...against or for a cause which links in with protest music.The most commonly known types of political music are anti-establishment, protest, anti-war for example Bob Dylan's song "Master's of War" where he expresses his opinion about the cold war, this is a perfect example of how political music spreads its message with lyrics that speak frankly about society and through imagery for example "Come you masters of war / that build all the guns ... I just want you to know / I can see through your masks.". Another common type of political music often forgotten about are national anthems which are pro-estblishment. The messages in political music however don't transcend time as they speak usually speak about current events in a specific place that are happenning at the time of creation, so you must have an understanding of the historical context so the music can't necessarily connect with all people. In America pre-Vietnam war the most common political or social music discussed unions and the labour movement, Pete Seeger a famous political songwriter states in his song "Solidarity forever" “Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite, / who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might? / Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight? / For the union makes us strong.”. This song gives a social commentary on the treatement of workers and the need for unions, but also demonstrates a tradition of protest...
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...We shall overcome The music behind the Civil Rights Movement We shall overcome The music behind the Civil Rights Movement Jennifer Christopher Christopher.jenniferj@gmail.com HUMN 303 Course Project December 14, 2014 Jennifer Christopher Christopher.jenniferj@gmail.com HUMN 303 Course Project December 14, 2014 There is no other social movement in the entire history of the United States that is more poignant and significant than the civil rights movement – not even the Boston Tea Party. Some may argue that this movement was nearly our downfall as a country since it allowed the world to see all of our imperfections. How can we say that all men are created equally in our Constitution when in the south, African-Americans were treated as second-class citizens? We had no rights and contrary to what was stated in our Constitution, we definitely weren’t freed. As a researcher and student, you cannot research this period of time without perusing the countless articles, news reels, pictures, and the written accounts given by people who actually participated in the marches and sit-ins. My research led me to numerous articles and videos of events that occurred during this time period. My heart ached as I watch people of all color being hosed down and attacked by dogs. I cried at the images of seeing young black men swinging from tree branches as onlookers stood there laughing and pointing at these “Strange Fruits”. I wondered what their crime was and why the crowd felt...
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...was to unite the blacks and the whites by creating a common culture as well addressing the political issues during this period of warfare. This paper addresses Bob Dylan’s song of 1962 bringing out its role on addressing political and social injustices of the 1960’s. In a New York café was first heard was Bob Dylan’s song, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ in 1962. At this time, there was a lot of anxiety in America following the events of the Cold War. A Cuba- Soviet Union alliance was getting cozy making the Pentagon and state department analysts nervous. At this summer period, there were reports that Russia had increased their military aide in Cuba. During the same time, Rob Dylan released a dozen of songs all which were politically influenced aiming at addressing the issues transpiring during this era. Historians and journalists have always treated Dylan as a quintessential protest singer. Historians and journalists have always treated Dylan’s songs as an emblematic of the postwar era. His songs were mostly politically oriented, and the urgency of the civil rights and antiwar movements the imagery reflected the changing mood of the post-war baby boom generation. Dylan’s 1962 hit song “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ which was influenced by the gathering storm clouds in Cuba. The song became a classic protest song filled with forebodings of war and social...
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...Protest music helps people realize they aren’t alone. Many folk musicians wrote about their disapproval to America’s involvement during the Vietnam War. A highly influential folk musician was Bob Dylan. He wrote the song “The Times They Are A-Changin.” In this song, he says “there’s a battle outside, and it’s ragin’, it’ll soon shake your windows, rattle your walls.” One can argue that these lyrics were an obvious reference to the Vietnam War. “Edwin Starr’s Motown anthem “War” convinced many listeners of the complex horrors of the Vietnam War through an instantly-recognizable melody. The song, written in 1969, is perhaps the most direct anti-war protest song ever recorded” (Hopkins, 2012). Hopkins and many other musicians from the era made music to attract audiences against...
