He has remained firm in his stance, condemning Radiohead for performing in Israel and urging critics of his Us + Them tour to “ Go see Katy Perry. His actions and statements have inspired protests and criticism from detractors who have accused him of anti-Semitism. More controversial are his longstanding public condemnation of the Israeli government and support of the BDS movement, which accuses the government of Israel of violating international law and calls for political and economic pressure against the country. Waters’s condemnation of Trump during the US + Them concerts has created controversy although perhaps the gesture has not terribly risky to his career given Trump’s consistently low public approval ratings. The song’s lyric “Hey You Whitehouse/Ha, Ha, charade you are” was written 40 years ago as a slam against British conservative moral crusader Mary Whitehouse, and yet during the concert performance of the song, Waters has reinterpreted the words conveniently for the present day by projecting an image of the White House onscreen. A common theme underpinning his music is how institutions such as government and organized religion dehumanize people and create walls that separate us from each other and even ourselves. He has been a voice of political and social confrontation for decades, as principal songwriter for Pink Floyd and as a solo artist.
As Cat Buckley of Billboard recently reported, 2017 is a year of a “ brewing musical resistance” with President Donald Trump the focus of that resistance.īy embracing social and political themes in their work, musical activists are making Roger Waters more relevant than ever. Although the groundswell around social justice issues such as #BlackLivesMatter has been happening over the past few years, the election of Donald Trump has unquestionably turned that activism into dissent for many artists (unless you happen to be Kid Rock or Ted Nugent).Īccording to The Atlantic’s Spencer Kornhaber, the first 100 days of the Trump administration inspired a bumper crop of protest music. We’re living in an age of heightened activism.
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