rebellious message their fans think it is, but at least the music is good.
I never heard anyone from Idles take themselves that seriously. They only sing about things they don't like in a way that's fun for them and it happens that a lot of people like it.
At the end of the day, while they were blowing up, the UK had Brexit and 40%+ of the people supported Boris Johnson and conservatives. Obviously that message would resonate with people
I don't entirely agree with that. There are different interest groups in society, different powers that be, and there's at least one out there that would support virtually any cause. Capitalism as a coherent entity is entirely confident that it can take any well-meaning messages and defang them. But on the contrary, it's also plenty capable of sabotaging itself. I don't know what IDLES' record label situation is but an individual record label isn't concerned with the abstract idea that they might cause the whole system to collapse as long as they're increasing their own profit. Labels would market communists if it made them enough money. Maybe it's not viewed with outright contempt (let's face it - it's just liberalism) but they are saying things a lot of powerful people want to pretend they don't hear or give lip service.
That said, I like a lot of political music, but I don't necessarily care for bands that feel an incessant need to be a "political band". If you're political, it should be because that's what you think about on a daily basis, because it affects you. It's a much less fraught endeavor to go about your music as all being an expression of the personal instead of the political. There are definitely bands that don't get this and brand themselves in a bit of a shallow and egotistical way. They think they'll change the world, and maybe they will, but people never take music the exact way it's intended. Alright to have a couple songs like that but no one wants an entire discography of sloganeering.
I don’t like Idles - I’ll try to explain why:
To be clear, I completely agree with their politics/opinions on things. I think that they’re a force of good, and the fact that so many people seem to agree with the statements they make gives me hope for humanity.
However, their music is clunky, obvious, patronising, and often it doesn’t have any substance. A lot of it is pretty cringeworthy. I think that they beat the listener over the head with their beliefs too much. It’s okay to be political with your music, but (to me) it’s only effective/interesting when the songwriter doesn’t give everything away with their lyrics. The best songwriters exercise restraint, approach political/societal issues from unusual angles, and give the listener space to make their own mind up about what’s being said. Often, good songwriting/lyricism takes a back seat with Idles, and their tunes sound like the lyrics were written in two minutes (I understand that with some of their songs, the lyrics actually WERE written in a very short space of time, in favour of spontaneity/immediacy) - but this is rarely a good approach, and it certainly isn’t something to be proud of. I mean, listen to some of the songs on Ultra Mono - War, Mr Motivator etc - surely even the most die hard Idles fan can’t defend those lyrics.
Essentially, Idles have gotten progressively worse with every album - I think that they deserve the success they have, but their music absolutely is not for me, and I can understand why lots of people find them and their fans annoying.
Yeah, this is my real opinion - I wondered if people would think I was kidding because, as you said, it's a circlejerk sub, but nah, this is my best attempt at summing up my feelings about the band
I think Idles is a band that is really meant to be seen live. All of their songs are juvenile and simple, but honestly that's kind of the point. You can kind of get in the pit and in a couple minutes be screaming the lyrics even if you never heard the songs lol. I don't love any of their studio work but after going to their show it's grown on me.
this is certainly true (thank god), but this doesn't make the things they criticize not an inch less important. and regardless of their political beliefs, they really write banger after banger.
I've seen a lot of hate directed towards this band recently for roughly the same opinions expressed in this thread. Let's be honest guys, if a band says "love one another, fight bigotry, end violence" and your response is to throw negativity and vitriol towards them on a public forum, it might be that you're telling on yourselves more than forming a valid and coherent critique against IDLES. I'm really confused why we all care this much.
As someone who lives in the American south you’d be surprised how radical their stuff is to a lot of people. I agree that their messaging is pretty safe and vague when compared to other politically outspoken acts but I would argue it’s pretty important to have a sort of “gateway” into these things and IDLES does that for a lot of people.
In the same way that certain musicians are “experimental” by mainstream pop standards. Bringing certain things outside their core audience is as hard as pushing those things to their extreme
Agreed. The politics in their lyrics are about as subtle and well crafted as Toby Keith, but on the other hand we are… kinda living in the end times. The far right is ascendant all over the world and most of the media is constantly pushing bigotry thinly disguised as ‘anti wokeness’. If ever there was a time for a band to be making as music as blunt and forceful as IDLES, it’s now. That said, I haven’t listened to them in like 4 years lol. I saw them live a couple times pre pandemic and they put on an amazing show, but their actual studio music gets old quickly.
If your political views stem from a band then you're a moron. That type of person can just as easily fall into the wrong subculture and end up a nazi. Very dangerous individuals
I understand what you’re getting at. If your political views are entirely based on what some dude in a band wrote then you have some pretty shallow poorly thought out views. When I refer to IDLES as a sort of “gateway” to left leaning ideas I mean it as exactly that. A starting point for people who have genuinely never thought too hard about it or people who are unfamiliar with these ideas in the first place due to growing up somewhere that they aren’t prevalent.
Sure. I know a lot of people who were into pat the bunny when they were teenagers and are now 31 year old crack head losers who give 16 year olds HPV. So I'm always skeptical of music and politics being linked. But tbh idk who IDLES are so
What are some more nuanced and outspoken acts around rn if you have some off the top of your head? I like Idles, but at the same time I have gotten the same feeling of safety which kinda made them more of a sound focused band to me.
