YACHT Protests Surveillance Society With ‘Party at the NSA’

YACHT, a "Band, Belief System, and Business," combined a number of interesting elements in their release of "Party at the NSA," a song protesting the recently exposed surveillance activities of the National Security Agency. The project blends their music, political perspective, commitment to fun and reliance on the internet in a collaborative manner that shows that one's art and politics can be effectively integrated.

YACHT has a pretty interesting artistic backstory though being a band is their most prominent activity. With "Party at the NSA" they combine a number of their interests in a musical protest.

"Party at the NSA" was released last month as a protest song but also as a fundraiser for the Electronic Frontier Foundation who are actively resisting such surveillance programs.

In addition, they released a limited-edition t-shirt which also benefits the EFF.

This project combines a number of interesting elements that demonstrate how an artistic approach can be taken to political protest:

YACHT's Claire Evens said they created "Party at the NSA" in order "to make protest fun." The song combines their dance aesthetic with a political statement because "no one wants to dance when there’s cops in the club."

They had "space for a solo" and invited podcaster Marc Maron to play a guitar solo. This choice combined something they enjoyed from the web with a personality whose involvement could give it extra attention.

"Party at the NSA" combines YACHT's love of the open web and concerns about the NSA at multiple levels of this project from the lyrics of the song to statements to the press to financial support for the EFF.

When you roll over the main image on the "Party at the NSA" site you'll see a font created by Sang Mun designed to block machine reading.

Just as the NSA cannot be influenced by individual actions alone, the creations of "Party at the NSA" had a collaborative element as the participants all donated their time and services.

"Party at the NSA" is a nice example of combining one's approach to art and perspective on society in an organic manner.

Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at Flux Research and Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.