Are Synthesizers Political? 

Yes I know I accidentally said baclava instead of balacvala, but I'm worried if I delete and reupload the video will get even more content id'd then it already has.

"Politics don't belong in X" translated: I don't like your politics

“Are synthesizers political?” *laughing in the entire industrial genre*

"I get gay on the synthesizer" Hell yeah, that's how you play it homie

My music is almost entirely instrumental. Literally me saying "Hi, my name is Lexi, I'm a trans woman who makes music" makes me a "political musician". If I wanted to "get politics out of my music" to the standards of the people that rhetoric usually comes from, I'd have to never show my face or play live or relate much of my life experiences on the internet.

People who think that their music isn't political aren't listening to good music.

When you are not interested in politics it gets interested in you.

I came for the quirky OP-1 videos, but I stayed for the in-depth documentaries.

"This machine kills fascists!" - sticker on Woody Guthrie's guitar. Right on RMR.

“Why do you have to make it political?!” = “I am personally comfortable, please don’t rock the boat.”

I was surprised you didn't mention Wendy Carlos in the spirit of pride politics. She is the first openly trans person I ever knew about and was a prominent early synth artist. Trans people have been fighting right wing attacks a lot recently, and I think it bears mentioning that the synth community has always been in their corner.

Ministry - new world order Art of noise - instruments of darkness Consolidated - censorship is just a smokescreen

"I get gay on synthesizers" == 1 subscribe!

It's always people with reactionary views who complain about politics in entertainment. "They put women in my video game so now I'm xenophobic and must vote for the far right"

NEVER SURRENDER! ✊ Once upon a time, I marched in SF against the Gulf War as part of the local rave scene (ravers 4 peace) and we were always about PLUR and political and social protest. If I go anywhere with the music I'm currently producing, you better bet your gay red fuzzy tail that I'll be using it to witness and protest any and every form of repression. 🏳‍🌈🏳‍⚧👩

"I get gay on the synthesizer" XD

So synths are trans and gay AND political? Wowsers.

Trent Reznor's new YT channel where he reviews new synthesizers. "I really like the compactness and affordability of the Yamaha Reface DX... We were talking about making something like a Pez dispenser where it just shoots another one out after I wreck 'em on stage."

I threw KMFMD in to the suggestions for this. I think that the artists chosen are fantastic. Resist.

Anyone who says "Stay in your lane" or "Keep your politics out of my music" has never been oppressed, hurt, threatened, or had to struggle for their own existence. Music and art are the start, change minds and hearts,

Muslimgauze is a very prescient inclusion for this list

I feel like an aside like, "Oh, and also, basically all of hip-hop" might have been nice.

I will never forget the time I saw a comment on a video by Devo: "keep your politics out of my music" Devo was founded after the Kent State massacre where the national guard shot and killed students protesting the Vietnam war. The entire band is built around and named after the idea of de-evolution. Whip It is a satire of American optimism and a tongue-in-cheek rallying cry for Jimmy Carter, their Freedom of Choice album parodies American patriotism, the opening scroll on their 1980 live video tape outwardly states that Ronald Regan's election is a "dark time." The comment was on a video of one of the band members memorializing the Kent State massacre.

I still remember watching Trent dump WATER all over that synth. Great video, and I LOVE the thesis statement about artists being able to say things in a way no one else can. Very inspiring. Thanks for the hard work.

Pffft --have the people saying "Politics don't belong in music" ever heard a lyric?

To add a few more: Negativeland. They were an early experimental act (1981), and they have always been very political in terms of their messaging. While they use audio collage, they also use a ton of synthesizers. Also Devo! Devo's entire mission statement is one around politics. They were an early punk band, but they have used synths as a core part of their sound for a long time. Likewise how can we forget Kraftwerk, which LONG incorporated political messages into its music, it's not all about pocket calculators, sometimes it is about being against nuclear weapons. Likewise mentioning LGBTQ+ rights since we are in pride..."Chains of Love" from Erasure is a very political song. It is flat out about liberation when the community was DEEP in the AIDS crisis and a wave of homophobia. The lyric of "Don't Give Up" was a message of hope when the community didn't have much. Yeah, its an electronic pop song, but for those that understand its context understand it wasn't a love song, it was a LGBTQ+ liberation anthem. Or maybe just bother to read the lyrics to early Depeche Mode songs. I mean People are People. All of these bands were political. Music is political. The entire "keep politics out of music" is just absolute nonsense that doesn't understand how much politics is a core part of music. Especially electronic music. It's often about liberation from oppressive right wing systems. For the record electronic music started by people who were excluded by mainstream society. If you spend 10 minutes understanding people like Wendy Carlos, Daphne Oram, Laurie Spiegel, and even Jazz Musicians who embraced synthesizers early like Sun Ra, you would get this. Lest we forget Frankie Knuckles was a gay black man living in Chicago when he layed the foundations of house music. Whenever someone says "they want politics out of music" that tells me they are often a right wing fascist. It says everything about them personally.

