Let’s face it! For the most part, and for the longest time, popular music has been used as a tool to keep the bad thoughts at bay. Rock n’ roll, essentially, is dance music. And, it is, more often than not, the greatest, handiest tool there for widespread escapism. What is a song, for most people, if not an excuse to think about the good times, or avoid thinking about the bad ones?
And, while enjoying yourself as a method to keep you moving forward is valid in itself, keeping pop music around merely as a distraction is simply a waste of its potential. More than writing an angry article, spray painting a slogan on walls, or even throwing shoes at some president, songs can inspire feelings in people that, in turn, can create meaningful change.
WRB’s “The Rent’s Too High” is a valid protest song about poverty and how those who fall by the wayside are left to fend for themselves as if they’ve been cursed by some horrible physical affliction that nobody can dare stare at.
Musically, the song takes inspiration from the original American folk singers, troubadours with a conscience, travellers with the hope that everywhere they visited would be worth settling down in.
And, curiously, it’s a topic touched by very few world-famous songwriters. The ones that, occasionally, do show interest, typically, can’t help but add a bit of dismissiveness along with their empathy, a touch of “pull yourself by the bootstraps” speech given to people who are facing an abyss of problems.
On WRB’s song, however, the lyrics are the highlight here. They tell the story of an average couple that, through misfortune, end up losing their home, and never manage to earn back what they lost. Eventually, life’s hardships push them to the brink of insanity and force them to live out in a tent.
The lyrics also give you a clear reason why that’s happened. The cost of living is too high. And it’s getting more expensive every year in, technically, the richest countries in the world, where wealth is less evenly distributed than ever before in modern history.
The lyrics are very powerful because they don’t tell the story of an exceptional case, and they don’t relate a tale of people living in a developing nation. It leaves you asking yourself why the same story, with a few bad turns of fate thrown along the way, couldn’t end up being yours. And, if you’ve asked yourself that question, you’re closer to being one of the people who, at the very least, has some compassion.
Not many people even stop to look, let alone write a song about such things. WRB’s got soul. And, now more than at anytime, that may prove the essential ingredient in the battles ahead.
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