Remember when music was just music?

My question is, when did rock stars and their fans begin to think that rock stars actually have greater insights into politics than anyone else? Out of Australia, we get this

REM have paid tribute to the late rock star Michael Hutchence and continued a verbal assault on US President George W Bush on their first Australian tour in a decade.

Gosh, some of REM's music is good, but they really haven't given me any reason to believe that they're either foreign or domestic policy specialists.