Heartbreak Warfare

John Mayer has never been high on my list of favorites, but he seems to have redeemed himself with this release. It sticks in my head like glue and doesn't seem to fade away. Maybe I just like it for the political undertones, since it seems as though Americans like to pretend that there haven't been two wars raging for most of the last decade.  However, what is interesting to me is that a song that protests the war has to masquerade as a love song to get radio play, because our country can't be bothered with protesting a war that has a "voluntary" armed service. Voluntary or not, these wars need to end. (let's not mention either that a majority of soldiers in our "voluntary" armed service are poor and/or of color)

I'm comparison to the Vietnam generation that has been put on a historical-counterculture-pedestal for the immense amount of protests--political, artistic, musically and otherwise--it seems as though protests against these latest wars are pushed to the margins.  My generation likes to look back in praise of the cool hippies at Woodstock that protested the war (hence major New York Exhibitions celebrating the 40 year anniversaries of both 1968 and 1969), but we don't have much to say collectively about the current conflicts.

Although Outkast, System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine and others have produced music over the years that protests the current wars, I don't hear these songs on mainstream or alternative radio stations. Go John Mayer for wrapping your war protest in the silky kimono of a love song.