Artists have been using their time on stage to make political statements for decades and it's incredibly rare that anything ever comes of it in terms of crowd unrest. I'm aware of the famous Rage Against the Machine concert which resulted in some fans rioting afterwards (and obviously that's not great) but that was a message of unrest and that I do think was always a dangerous thing to do - I think a message of peace is highly unlikely to cause the same effect. I'm struggling to think of another incident where a political statement on stage has had the type of negative impact you're suggesting could happen.

I've just had a look as well because I was curious and I'm struggling to find much detail of any other times where it's happened - interestingly the search results suggest there are many more instances of opposing groups deliberately targeting concerts to cause disruption because of what musicians have said outside of a gig.

1 hour ago, Mr. C. Joel said:

Expressing yourself in music is an art form making political statements outside of music isn't art is it.

If people wanted to hear political debates on topics they'd go to a political debate.

Not saying these topics aren't important by the way just saying this will all end in tears when audience members have opposing views and start shouting things out it'll get very heated and that's not what people are there for no matter how important the cause is.

Also, run into the territory where causes / politics and statements are used as a form of self promotion! How many times have pop artists claimed to support LGBTQ+ rights making statements at shows / holding up flags etc...When it's blatantly obvious later down the line they have no interest (Cough Cough Ella doing a pride event but then performing at a Conservative party!!)

Did the Tory Party not bring in equal marriage tbf?

2 hours ago, Mr. C. Joel said:

Not saying these topics aren't important by the way just saying this will all end in tears when audience members have opposing views and start shouting things out it'll get very heated and that's not what people are there for no matter how important the cause is.

You’re making it look like these artists have no idea how to handle an audience member like this, experienced performers like Sheeran have surely had those.

‘That’s not what people are there for’. What are they there not for? Please elaborate.

If sparing a literal minute of your time to listen to a speech about a cause close to the artist you’re going to be watching perform is such a task then we need to have another completely different conversation.

This is my main grievance hearing this kind of opinion here - hedonism and consumption standing in the way of a little bit of empathy and compassion.

Edited Thursday at 22:062 days by pavi

2 hours ago, Steve201 said:

Did the Tory Party not bring in equal marriage tbf?

Not to derail the thread but more conservative MPs at the time voted against the bill than for. Equal marriage was going to happened regardless of the party in power. Labour/Lib dems were the reason for it passing with the majority of their MPs voting for.

6 hours ago, Envoirment said:

Not to derail the thread but more conservative MPs at the time voted against the bill than for. Equal marriage was going to happened regardless of the party in power. Labour/Lib dems were the reason for it passing with the majority of their MPs voting for.

Good point, albeit they did propose it. As you say it would always have went through at some point and Cameron wanted the party to look good on the social side of things and could swallow that given the societal attitudes rather than move to the left on the economy.

Edited Friday at 06:132 days by Steve201

7 hours ago, pavi said:

You’re making it look like these artists have no idea how to handle an audience member like this, experienced performers like Sheeran have surely had those.

‘That’s not what people are there for’. What are they there not for? Please elaborate.

If sparing a literal minute of your time to listen to a speech about a cause close to the artist you’re going to be watching perform is such a task then we need to have another completely different conversation.

This is my main grievance hearing this kind of opinion here - hedonism and consumption standing in the way of a little bit of empathy and compassion.

I'll happily elaborate. When I'm paying £300/£400 for a ticket I don't expect an artist to spend 10 minutes talking about a political view. It's that simple. Personally I go to a concert as an escape and to have a good time not to be reminded of what's wrong in the world let's be honest there's plenty wrong in the world! (That doesn't mean I don't support this particular cause by the way) Artists have huge social media following they can express themselves and share their views online, they can do what Macklemore has done and do shows related to that cause whatever that may be.

You're assuming all artists views have compassion, some artists views are crazy (Nicki) do I want to go to a concert where she's spouting her nonsense absolutely not!

Its just my opinion, there's plenty of outlets and spaces where artists can express their views, personally for me I think concerts should be kept to being light hearted and a form of escape from these topics some of which are potentially very triggering to audience members.

