Sinead O'Connor was perhaps, the most prolific, uncompromising artist since the likes of Gil Scott Heron and John Lennon. Like many who have used their celebrity status to address social issues, her message was extinguished when those she confronted sat in the highest positions of power.
Her first act of defiance came with her decision to boycott the 1991 Grammy Awards- not really defiance but an act of dissatisfaction regarding the commercialism of the music industry. Today's lack of meaningful lyrical content displayed in popular music is a stark contrast from the days when even hip hop artists like Public Enemy and KRS-ONE were given a forum on MTV- conscious rhymes today are all but silenced and replaced by redundant messages of sex, drugs, and murder- quickly adopted by many of the youth who are captivated by what they see and hear.
A few months later, she was harangued for refusing to conform to Garden State Art Center's tradition of playing the national anthem as an opening to her show. Radio stations around the country banned her music from the airwaves. She argued that it did not befit her cause to be propagating war, i.e., the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air. While the anthem was written for the War of 1812- a justified defence against a British invasion, the rockets' red glare and bombs bursting in air conjure up an altogether different image in light of 20th century and beyond.
The final nail was pounded into her coffin with her 1992 Saturday Night Live performance of Bob Marley's War, wherein she supplemented a war against child sexual abuse over Marley's original war against racism. Unbeknownst to most, her shredding of a photo of Pope John Paul II was in response to the Vatican's complicit role in the sexual abuse of children who had been moving known pedophiles from diocese to diocese rather than excommunicating them and seeing them court-martialed. O'Conner, herself a victim of child sexual abuse, wanted to make known to the world the Vatican's role in the cover up. While the media focused on the outward expression of her actions (free speech) and good Christians were burning her albums in the streets and threatening her life, few, if any, gave any attention to her motives (and people think only Muslims act irresponsibly when defamed!). Those who attacked her ought to look back on their actions and ask themselves if their response contributed to the continuance of molestation of children by men of the cloth which were clearly unveiled a decade after her ultimate sin of defiance.
The video featured herin has been banned from re-broadcast by NBC and is available on Daily Motion. She gives another stunning performance at Bob Dylan's 30th Anniversary Concert- unfortunately, edited from the official release but available on YouTube.
