Friday, July 1, 2011

Making Money out of Economic Misery

Aloe Blacc has done well out of his latest single. It got to Number 2 in the UK charts and has gone Platinum in, er, Switzerland.

It's a catchy number that taps into the current economic-woes zeitgeist, singing from the perspective of some poor guy that's been laid off and winds up drinking away his problems.

Is it a political statement, standing up for the everyday man suffering because of poor financial decisions made by bankers and governments?

No, not really.

Aloe might like to think it is, but I very much doubt he's investing his royalties in feeding programmes for the unemployed, drug rehabilitation units or job creation schemes. He and his writers have just done what all songsmith and lyricists do - take inspiration from current events and themes in order to create their music.

In some ways, you can't blame them - I just think it's ironic that a song about poverty has probably given Aloe Blacc, his writers and his records company a nice, healthy bank balance.

No, Aloe. You don't "need a Dollar". You're doing just fine.

The rest of us, however ... we're screwed...

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