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10 artists who used their platform to spread a message

With rapid advancements in the modern technological world, any lines between politics, the entertainment industry and the general public have long since blurred into obliteration.

Whether it’s immigration, gun reform, gender equality, sexual harassment, animal cruelty, the environment, LGBTQ rights or any number of other causes—the majority of the civilized world are making themselves heard, and some of the biggest voices undoubtedly come from those in the music business.

Here are some of our favorite moments in history when musicians have used their influential platforms to communicate important messages.

Rage Against The Machine – Wall Street (2000)

Rage Against The Machine—their name is a political message in itself. Just weeks after the turn of the 21st century, the Californian foursome shot the music video for their single “Sleep Now In The Fire” in front of the New York Stock Exchange on the world famous Wall Street. Directed by political activist Michael Moore, the video is littered with facts about social injustice and paints a grotesque picture of wealth and greed across the globe. At one point, the focus locks in on a stockbroker holding a sign that reads “Donald J. Trump for President 2000.” They were only 17 years off, but it goes to show that life really can imitate art in the most radical way.

Halsey – New York City Women’s March (2018)

This was inarguably one of the most powerful moments of the year so far. Singer and songwriter Halsey bravely took to the podium at the Women’s March in NYC and poured her heart out in a beautifully articulated and emotive poem about sexual abuse and assault, health care, pregnancy, forced underage marriages and support for young people. Revealing  her own private and personal experiences was clearly painful for the pop star, but she did so with an abundance of poise and grace.

Eminem – BET Awards Cypher (2017)

Last fall, rap god Eminem dedicated his whole performance on the 2017 BET Awards to the 45th President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump. Recorded at a parking lot in his beloved home of Detroit, Slim Shady spits pure venom at POTUS and bravely tells any fan of his who is a Trump supporter to pick between the two titans. Mathers calls out almost everything the Republican has been embroiled in—the travel ban, gun control, the probability of a nuclear holocaust, a potential border wall with Mexico, the KKK, Twitter wars and the NFL.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono – Bed-In (1969)

One of the earliest occasions of music meeting politics was when Beatle turned solo artist John Lennon and his new wife, Yoko Ono, spent their honeymoon peacefully protesting against the Vietnam War—which was part of their wider campaign for world peace. The musical couple holed up in the presidential suite of the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam for an entire week and invited the world’s press to interview them from their bed, as the couple were dressed in pajamas beneath signs that read “Bed Peace” and “Hair Peace” for 12 hours a day.

David Bowie – Scottish Referendum (2014)

On Sept. 18,  2014, Scotland held a referendum to become an independent country from the United Kingdom. It’s a contentious issue that has split opinion for a very long time. During the Brit Awards more than six months before the vote, David Bowie very publicly declared his support for the continued union of the two countries by sending fashion icon Kate Moss to collect his award for Best Male Solo Artist and deliver the political message. Dressed as his legendary stage character, Ziggy Stardust, in an original outfit from 1972, the supermodel ended her acceptance speech on behalf of the legend simply with “Scotland, stay with us.”

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Jared Leto – Conservation (2015)

Thirty Seconds To Mars frontman and actor Jared Leto, a keen conservationist, became a Global Ambassador for the charity WWF a little over three years ago. The Academy Award winner and strict vegan has lent himself to this environmentalist charity in a bid to raise awareness about illegal wildlife trade and climate change to protect endangered species.

Chester Bennington – Ink, Not Mink (2009)

Almost a decade ago, Chester Bennington teamed up with PETA to promote the concept of getting a tattoo instead of purchasing fur products, which have been barbarically stripped from animals at the cost of their lives. The Linkin Park frontman also encouraged the “adopt don’t shop” ethos of adopting pets instead of buying them from breeders and crucially providing them with the proper medical care they need.

Harry Styles – SeaWorld (2015)

Teenage dream and universal heartthrob Harry Styles might be one of the nicest guys in popular music, but in the summer of 2015 he took an uncharacteristically brutal swipe at SeaWorld by starting a boycott. While onstage during a concert with his then boy band One Direction in San Diego, the original home of the marine park, Styles addressed the crowd with, “Does anybody like dolphins? Don’t go to SeaWorld!” It wasn’t long before the company reached out to Styles and personally invited him to visit the animals for himself, but the damage had already been done, with SeaWorld reporting an 84 percent drop in earnings the following month. Now, that’s power.

Coldplay Super Bowl Halftime Show – Beyoncé’s Black Panthers (2016)

The NFL Super Bowl is consistently the most-watched televised event in the world each year, so whoever is performing the halftime show knows that they will have billions of eyeballs set upon them. So when Coldplay invited Beyoncé to do a guest set during their performance, she seized the opportunity to draw attention to the Black Lives Matter movement, which fights to tackle the issue of police shooting and killing unarmed black men and women. Queen Bey dressed her backing dancers in black berets and black leather in tribute to Malcolm X and his Black Panthers, who formed exactly 50 years ago. A small cluster of the women were photographed holding a sign that read “Justice 4 Mario Woods,” a then-recent victim of law enforcement brutality.

Metallica – San Quentin State Prison (2003)

Metallica shot the music video for the title track of their 2003 record St. Anger—a mythical patron saint—at the San Quentin State Prison in California, a home of death row. It was the first show of the tour and also the first live debut for bassist Rob Trujillo. (Talk about throwing him in the deep end.) The band and crew put their own safety at risk because they so badly wanted to demonstrate that rehabilitation is achievable, encourage channeling anger in a healthier way and show that prisoners are humans, too.