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Music and politics; Beds are Burning

5 August 2009 5,394 views No Comment by Octave Shaper

Don’t people love it when music is also used as a political weapon? After all, apart from entertaining people, most of the music is written to send a message. And that is what Midnight Oil did with their 1987 hit single ‘Beds are Burning’

This political song is about giving native Australian lands back to an Australian Aboriginal group called Pintupi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pintupi).

In 1960, The Australian government, forced these tribes out of their lands, stating that they were not ready to live in modern society and needed to be re-educated.

In the below video, apart from giving a great performance, Midnight Oil grapped the occation to dress up in clothes with printed word ‘Sorry’. This was a reference to John Howard’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Howard)(back then Prime Minister of Australia) refusing to apologize on behalf of the Government of Australia, who was present for the occasion.

This performance was part of the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which for sure millions of people from all around the world were watching; ‘How can we sleep while are beds are burning?’

Don’t people love it when music is also used as a political weapon? After all, apart from entertaining people, some of the songs do send a message. And that is what Midnight Oil did with their 1987 hit single ‘Beds are Burning’.

This political song is about giving native Australian lands back to an Australian Aboriginal group called Pintupi. In 1960, the Australian government, forced these tribes out of their lands, and also stated that they were not ready to live in modern society and needed to be re-educated.

In the below video, apart from giving an excellent performance, entertaining a massive crowd, Midnight Oil grapped the occation to dress up in clothes with the word ‘Sorry’ printed on them. This was a reference to John Howard‘s (back then Prime Minister of Australia) refusing to apologize on behalf of the Government of Australia, who was also present for the occasion.

This performance was part of the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which for sure millions of people from allover the world were watching; ‘How can we sleep while are beds are burning?’