System of a Down singer Serj Tankian reacted at G1 to fans telling him to shut up and sing, and not talk politics.
He said, “I was an activist before becoming an artist. And I do different types of music — I do classical music, which has no vocals, I do jazz music, I do scores for films. I work with a lot of different types of music, as well as rock.
And when I write something, the song could be a love song, it could be a political song — there’s many different types of music I deal with. So when I write something that I intentionally feel and feel stongly about, no one can tell me what to say and what not to say, because that’s in the song, and those thoughts come from that song that I’m telling you.
To tell an artist that he should only play music and not talk about politics is like telling a journalist that they should only do interviews and not fix the — I don’t know — toilet, or whatever. It makes no sense. We’re dynamic, sentient beings on this planet. We can be good at more than one thing. And if they’re not, that’s their problem.”
