Musicians take the broad view, says Moby.

Question: Can music change politics?

Moby: I think it can because it has.  Maybe not on a specific cause and effect way, you know, if some musician writes a song about some policy initiative they want to see moved forward through Congress, I don’t know if necessarily, you know, Rama Emanuel is going to hear this song and be inspired to move policy through Congress, but I think that music and politics have been intertwined for such a long time, sometimes in very explicit ways, I mean, you have like Vaclav Havel who was very involved in the Czech music scene and was really inspired by the railroad underground and a lot of rock music in the states in the 1960’s.  And music, strange enough, music has always been more political than politics has been musical.  You know, because politicians are nerds. 

You know, at the end of the day, they are nerds who will do anything they can to get elected, whereas I think musicians, oddly enough, have a slightly broader view.  It doesn’t mean they are brighter, it doesn’t mean they are better informed, it just means that I think that a musician can approach his or her world with a little more objectivity and they are a little more personal for them.  So that’s why I think politics has influenced music in a way much more than music has influenced politics. 

Recorded on: 6/16/08