r/Jewish • u/inkonclusive • 3d ago
Culture ✡️ New music reccomendations to replace Macklemore backers
Hey family :)
I have been a major fan of Zac Bryan and he just announced a new album and tour and I have found my heart isn't in it anymore. I don't especially feel like spending money to support this guy after he came out to support racist disgusting antizionist Macklemore. His music doesn't give me the same feeling. I am just so dissapointed.
Looking for some reccomendations for beautiful music (rock, country, pop - anything) that I can fall in love with and support, and who we know are a safe place?
Also I'm interested on how you are coping with these betrayals by the musicians and poets whose art has carried you through eras of your life? I want to be able to seraprate the art frrom the artist, but also its hard to do that naturally when I have lost respect for these ignorant, racist idiots. All I can think of, is to go deeper in support of Jewish and allied artists, and thus this post :)
Toda x
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u/mandatedcourage 3d ago edited 2d ago
Perfect timing, I'm really disappointed after realizing that Tom Cardy lumped in Zionists with Neo-Nazis in one of his songs.
Regina Spektor, P!nk, and Hughie Stone Fish are some good musicians that are on our side. I'd personally love more pop recommendations.
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u/ChasingSage0420 2d ago
Don’t forget the band Disturbed. The lead singer , David Draiman is Jewish and has been outspoken and unwavering in his support for Israel and the Jewish community . He was studying to be a Cantor, but quit to be a rock star. He’s a true Mensch!
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u/EmuGroundbreaking892 1d ago
Came here to say Hughie Stone Fish. He just released a really cool kids album too (even though his other stuff is not specifically made for kids)
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u/mandatedcourage 4h ago
Yes, I'm glad you brought that up! Sounds of Unity is great and everyone should check it out. I really admire that he is so focused on dedicating time and resources to youth in Syracuse.
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u/EmuGroundbreaking892 2h ago
Ahhhh so cool you know it too. I’m low key a fan of all his stuff but I still feel like he’s not that well known so it’s always cool to see someone else who likes his work
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u/inkonclusive 2d ago
Thank you! This and all the responses have been great - I'm stacking up my spotify and its bringing jewish joy <3
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u/canijustbelancelot 3d ago
I’m not sure Boy George is the ally we want.
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u/danhakimi 2d ago
I mean, I'll take him, until we need to start championing him as a good musician.
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2d ago
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u/mandatedcourage 2d ago
Unfortunately I suspect that the average Tom Cardy fan doesn't know how to define Zionism, much less distinguish between different types of Zionists. And at a time when Nazis and Zionists are being equated very frequently, it's a suspicious lyric at best. Additionally, the song itself is about becoming more like Louis Theroux, who has espoused dangerous rhetoric about Jews in addition to his documentaries about Israel.
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u/LateralEntry 3d ago
Metallica just said on stage “we don’t do political bullshit at our shows” so that’s cool
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u/Background_Novel_619 2d ago
I saw Rob Halford of Judas Priest talking about someone he met who was at the Nova festival and survived, he was very kind. He always says their music isn’t very political.
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u/BurnAfterShredding 2d ago
Love them. I suspect maiden are also on side though they probably wouldn’t be vocal about it.
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u/SoapyRiley Convert - Conservative 2d ago
Man, rock n roll has always been countercultural, so old school rockers know whatever they say is going to be controversial - kinda like us Jews 😂
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u/HopeArtsy Humanistic 2d ago
Though they're officially apolitical, Sabaton has a song about the Six Day War and met with the IDF when they toured in Israel. They were called out on the "Reverse Canary Mission" which in my eyes is a positive sign. 😅
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u/Proud3GenAthst Non Jewish Ally💙 2d ago
And yet there are people who push the case that members of Sabaton are Nazis, lol. But then, they’re perhaps the same people who call Israel (aka the Jewish state) Nazi. Those people’s brains are just cooked.
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u/HilariousHilacopter Secular Israeli 2d ago
Radiohead have always been chill with us. The drummer's wife is Israeli iirc, he met her while they were touring here.
