The politics behind Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Few bands are as inherently political as Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Although ostensibly one of the foremost post-rock groups, their significance stretches far beyond the confines of the expansive cult genre. Operating with a distinctly punk ethos that refuses to adhere to industry traditions, the collective was once disparagingly designated as prophets of doom.
From having no frontman and refusing press shots to musically challenging listeners in 20-minute cuts that shift between shocking and transcendental, Godspeed You! has earned a loyal following. One of the most important keys to their success is their openly political angle, which has seen them draw upon field recordings and anarchist and often dystopian spoken word monologues in lieu of vocals that put Roy Batty’s “Tears in the Rain” soliloquy to shame.
The political edge of Godspeed You! manifests outside of the music, too. Notably, their sleeves have been used as inescapable conduits for their anti-capitalist sentiments, forcing listeners to engage with this tangible aspect of their work. For instance, the cover of Yanqui UXO featured a diagram connecting to arms manufacturers. UXO is a subtle acronym for unexploded ordnance.
Furthermore, Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! featured two explicit political messages. The first was “Fuck le plan nord”, which referred to the controversial five-year economic strategy for Quebec. It was backed by industrialists and big business but widely decried by environmentalists and the indigenous Innus people. The second, which displays their anarchist leanings, is “Fuck la loi 78”, a bill banning education employees from striking.
When promoting Allelujah! during an interview with The Guardian in 2012, Godspeed You! delved into the politics underpinning their work. They said: “All music is political, right? You either make music that pleases the king and his court, or you make music for the serfs outside the walls. It’s what music (and culture) is for, right? To distract or confront, or both at the same time?”
Looking back at what gave way to such a specific political slant, the group scrutinised the post-Cold War world of the 1990s and the fact that the dominant narrative was that everything was going to be dandy when, in fact, it was a lie. In doing so, the group appeared to tacitly critique Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History. The book argued that the global spread of liberal democracies, free-market Western capitalism, and its lifestyle signalled the end of humanity’s sociocultural evolution and political struggle.
However, with the terrible memory of 9/11 and economic collapse fresh in the mind, Godspeed You! delineated how the post-Cold War dream was a total fallacy. They explained: “We started making this noise together when we were young and broke. Whatever politics we had were born out of living through a time when the dominant narrative was that everything was fine. Clearly, this was a lie. But Clinton was president, the Berlin Wall was down, our economies were booming, and the internet was a shiny new thing that was going to liberate us all. The gatekeepers gazed upon their kingdom and declared that it was good. Meanwhile, so many of us were locked out, staring at all that gold from the outside in.”
The collective then maintained that the only change since that supposedly exciting time was that “it’s easier to find the common cause than it was 10 or 20 years ago. Every day, it gets a little harder to pretend that everything’s OK. The rich keep getting more, and we keep getting less. Folks flee to our shores, running from the messes we’ve made in their countries, and we treat them like thieves. Turn on the radio, and it’s a fucking horror show: the things our governments do in our name just to fatten themselves on our steady decline.”
Listen to Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! below.
