music and politics on radio

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 18 Sep 2004 at 22:50, Donna Halper wrote:

> Good point.  But how would you determine that an artist has become too
> controversial? Do you think the average person thinks about the politics
> of musicians, or does the average person just wanna hear the hits?

Certain performers have been active in political causes, and sometimes it has affected their 
popularity as performers and sometimes it hasn't.  Groucho Marx was a political liberal and 
was active in unionizing actors, but that never affected his popularity.  So far, Martin Sheen's 
liberal causes don't seem to have affected his popularity or that of "The West Wing."  Others 
were blacklisted because of alleged left-wing connections, sometimes very tenuous.

Politics seem to be more polarized than I can ever remember -- even during the Vietnam war, 
Republicans and Democrats were able to act in bipartisan fashion in Washington much more 
than now.  So I suppose all the more people are unwilling to like a performer with whose 
politics they disagree.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@attorneyross.com
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