All dress is fancy dress, is it not, except our natural skins?
George Bernard ShawRead
So, in some ways, the political songs tend to be a bit more like reportage, whereas the love songs tend to be like novels, you can pick them up off the shelf and go into them any time.
Interpretation
Political songs reflect current events like a news report, while love songs delve into deeper emotional narratives.
In this quote, Billy Bragg suggests that political songs serve as a form of reporting, addressing and narrating contemporary issues in a straightforward manner. In contrast, love songs are likened to novels; they possess a depth and complexity that invites listeners to engage with them repeatedly on an emotional level, much like one would revisit a beloved book.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about how different genres of music influence societal change.
All dress is fancy dress, is it not, except our natural skins?
There is an audience out there for literate films - slower, more observant, more human films, and they deserve to be made.
An autobiography can distort; facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies: it reveals the writer totally.
Companies that pretend to care about music and really care about other things - whether it be hardware, whether it be advertising - and now they look at music as a loss leader. And we know music isn't a loss leader; music is an important part of our lives.
The great thing about the arts, and especially popular music, is that it really does cut across genres and races and classes.
Gene [Siskel] often mentioned something François Truffaut once told him: the most beautiful sight in a movie theater is to walk down to the front, turn around, and look at the light from the screen reflected on the upturned faces of the members of the audience.
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