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... compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the folk-acoustic tradition. Singer-songwriters often provide the sole accompaniment to an entire composition or song, typically using a guitar or piano; both the compositions and the arrangements are written primarily as solo vehicles, with the material angled toward topical issues—sometimes political, sometimes introspective, sensitive, romantic, and confessional. Contents [hide] * 1 History * 2 North America, United Kingdom, and Ireland * 3 Cantautori, the Italian tradition * 4 Latin traditions * 5 Soviet Union and Russia * 6 Bulgaria * 7 Romania * 8 Netherlands * 9 Norway * 10 Periodicals that include coverage of singer-songwriters * 11 See also * 12 References * 13 Further reading | ------------------------------------------------- [edit]History Théodore Botrel The concept of a singer-songwriter can actually be traced to ancient bardic culture, which has existed in various forms throughout the world.[citation needed] Poems would be performed as chant or song, sometimes accompanied by a harp or other similar instrument. After the invention of printing, songs would be written and performed by ballad sellers. Usually these would be versions of existing tunes and lyrics, which were constantly evolving. This...
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...his paper focuses on Buddy Holly, an American musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known for mid-1950s rock and roll and is considered as one of the well-renowned figures of this genre and era. This paper details a brief overview on his life, death and most popular works. Buddy Holly, as people know him, was born Charles Hardin Holley on September 7, 1936 in Lubbock, Texas. His talent may be considered natural since he came from a musical family. At a young age, Buddy learned to play the guitar and he sang at home with his siblings. His earlier style showed strong influences from country music and rhythm and blues. By the time he reached high school years, Buddy was already performing with friends in Lubbock. Buddy made his local television...
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...Stories in Song It’s safe to say that music has either impacted or at least affected any individual’s life some way, somehow. Sometimes it may be largely positive, like in the case of many athletes who rely on their personal playlist to pump them up before a big game. Sometimes it may be a negative impact, like encouraging criminal-like activity, or something of the sort. However, in my life, it has most definitely had a majorly positive impact. From a very young age, possibly birth even, I have been quite the audiophile, and this in turn has helped me to become a better speaker as well as a better writer. Within many songs, stories are there to be heard, and that’s the beauty of sound. Growing up in a fairly Christian-ideal home, my first half-decade of life was mostly spent hearing strictly country music due to its clean lyrics and “good values” to be taught. However, that didn’t stop my step-dad at the time from playing his AC/DC or Pink Floyd in the car when my mom wasn’t there to object. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with older country music, in fact at just six years old, I sang on stage with one of the early 2000’s better artists, Toby Keith, whom I...
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...Bob Dylan is a singer- songwriter born on may 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. He was one of the most influential singer of the 1960 and has produced more than over 400 songs, some that are very meaning full to his audience. The song that I choose to speak about is his song “with god on our side”. This song was considered one of Bob Dylan’s most influential songs. In the song the main topic is war, he explains that god is on our side during war but he doesn’t seem to understand the reasoning of the war in the first place but he realizes that we must accept it. After learning about this song I looked up multiple sources on questions that bob Dylan is asking in this song such as why is there war? Why should we accept it? These sources that I have looked up are very useful to gather more information on the main topic of this song. I found 4 articles that talk about war and explaining reasoning behind war. The first article that I used was an article called “Why is...
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...became a form of protest. Antiwar music of the 1960s and 1970s expressed public outcry against the war in Vietnam. John Storey's chapter "Bringing It All Back Home: American Popular Song and the War in Vietnam," discussed the response of American popular song to the war in Vietnam. John Storey, "Bringing It All Back Home: American Popular Song and the War in Vietnam," in The Vietnam Era, ed. Michael Klein (London: Pluto Press, 1990), 82. The first song to speak out against the war in Vietnam was a song that came out of the so-called folk revival that devolved in and around the coffee houses of Greenwich Village between 1958 and 1964. The music of Greenwich Village was divided between traditionalists, who wished to maintain and reproduce past traditions of songs. The second group was topicalists, who wished to use song to address contemporary issues. It was the second group which eventually addressed the issues raised by the war in Vietnam. Musicians such as Bob Dylan, Country Joe McDonald, Pete Seeger and various others wrote and performed songs that referred directly and indirectly to Vietnam. Storey, 82-83. The...