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u/OneBadJoke 2d ago
The late great Leonard Cohen! He went to Israel during the Yom Kippur war and traveled to sing to the IDF. Great Zionist, Jew, and a fascinating man. He was a Jewish Buddhist monk too!
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u/inkonclusive 2d ago
OMG Leonard Cohen's work has been such a balm through the last three years! I want to read the book about his time in Israel during the YK war.
I went to a show recently by a local Australian artist Anita Lester called "Who By Water" which interwove music of Leonard Cohen and themes of October 7 and the Bondi terrorist event. She did an amazing cover of You Want It Darker - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UEau-iFtDw .1
u/gwendolenharleth 3h ago
If you are referring to Matti Friedman’s book I cannot recommend it enough. He also has an audiobook version that he narrates which was easier for me to get around to because I commute. His book about Hannah Senesh is also phenomenal.
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u/icculus1980 3d ago
Billy Strings. I’m positive he is probably progressive but he has never let any of his views come out. In fact I’d say I have no idea where he is on the political spectrum and I’m perfectly fine with that. His shows are amazing and he has shown himself to be an authentically kind and humble.person.
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u/RagtimeWillie 3d ago
He’s also recording an album with David Grisman and played Shalom Aleichem a few months ago
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u/clawclawbite 2d ago
Geddy Lee of Rush dedicated a performance of Red Sector A to his mother on Oct 7th (as part of their current tour), a song inspired by her experiences as a Holocaust survivor https://www.wfae.org/race-equity/2025-01-21/rushs-geddy-lee-shares-parents-story-of-surviving-holocaust.
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u/vayyiqra Converting 2d ago
That's amazing to hear. I've been a Rush fan for a long time and seen them before, and knew that song was about the Holocaust. My dad also met Geddy once too, he seems like a good guy and very down-to-earth.
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u/Little-Summer5317 2d ago
-Sara Bareilles! Her music is gorgeous and she both openly supported Israelis after Oct 7 and is a friend of P!nk.
-Ben Rector has some lovely music and has never said anything about Israel/Palestine. Some of his newer stuff is more along the lines of Christian rock, but that only started in 2022. Everything before that is secular.
-HAIM is a band of three Jewish sisters and they rock!
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u/inkonclusive 1d ago
Great suggestions! Thanks :) love Sara Bareilles so much!!
Also the new Zac Bryan album came out and it’s bad so I guess that problem sorted itself out too 😂
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u/Easy_Chef6437 2d ago
I recently discovered Temper City, an Israeli Indie Rock Band and their breakout single Self Aware. Looking forward to more of their songs.
For everything else I look to the past: The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner, everything from the 60's-90's. The past can't hurt me and honestly this music is better and more soulful then the trash being put out today
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u/GDub310 Ashkenazi 3d ago
Elan Atias is a Jewish Moroccan Israeli reggae artist by way of Beverly Hills. He once fronted the Wailers. Yes, the Wailers. He’s had a solo career and also put out an album under the name ZADIK, which is English and Hebrew interpretations of prayers. He also had a track called Rock the Star, which is a bit of a Jewish pride anthem.
He’s collabed with Kenny Chesney, Snoop, Gwen Stefani and Santana, to name a few.
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u/Think_Pineapples Just Jewish 2d ago
Oh, please nobody forget that Jeff Tweedy is Jewish and posted a video of he and his sons singing Mi Shebeirach the week of Oct 7.
Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is a desert island album for me!
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u/Cultural-Parsley-408 2d ago
Hi wife posted the most joyous reception videos a few days ago of their son’s Jewish wedding. I watched it several times.
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u/Think_Pineapples Just Jewish 3d ago
I’ve been obsessed with Joey Weisenberg & Hadar Ensemble.
Nigunim set to Americana and post rock instrumentation. It’s incredible stuff.
(Also I am a songwriter with a 6 piece country band about to record my third, and Jewishest album yet. Will share it here when it’s ready!)
