artisespousing political causes

[Alicja]

Hello,

I'd like you to read an article about musicians endorsing politicians/ espousing political causes, or any other causes.

Your post should contain: a brief summary of the article (2 -3 sentences). Was it interesting? why? why not? 3-5 vocabulary items from the article defined using a monolingual dictionary, e.g.

www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/inept

See you in class!

[Guillaume]

I have choosen the article "Why are British musicians so afraid of politics?" in the Guardian.
This article asks why they so few british musicians who talk about politic in their songs. Then it explains why music should be important in politic. At the end it makes the comparaison with the American artists, who make often politic in their songs.
This article was interesting because it explains why music is important and it shows us the cultural differences between the artists of these 2 countries, but it doesn't really answer why british musicians are afraid by politic.

Vocabulary:
soapbox: a small temporary platform that somebody stands on to make a speech in a public place, usually outdoors
sway: to persuade somebody to believe something or do something
tumbleweed: a plant that grows like a bush in the desert areas of N America and Australia. In the autumn/fall, it breaks off just above the ground and is blown around like a ball by the wind
backlash: a strong negative reaction by a large number of people, for example to something that has recently changed in society
junket: a trip that is made for pleasure by somebody who works for the government, etc. and that is paid for using public money

[Matthieu]

I chose an article entitled "Singing to the electorate". I found it on harvardpolitics.com. It deals with the increasing number of musicians endorsing politicians in the USA especially during presidential campaigns. It explains that these endorsments don't impact the vote of the people. Nevertheless, they're really efficient to make politics attractive and to increase the turnout of an election, especially for the young voters. Furthermore, it's interesting for the musicians who are politically involved to defend their opinion. For the others, it's a positive commercial promotion.

I found it interesting because the phenomenon of musicians endorsing politicians is also developing in France. This article helps to understand the impact of this phenomenon on elections.

Vocabulary :

-turnout : the number of people who vote in a particular election
-venture : a business project or activity, especially one that involves taking risks
- poll : the process of voting at an election; the process of counting the votes
- bluntly : in a very direct way, without trying to be polite or kind