Art Is Political

By Shaun Smith

During the halftime show at this year’s annual Super Bowl, Bad Bunny showed up and showed out, ending with a message of love and unity for America. Not just the United States of America, but America as a whole, with countries like Canada, Brazil, Puerto Rico and more included in the message calling for unification from a divided nation. While most would think this message of love and unity would be seen as the message that defines an issue the world desperately needs to resolve, many took it as a political message: a political message many find repulsive, with no explanation. In the aftermath of Bad Bunny’s halftime show, the sentiment of ‘Just shut up and sing’ had never been louder from conservatives in America, with the rhetorical question of why include politics in art at all?

Art as a concept isn’t definable, it’s not an idea that has an end-all be-all or has a rubric that every artist has to follow. In subjectivity of art, a reflection of the human experience is found in artistic expression, no matter how large or little, the human experience is something unique and special in the lens of art. The subjectivity of art gives each piece its respective meaning, not to mention how art relies on the meanings the piece of art gives to individual members of an audience. While expressions of equality and love can be seen as ‘political,’ such as the Bad Bunny Super Bowl Halftime Show, it’s not art asking to be political in rallying for messages of unity, as promoting a concept that benefits humanity with no fixed agenda besides unification isn’t ‘political.’ Moreso, the reaction to the message, both negative and positive, heightened the expression’s politics. Even if there was no intent on political programming, the reaction shows that political messaging is inescapable in a world where art expresses the human experience.

Politics in art isn’t as clear-cut as many seem to believe; in fact, politics and art go hand in hand naturally, with both being reflections of where society is at. One of the most prominent examples of how art is political is through Rosie the Riveter, a 1943 wartime poster depicting a woman as a production worker under the phrase “We Can Do It!” When many would see the actual poster as a piece of art depicting a pretty woman helping with the U.S. during World War 2, its political messaging required a show of how women are important to the U.S. armed forces as an encouragement for more military assistance with female audiences. While its aimed messaging was for wartime assistance, its inherent political messaging that women can perform duties on the same level as men is a concept that has stuck with Rosie into today’s standards, as she’s become a political icon for women across time.

Even with “lowbrow” art, political messaging lies within what many consider to be the bottom of the barrel when it comes to expression of the human experience. When looking back on the late 2000s / early 2010s music scene, what many envision are the women in pop music that dominated the charts (i.e. Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, etc.). What many won’t tell you about this era of music is the idea of these women being considered “lowbrow” with their songs consisting of partying, love, dancing and subjects that many wouldn’t consider ‘groundbreaking’ art. In fact, the opposite is true in how their music reflected the times America was facing, especially on the tail end of the 2008 financial crisis, where dance and pop music were needed. In a society where anyone could face economic collapse at any moment, distraction was needed in order to keep morale up, not just individually, but as a nation. In this need for distraction, what came to be was a rise in pop and dance music that helped remedy the need for pleasant times when everything was bleak. Fast forward, many of the songs considered “lowbrow” at the time are now considered classics as the music at the time also reflected different aspects of the human experience (i.e. “Just Dance,” “Teenage Dream,” “Rude Boy”) that revolved around having fun, living, and youth, all concepts easily understood by today’s young people.

While intent can be discussed further, what is made clear is that art is political, no matter under what lens you look at it. Even just art that is created with no intent is political, based on the experience that goes into its creation and the experiences evoked by audiences. Complaining about politics in art is like complaining that freshly brewed coffee is hot; have a laugh, listen to some music, enjoy a book, or watch a TV show and reflect.