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30 Apr 2014

Songs for Scotland – soundtrack to the #indyref

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Should I stay or should I go? As Scots ponder that very question, Channel 4 News compiles the soundtrack to the September referendum, and hears from the creatives about the debate.

Falling in and out of love has inspired many a musical masterpiece.

And as the break-up of Britain looms large on the political horizon, Channel 4 News has compiled rival playlists to set the right mood for voters.

Songs for the pro-union Better Together campaign are those of a spurned lover, pleading for the partnership to continue. Chancellor George Osborne’s speech on the currency may well have been summed up decades earlier by Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together.

On the other side, the triumphant break-up songs belong to the pro-independence campaign. Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way, from the notoriously bitter break-up album Rumours, is a perfect anthem for an independent Scotland singing to England: “Shacking up is all you want to do.”

Check out our playlists below, as suggested by Channel 4 News readers – and send your songs to @channel4news

Artistic endeavours

But for Scottish musicians, writers and artists, the referendum has thrown up a tricky and age-old dilemma: to pledge political allegiance one way or the other, or to try and keep their creative pursuits separate from their political point of view.

Many have embraced the political grandstanding, using their art as a vehicle to communicate the message. Non-Scots like David Bowie and Eddie Izzard have weighed into the debate, pleading with Scotland to stay with the union.

Politics can seduce artists in different ways and in different times, sometimes more dangerously than others Composer James MacMillan

For creatives living in Scotland, many have come together under the pro-independence National Collective. It was launched back in 2011 by a small group of Edinburgh-based artists and writers and achieved its first burst of fame in April 2013 when the Vitol Group, the world’s biggest oil trading company, threatened legal action against them. Vitol was soon forced to back down.

Many of its members believe that breaking apart from Britain is the ultimate creative act. Photographer Alex Aitchison, a National Collective member said: “Art has an immeasurable power to influence people, to inspire ideas and to motivate change.”

Referendum art is also flourishing: the rap collective Stanley Odd released an EP just week that was described by the Guardian as “an anthem of the independence movement”. Poet and actor Alan Bissett has also penned a play aimed at getting Scots to vote yes. The Pure, the Dead and the Brilliant will be performed during the Edinburgh fridge festival in August, weeks before voters head to the polls.

Last year, he told Channel 4 News: “There’s this idea in England that the independence movement is anti-English. It’s actually pro-Scottish. What we’re trying to do, and what the artists are in favour of, is establishing a democratic, socialist Scotland, and show that that can be done.”

‘Politics can seduce artists’

However not all of Scotland’s cultural figures are relishing the polarisation of the referendum. Violinist Nicola Benedetti for example, has been keeping her views to herself, while actor James McAvoy said last year: “I won’t be getting involved at all. It’s just counter-productive to my job, it’s not what I do, and I don’t think it’s helpful to have me involved in it.”

And on Wednesday, Composer James MacMillan wrote a damning article in the Scotsman about artists who “reflect a political creed”, referring to the 20th century Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid, who “admired Mussolini”.

His main concern is that political ambitions dilute artistic integrity, and turn art into “propaganda”.

Calling National Collective “young, shouty and completely unquestioning about their cause”, he added: “Some worry that their black-and-white perspective on things may damage the quality of their work”.

“Politics can seduce artists in different ways and in different times, sometimes more dangerously than others. Some find the glamour and drama of political power and intrigue irresistible.” He added: “Sometimes I am glad that music is the most abstract of the arts.”

As the debate heats up in the corridors of Holyrood, and Westminster, make no mistake: the battle for what happens to Scotland’s creative spirit is just beginning.

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