Edited Friday at 06:232 days by Mr. C. Joel

15 minutes ago, Mr. C. Joel said:

You're assuming all artists views have compassion, some artists views are crazy (Nicki) do I want to go to a concert where she's spouting her nonsense absolutely not!

So it’s okay for artists to share their dangerous nonsense online to millions of people but a few minutes speech (that you can easily ignore if you don’t find the energy to care) to 10k arenas is where you draw the line? I have not assumed anything and your whataboutism is not something I’m willing to engage in.

Palestinians cannot escape. They read these privileged takes and lip services online and continue being killed. All while we demand to not be reminded of them when in public, not even for 10 minutes a day, because we paid for it. That’s incredibly sad.

5 minutes ago, pavi said:

So it’s okay for artists to share their dangerous nonsense online to millions of people but a few minutes speech (that you can easily ignore if you don’t find the energy to care) to 10k arenas is where you draw the line? I have not assumed anything and your whataboutism is not something I’m willing to engage in.

Palestinians cannot escape. They read these privileged takes and lip services online and continue being killed. All while we demand to not be reminded of them when in public, not even for 10 minutes a day, because we paid for it. That’s incredibly sad.

There's wars happening all over the world where innocent people are being killed / tortured in the most horrific of ways it's not just Palestinians. There's unfortunately many women even in the west being brutally abused / murdered by partners. My original post was not specifically about Palestinians it was based on ALL political topics / causes unrelated from the smaller views to the monumental.

So an artist feels passionately about domestic violence and spends 10 minutes talking on that subject (an important subject) however, what if there's women/men in the audience going through something similar and have gone to a concert as a form of an escape or to have a good time should they be subjected to a 10 minute talk reminding them of what they're going through?

My point still stands regardless of the topic it's my opinion that concerts aren't the place, like I said I think it's very important artists like Macklemore speak out and I think it's great that he's actively using the publicity for good and raising more awareness through shows that represent and are dedicated to the cause..

Edited Friday at 07:352 days by Mr. C. Joel

I think it's absurd to expect artists that freely express their political views through their music to stay silent about those same views while performing them live.

It's not like Addison Rae is randomly pulling out The Communist Manifesto mid Money Is Everything though I would like to see it

I think most fans of an artist who is knowingly vocal about their views (to any degree) will know what those views are. If they disagree to a far extent then it's probably unlikely they'll want to attend their concert. For example, it doesn't matter if he went on to release my favourite song in the world, you'd never catch me at a Chris Brown gig.

If an artist choses to address something political in their set, it usually only takes up a few minutes of time, it's not like they're saying "hey I know you bought tickets to see me perform for an hour but let's scrap that entirely and delve into why I think x y z about x y z for the next 60 minutes". You don't need to agree with what they're saying but it's not a big ask (imo) to respect how they're choosing to use their platform, you can tune out for five minutes if you really don't wanna listen to it I'm sure. They're not hurting or offending anyone so I don't really see the issue.

3 hours ago, Mr. C. Joel said:

So an artist feels passionately about domestic violence and spends 10 minutes talking on that subject (an important subject) however, what if there's women/men in the audience going through something similar and have gone to a concert as a form of an escape or to have a good time should they be subjected to a 10 minute talk reminding them of what they're going through?

Speaking personally, if an artist I went to see took time out of their set to speak about DV I'd be really touched, it's something that has affected me in the past so I'd definitely feel less alone knowing someone I look up to not only understands the issue but wants to raise awareness around it as well. I get the escapism argument but that's simply not the case for everyone and of course it will depend on the particular topic being spoken about.

(Sorry for the double post, I couldn't get the quote to edit into my previous reply)

As I said it’s a controversial opinion I didn’t expect anyone to agree.

I’m not an expert of Macklemore but is Is his song not about the Palestinian issue hence why he spoke introducing it or spoke after it?

This weekend Nor’East is anticipating some sort of a storm with high winds and heavy rain, and both Ed shows at Gillette Stadium (Kraft’s stadiums) are cancelled!!!

Mother Nature ❤️ 💅

Not the same as this situation but the Ireland football team were made to vote about whether they should play their Nations League game vs Israel tomorrow.

One of their players refused to play and the rest voted by a majority to play the game under threat of sanctions from UEFA.