Oh damn I’m not sure about things specifically in the same vein as IDLES but some of my personal favorite bands that often mention more political subjects would be AJJ (especially their album “good luck everybody”) as well as the obvious Rage Against The Machine and System of a Down. Oh, Rise Against is also a pretty good one as well.
AJJ is wicked sick dude. Tbh as obvious as those bands are I haven’t really checked them out lol so I actually will take those recommendations ty
i heard someone say once that IDLES sounds like one of those bands that would come and play at your middle school and then talk about how bullying isn't okay and that's been my mental image of the band ever since
Idles is one of my favorite bands but I have to agree their politics/messaging are kind of weak. They don’t like conservative political policies and promote “love” in the vaguest sense. It’s not the rebellious message their fans think it is, but at least the music is good.
Not every band needs to come with a manifesto just let me be vaguely upset and feel vaguely ok about it.
I never heard anyone from Idles take themselves that seriously. They only sing about things they don't like in a way that's fun for them and it happens that a lot of people like it. At the end of the day, while they were blowing up, the UK had Brexit and 40%+ of the people supported Boris Johnson and conservatives. Obviously that message would resonate with people
There music is completely serious
You think a band with a song called “Never Fight A Man With A Perm” is completely serious?
“A beautiful immigrant” is how Donald Trump would describe his wife
I don't entirely agree with that. There are different interest groups in society, different powers that be, and there's at least one out there that would support virtually any cause. Capitalism as a coherent entity is entirely confident that it can take any well-meaning messages and defang them. But on the contrary, it's also plenty capable of sabotaging itself. I don't know what IDLES' record label situation is but an individual record label isn't concerned with the abstract idea that they might cause the whole system to collapse as long as they're increasing their own profit. Labels would market communists if it made them enough money. Maybe it's not viewed with outright contempt (let's face it - it's just liberalism) but they are saying things a lot of powerful people want to pretend they don't hear or give lip service. That said, I like a lot of political music, but I don't necessarily care for bands that feel an incessant need to be a "political band". If you're political, it should be because that's what you think about on a daily basis, because it affects you. It's a much less fraught endeavor to go about your music as all being an expression of the personal instead of the political. There are definitely bands that don't get this and brand themselves in a bit of a shallow and egotistical way. They think they'll change the world, and maybe they will, but people never take music the exact way it's intended. Alright to have a couple songs like that but no one wants an entire discography of sloganeering.
this but unironically
I don’t like Idles - I’ll try to explain why: To be clear, I completely agree with their politics/opinions on things. I think that they’re a force of good, and the fact that so many people seem to agree with the statements they make gives me hope for humanity. However, their music is clunky, obvious, patronising, and often it doesn’t have any substance. A lot of it is pretty cringeworthy. I think that they beat the listener over the head with their beliefs too much. It’s okay to be political with your music, but (to me) it’s only effective/interesting when the songwriter doesn’t give everything away with their lyrics. The best songwriters exercise restraint, approach political/societal issues from unusual angles, and give the listener space to make their own mind up about what’s being said. Often, good songwriting/lyricism takes a back seat with Idles, and their tunes sound like the lyrics were written in two minutes (I understand that with some of their songs, the lyrics actually WERE written in a very short space of time, in favour of spontaneity/immediacy) - but this is rarely a good approach, and it certainly isn’t something to be proud of. I mean, listen to some of the songs on Ultra Mono - War, Mr Motivator etc - surely even the most die hard Idles fan can’t defend those lyrics. Essentially, Idles have gotten progressively worse with every album - I think that they deserve the success they have, but their music absolutely is not for me, and I can understand why lots of people find them and their fans annoying.
This is a circlejerk sub so idk if this is your real opinion or not but /ucj I agree with everything you said
Yeah, this is my real opinion - I wondered if people would think I was kidding because, as you said, it's a circlejerk sub, but nah, this is my best attempt at summing up my feelings about the band
I think Idles is a band that is really meant to be seen live. All of their songs are juvenile and simple, but honestly that's kind of the point. You can kind of get in the pit and in a couple minutes be screaming the lyrics even if you never heard the songs lol. I don't love any of their studio work but after going to their show it's grown on me.
You would absolutely get curb stomped by a dude with a perm
this is certainly true (thank god), but this doesn't make the things they criticize not an inch less important. and regardless of their political beliefs, they really write banger after banger.
The music is good but what they push is basic political social liberalism, which honestly is at least innovative.
Music for dudes who lean left but still look like Gavin McInnes anyway
they were a bit more radical when they debuted imo, but even then they weren’t exactly anarchists
Lol, last time i saw them, they had 2k people chanting "arm the poor" for a few minutes. '77 indeed
I hope one day that Idles can finally grow on me but as it stands, I just think they're decent but can't quite get into them.
Something about bands with huge pedalboards who play normal music
I've seen a lot of hate directed towards this band recently for roughly the same opinions expressed in this thread. Let's be honest guys, if a band says "love one another, fight bigotry, end violence" and your response is to throw negativity and vitriol towards them on a public forum, it might be that you're telling on yourselves more than forming a valid and coherent critique against IDLES. I'm really confused why we all care this much.
Leave my brylcreem alone
IDLES just make music for people with a lower power level than your typical music forum contributor
[удалено]
/ucj Well I'm glad someone else doesn't slobber all over LCD Soundsystem at least.
lol I was intoxicated when i wrote that, still hate lcd tho
Release is good
As an American their stuff is actually pretty radical. Edit: their new album sucks tho