London’s Still Calling: Modern Artists Carrying On The Mission of The Clash
Forty years after
The Clash released
London Calling and we’re still lamenting the same fears and anxieties. The onus was never on just The Clash to solve the world’s problems, but progress moves slower than the fiery riffs of “Clampdown.”
But
London Calling was not inconsequential. Beyond just a musical milestone, the record and the band themselves were a match lighting the fuse. They blew up preconceptions of punk, how to talk about politics in music, and how to use your guitars to start the revolution. Their message opposed racism and fear and emphasized unity and inclusion. Evergreen themes that are still being carried on by artists today, sometimes with guitars but also with MPCs, synthesizers, rhymes, and shouts.