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...same motive: to express opinions about certain topics, proclaim their emotion, and entertain their listeners. Both rap and folk genres create a catchy rhythm to draw their listeners in and to keep them interested. Folk and raps are spoken word pieces and poetry set to a certain rhythm that makes a song exciting, likeable, and memorable. Catchy beats in a song help for the lyrics to flow smoothly, the fans to fall in love with and remember, and newcomers to become interested and involved. Raps and folk songs without rhythm or a beat wouldn’t be a piece of art at all, but a mess of words thrown together with no groove. Although the beats within rap and folk songs are very different, being that raps include beats made by a computer program, and folk beats are typically made with drums or guitars, each genre require a beat to set the mood for their songs. Folk and rap genres are similar in the fact that although their styles of music considered very different, they both need background music to complete a song. Music from the rap genre, as previously mentioned, use different computer programs and drum machines to create electronic beats for the basis of their songs; when...
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...In 1983 the band U2 released their new album ”War” and it went to number 1 on the charts in the UK. The band’s first ever album to reach number 1 and the band’s first political theme album. The song ”Sunday, Bloody Sunday” is about the conflict in Northern Ireland and the event called bloody Sunday. In the lyrics of the song, you can clearly see that the band is upset about the incident and they are talking about the consequences of the war. “Broken bottles under children’s feet. Bodies strewn across the dead end street”. The lyrics also have parts like this, “How long? How long must we sing this song? How long, how long?” Which indicates that the band is tired of the battling and is wondering when it all is over? The morning on 30th January,...
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...of culture. It normally was shared and performed by the entire community (not by a special class of expert performers), and was transmitted by word of mouth. My observation included listening to folk songs and stories of Woody Guthrie. Woody Guthrie was one of those workers who headed to California in search of gainful employment. Woody wrote hundreds of songs between the 1930s and his death in 1967 of Huntington’s Chorea. The traditional American folk singer/songwriter, Woody Guthrie tells stories that often don’t even appear in history books. Woody Guthrie set the precedent for the breadth of issues and subjects about which an American folk singer could sing. His original tunes often put to work traditional melodies, as well as melodies to songs that were popular at the time. His lyrics encapsulated all the important issues of his time and of America in general, in plain and simple language that put words to what so many people were thinking and feeling. Quote from Woody Guthrie: "I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you." From its origins, folk music has been the music of the working class. It is community-focused and has rarely enjoyed...
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...Brendan Heffernan Mr. Wallace History Day rough draft 09/11/14 “Music can change the world because it can change people.” (Bono)Throughout history people have sought change through music. From opposing war to combatting racism, using the power of music for social change is an American tradition. The genre perhaps most closely associated with protest music is folk. Folk trailblazers like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger are important not only because they changed the thinking at the time, but because they left a legacy that inspired generations of politically active artists. One of the first stars of folk protest music emerged as part of the labor movement in the early 1900s. Before the movement took hold many workers were paid unfair...
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...Throughout history, music has been used by movements seeking social changes in the world. In various cases, protest songs are written in response to historical events or social activities by the person who has experienced. In other cases, these songs can be responsible for initiating a shift in a society’s beliefs and assumptions. Many musicians have raised awareness and championed causes to alleviate human suffering from social problems caused by famine, natural disasters, war, civil rights violations, environmental abuse and others. Some have achieved it through their music, some by using their fame as musicians and others using both. Bob Dylan Music has played an important role in African American history from the earlier days because the...
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...like housing, jobs, and health care were daily struggles. Due to the social conditions, a lot of African American families began to move to inner-cities. These African American neighborhoods were soon referred to as ghettos, but groups like SNCC targeted these areas to empower these individuals. In fact, “the urban ghetto, despite overcrowding, poverty, and difficult living conditions, became the crucible of protest. In the segregated community, blacks drew strength from their numbers and sense of common grievance,” (Goldberg p. 145). The movement rallied these communities to make apparent this common grievance. More importantly, these grievances could be alleviated through joining the movement. Also, the more individuals aware of the systematic oppression built strength in numbers, and SNCC used these ghetto areas to their advantage. However, SNCC created this unity by relating to the oppressed. They inspired hope and trust by going door to door, traveling by foot, and even eating the same diets as the underprivileged (Goldberg p. 153). SNCC believed all of the oppressed needed to be leaders, so they adjusted to the...
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