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u/Downtown-Inflation13 askenazi on both sides:Russian Empire,Austro-Hungarian,polish 3d ago edited 2d ago
Joe Buchanan
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u/SoapyRiley Convert - Conservative 2d ago
Joe Buchanan’s music is fills my soul as a southern US convert who grew up on the likes of Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, the Judds, & Chely Wright.
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u/Agent_Skye_Barnes Convert - Reform 3d ago
I second the recommendations for Nefesh Mountain and Joe Buchanan.
I also recommend Dan Nichols and Rick Recht. I've met Dan, he's a lovely person and his music is wonderful.
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u/peosteve 3d ago
I thought this was a very interesting read - The Blogs: Dave Matthews Was Our Soundtrack. Now His Crowd Chants Slurs. | Jaclyn S. Clark | The Times of Israel
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/dave-matthews-was-our-soundtrack-now-his-crowd-chants-slurs/
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u/ZombieFeedback 12h ago
As far as I'm aware, none of Vulfpeck's many collaborators have spoken anything about the conflict either way, and founder and bandleader Jack Stratton grew up playing in his dad's klezmer band.
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u/minecraftenjoy3r 3d ago
My goat wicca phase springs eternal has never said anything for or against jews
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u/PercentagePlus202 1d ago
Joe Buchanan for country!! He’s a Jewish artist. And bagels & biscuits for more folky vibes
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u/Professional-Bus3 3d ago
Zusha!!! Yoni Z, Mordechia Shapiro, TAI, Nosson Black, Chanan Ben Ari!!! (Spelled Hanan on apps)
Just listen to the Jews ❤️❤️❤️
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2d ago
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u/Tupsbub 3d ago edited 2d ago
Noah Kahan!
EDIT: Fuck man I guess not
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u/seasalt-and-sequoias Reform 3d ago
Noah Kahan ain't it. He supports Mackleless.
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u/peosteve 3d ago
I prefer Macklemoron, but Mackleless is pretty damn good too.
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u/Few-Horror1984 3d ago
I’m going to start using Macklemoron, if you don’t mind. That’s brilliant.
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u/Few-Horror1984 3d ago
Noah Kahan supports JVP :(
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u/AprilStorms חי 2d ago
Damn. Do you know of anyone else who has a similar folksy sound, but without the anti-Jewishness?
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u/vayyiqra Converting 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'm not big into folk music but there's always Bob Dylan, there isn't a more iconic folk musician than him. He does have a weird relationship to religion and has gone back and forth between Judaism and evangelical Christianity through his life, which was/is controversial. But he definitely is Jewish, raised his kids that way, worked with Chabad, still goes to synagogues sometimes etc. You probably also know his voice is not the best ever, but you get used to it.
Neil Young also has a lot of folk-sounding music and though he has strongly left-wing politics, he isn't one of those "utterly obsessed with Israel to the point it gets weird and antisemitic" types. (For context I am left-wing too lol, I just mean that does happen.) These are older artists, and maybe not what you had in mind, but it's what I know.
Someone else I think said Wilco and their singer Jeff Tweedy is Jewish (converted as an adult too) and I think they have folk-y or at least acoustic stuff? I don't listen to them a lot but their music is highly acclaimed.
Or maybe Sufjan Stevens, he has a lot of acoustic/folk music. He's a devout Christian but a moderate/easygoing one and has never said anything antisemitic or even talked much about Jews/Judaism to my knowledge. I think he's reliable.
One last aside since I'm talking about old folk music: screw Buffy Sainte-Marie. She lied about being an indigenous Canadian for her whole career and though I couldn't find evidence of it online, she is an antisemite too. I know I read an article once where she went on a rant about how Jews control the music industry, and the magazine that printed it apologized for it afterward.
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u/JinxyMcDeath48 Conservative 3d ago
Sort of off topic but check out the Macklemore sub because it’s literally only posts about the I/P conflict, which proves to me that literally no one gives a shit about his music.