Stereolab is my favorite because its not so obvious. You have to scratch a bit under the surface or translate the lyrics from french and then you realize oh yeah this is European libertarian communism going on here.

Laibach Skinny Puppy

Lets not forget that synthesizers and transgender are heavily intertwined (for reasons most people here should already be familiar with), and with how transgender is being treated right now in the world, saying anything about how music/art "shouldn't be political" is bullshit from the highest order. Thanks for making this video!

Mate, you are such a feckin' gift on this website! Wonderful curated list of music to explore here, thank you!

Man. I thought for sure you were going to include Emergency Broadcast Network. But, your point about how many acts you care to mention is well taken.

Good lord, whoever says 'Music isn't political' is effing asleep. Beatles, Black Sabbath, Neil Young, RATM, Woodie and Arlo Guthrie. I can keep listing examples. I know you are trying to keep to synths, but dude, music is political.

It’s interesting that you mention Radiohead after Massive Attack because in 2021 Radiohead played in Israel despite the outcries of many people to boycott. York was aggressive and dismissive about it. Basically saying that he wouldn’t tell anyone to where to play so no one should tell him where to play. I don’t mention that to criticize you *at all*. I bring it up to show how people’s politics can always be conditional. It’s easy to see something that’s happening outside of yourself or what’s happening to you and say “that’s wrong.” It’s a lot harder to look at what you’re doing. Especially when you consider yourself a “good person” and therefore may subconsciously justify anything you do as what a good person does. I think about how so many on the left have consumed conservative talking points when justifying no longer caring about COVID or disabled people in general. This was a great video and I appreciate you talking about this both as a musician and fellow queer. Art’s political, happy Pride, wear a mask!

I'd say the complainants actually are pissed that it's the "wrong kind of politics" as opposed to politics per se. Not their politics, in other words.

Just added so many of these to my listening Playlist. AWESOME work.

Love you Jeremy. Keep making waves in the most benign way possible. Life is political, “not being political” is political. ❤️🏳️‍🌈❤

Always happy to see a RMR talky video pop up on my feed. Thanks, Jeremy!

Thank you for speaking loud and proud, Jeremy.

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that the folks taking issue with politics don’t have an issue with “songs” like “try that in a small town”. I’m sure they’d be fine with the politics if it aligned with theirs.

Love this, thank you for putting this together and the research involved

wonderful video, thank you so much for making it. I'm feeling very inspired.

Thank you for this! Music and art have been the voice of righteous indignation forever and are some of the most powerful voices. That is why it is constantly attacked for being that voice. I appreciate your voice! To your list: - Zack de la Rocha, of course, digging for windows, very electronic. - Skinny Puppy has always carried a political message. In fact the whole industrial music scene is soaked in politics (not all of it pleasant!). - KLF literally burned money

I know it takes so much to produce things like this, and you're hurting too. Thank you for doing this work. We're all told to ignore all of this all the time, and while I try to pay attention, I fail a lot too. People like you help us learn what we should already know about.

YEAHHH so happy you’re keeping with videos like these (and ofc they keep getting better wtf) thanks for the new music listening homework

Your channel just keeps getting better and better!!

I haven’t been into gear lately so I haven’t checked your recent vids but this one. This one. Love it.

What an awesome video! You made me feel excited about my synthesizers again!

Dude. DUDE. There's like a million RU-vid channels doing synth reviews/tests/jams, but I've not seen anyone else looking at the crossover from synths to politics. This is VERY FUCKIN INTERESTING. And I think there's milage here for you as a content creator. I would love to see you do a deep dive into each of the artists you've featured here, but from your studio, using the gear they used and showing us how they used it while going deeper into their political and cultural impact.

Get it bud. My heart goes out the Iranian rapper on death row rn. Music is politics.

Awesome video and hands down some of the best editing work I've seen on RU-vid

Sounds gay. Im in

I think it's more necessary than ever for music to be political, lest it just become another form of content amidst the glut of AI mush. Also, I'd be remiss to fail to mention Johny Greenwood of Radiohead's apologism for Zionism (his wife has written fairly repellant things about Palestinians)

Amazing video! Much love.

