Did Morrissey create the worst protest song ever written?

However, as a solo artist, Morrissey made more frequent references to his political views, touching on topics such as national and local identity, as well as disillusionment with society, but with greater emphasis than with The Smiths. His biting wit remained, of course, but many of his songs took on a darker tone, seeming directly confrontational and, at times, more melancholy.

While many of Morrissey’s solo songs continued to enjoy the acclaim of fans who first appreciated his work with the Smiths, some of his later songs veered into more off-limits territory. This change made even his more socially critical songs seem harder to relate to. With “America Is Not the World,” for example, it’s clear what Morrissey was trying to achieve, but the combination of explicit lyrics with complex arrangements makes it difficult to engage with, let alone enjoy the song on a simpler, more basic level.

Like many of Morrissey’s songs, “America Isn’t the World” expresses his disillusionment with culture, especially America and its unrelenting global dominance. He criticizes the narrow worldview imposed on America’s monopoly and how its values ​​and messages are often perceived as having global significance, even when other, more pressing issues are happening elsewhere in the world.

In this respect, the overall message of the song is easy to understand – it breaks the American tendency to turn away from people of different backgrounds, especially in positions of power, and highlights the fact that, as a rule, America favors traditional elections when bringing together those in political power. As a result, in his opinion, these roles will never be filled by anyone who is “black, female or gay.”

While it’s easy to praise Morrissey’s boldness and directness here and agree with his views on America needing to keep up with the times, overall the song feels like a failure as far as strong anti-American protest songs go. First, the lyrics and arrangements are clunky, and the words seem too half-baked to be taken with the seriousness that Morrissey intended them to convey.

In the case of culturally critical or generally protest songs, directness is often powerful, but in the case of “America is not the World” any attempt to say so because it is perceived as musically incompetent and meaningless. “America, your head is too big,” Morrissey sings – this is the opening line – “Your belly is too big,” she continues, before assuring that she still “loves” him, but until he becomes more acceptable, ” You’re not supposed to tell me anything.

After a dull, predictably simplistic attempt at an interesting opening verse, the song becomes increasingly bland as the seconds pass as it becomes clear that even someone as caustic as Morrissey couldn’t sing the words “you fat pig” and make them sound as if it carried any essence of satire or deeper meaning.

For some reason, ending the song by endlessly repeating the phrase “I love you” also makes the entire message redundant. Anyone’s relationship with America can be ambiguous, especially when art is involved, but something about Morrissey’s soft approach after listing a series of simplistic reasons to hate the country makes the whole song feel like something that would come out of a school music project.

So in a broader sense, the whole song feels a little too unfocused to be anything like a critique, making it feel a bit superficial, almost as if Morrissey needed a filler track for You are a quarry. Unlike many of his songs for the Smiths and his solo work, “America is Not the World” feels completely emotionally distant, making it feel more like a straightforward political statement than a nuanced, Morrissey-style commentary.

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