Imagine how cool it would be to see some person yelling about Lenin and Marx, waving their arms around like crazy, newspaper in hand. Wearing one of those old caps, like the one Lenin had.
I know we kind of have a version of it online, but it’s much more atomising and lame. Yelling on internet forums will never compare.
The only people who do soapboxing these days are ultra religious nutters, screaming about the apocalypse or whatever. How the great have fallen, truly.
Do you think there isn’t?
I think this sort of stuff is just unpopular (“because folk music is boring” as he quotes someone else as saying). It doesn’t really translate too well to the current online media. But lots of people are inspired to take it up for at least a little while. But how could anyone live off it?
David Rovics is one example I know of who is still at work after many years. But I don’t follow closely enough to know of the many other more compelling artists that surely exist.
Especially if you do not limit yourself to the “white guy with acoustic guitar” definition/aesthetics of folk music.
I’m more wishing the people that do would have more of an online presence. I’ve met and have gotten to know a handful of them during my travels across the U.S, including Rovics funny enough, but besides Rovics they’re usually struggling to make ends meet with life being life in america and the music is a weekend or special event hobby for them which means doing and learning the online tech wizardry really isn’t in the books for them as much.
I wonder if tik tok would be a good place to find such people? I have heard you can “train the algorithm” to find what you are interested in.