John,

I was kind of taken aback myself when I first ran into it. I was a classical music buff and thought that pop music was, well, just entertainment. But the folk singing phenomenon, a bit before my time, had serious moral aspirations, there were people looking for enlightenment thru the acid experience, or trying to achieve some sort of personal liberation and growth via sex. The music spoke to this experience, and the musicians were the guides, often the explorers. Look at the role Vaclav Havel assigns to rock and roll in freeing up Eastern Europe. This isn’t new, Wagner’s music certainly played a part in the Third Reich, there are probably many examples more knowledgeable people could point out (i.e., the Civil War?) Not making any moral judgements here, just pointing out that music/songs have political and social implications for many folks.