Your editing is great. You are one of the main reasons I got into techno, thanks!

Been loving the themes and style of your expository videos. Looking forward to more.

Fantastic, Mr. Fox. This was a cool video dude. I recently got into electric music/synths from your pocket operator videos a few months ago, and I wouldn't be opposed to seeing more videos about synth history on this channel if you ever feel so inclined.

Thanks for the recommendations! I’m of a generation that remembers Paul Hardcastle more than some of the more recent examples, so it’s great to learn about some new-to-me artists. I would add (deep breath) Bronski Beat, Pet Shop Boys, Coil, 808 State, Orbital, The Prodigy, Neneh Cherry, Gary Clail, Sleaford Mods, … and I’m sure a whole lot more will come to mind as soon as I’ve finished this comment.

Thanks Jeremy! Awesome content and some serious music rec’s!

Cabaret Voltaire, Coil, meat eat manifesto , nizzer ebb , front 242, suicid3 all fantastic bands that use deliver politics over a synth backing

i wrapped myself n puff pastry and poured honey over my body.. i was in the mix.

you’re the shit, fam. love your channel.

An amazing, and, very powerful message in this video! Thanks for sharing Jeremy! Keep them coming, the world needs more content like this.

Please also see Polyphonic's history of Small Town Boy and Bronski Beat's Age of Consent album.

Wow that was an excellent report, very well curated and visually powerful. Well done Jeremy and the supporters who helped. A few artists/bands there I wasn't aware of and will definitely listen to. Thankyou foxy

Favorite video yet. You should consider doing more electronic music history videos.

Glad you mentioned NIN Year Zero. Highly underrated album from Trent. Also people tend to forget that music and art reflects life and reflects music and art. The politics of the time will always be reflected in the music of that time.

This video is more important than ever ! Thank you for this !

Thank god Underground Resistance was included

"get gay on the synthesizer" is a phrase I will use from now on.

“I had to, like, open the bruise up, and let some of the bruise blood come out to show them"

This video essay makes for a great playlist. Plan to just go down the line and listen to all of it this summer.

Shouts out to Abe of AI Synthesis for printing Woody Guthrie's famous "This Machine Kills Fascists" on his PCBs.

Dude…dude…DUDE! You’ve totally taken it to another level with this video! What a documentary, definitely worthy of an award. I don’t know what award but something to recognize what an amazing piece of material you’ve put out there for everyone to enjoy ❤

Thanks for this one Jeremy!

Even electronic music pioneers like Tangerine Dream and Jean Michel Jarre had a bit of "political" messaging in their work. Oxygene's cover art is famous for its environmental metaphor, and TD's Kiev Mission... well, it seems as relevant now as it was back then.

J your work is amazing. I love your perspective. Inspiring.

This was simply excellent! Thank you, I'll share with my students

Great Video Jeremy, Thank You

Wow wow woooow! Thank you so much for this "episode"!

Love this video Jeremy!

Brilliant video, thanks Jeremy!

Brilliant. I went from nodding to laughing to applauding. Great work top to bottom.

I really appreciate this video. Maybe it won't do as well as your gear videos, but I enjoy this content, and learned a lot. Thanks.

Thank you Jeremy for this amazing video. Well said. And thank you for introducing me to a couple new artists.

Love that you included Topical Dancer. that album is absolutely amazing

Thank you for this wonderful showcase!

The inclusion of ATR is honestly disappointing considering Alec Empire has done a complete heel turn on the messages of their early music and has just become a weird Zionist. Dude is absolutely cooked and I think that should be acknowledged.

Absolutely love this video!

Thank you for this!

Thank you for this video Jeramy. It’s ridiculous to think that politics are off limits to any form of cultural expression. Particularly electronic music. Great to see this!

great video! i loved the start lol

My synths will now and forever be excommunicated and forced to stand in public places wearing signs of their sin. They are in the lord's and the fox's hands now.

Thank You for this one.

Love you and what you do Jeremy 🔥 keep it up

this video is fantastic. seriously. thanks for making this 🙏🏻

What a brilliant, informative and inspiring video...

Meat Beat Manifesto; Consolidated

Fantastic video!!

So, so thankful for this video and the history it conveys. everything down to the keyboard you type on is political, but the people that complain about politics know that and will gleefully point out an iphone user too worried about industrial capital. you know how it is. anyways atari teenage riot was banger after banger, have a special place in my heart for them

I absolutely love your work Jeremy, it is so rare these days to find someone these days who is so unapologetically themselves. Keep going!