PARASOCIAL POLITICS: WHY IT'S NEVER BEEN HARDER FOR ARTISTS TO PROTEST

We want musicians to reflect the times, but who decides what that should look like?

- Larisha Paul

In 1983, Nina Simone reached a dead end. “Nothing is happening,” the iconic soul singer said at the time. “There’s no Civil Rights Movement. Everybody’s gone.” When the journalist interviewing her asked where that leaves us, Simone responded: “It leaves you in a particularly sad state, my darling. I’m sorry about that.” In January, just two weeks before Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term as president, Simone’s estate shared a clip from this interview on Instagram. In 2025, Simone’s assessment of our despondent state of being is just as resonant, and the role of the artist is no less urgent. They're still called on to reflect the times, and maybe even rescue us from them, too. Only in our current cultural moment, the stakes and outcomes are distorted in ways an artist of Simone’s era could never recognize.

Over the past decade, popular artists have been caught in a paradox. Many bear the responsibility of standing for something, while also knowing their message — and the format in which they choose to communicate it—will be subjected to the fickle criteria of an ever-demanding audience. While fans are calling on artists to use their voices, and debating what that’s allowed to look like, politicians and conservative news pundits are engaging with pop stars in the same way they would a political opponent.