Introduction
Music is a way to communicate, a way of expression, and has the power to provoke thoughts and emotions within an audience. political music is music that is a reflection on events that are changing society. Black slaves who were kidnapped and taken to America, brought their own form of music with them and they sung about their time in captivity and slavery. They would use songs as codes when they thought they could escape, and these are widely accepted as the original protest songs (Epstein, 2010).
Throughout the 20th century there were numerous events that changed the way the world functioned, whether people liked what was happening or not. Within this changing society many turned to music to express themselves. Music has the power to establish and maintain a movement and to reinforce its message and objective. (Eyerman and Jamison, 1998).
Political music helped with movements in the 20th Century such as: anti-war, feminism, civil war, world peace, and general political issues.
One of the first, and still recognized political songs is a Christian hymn written by John Newton in 1779.
Listening to the song can change the way we feel about ourselves, our place in the world and our fellow human beings. – John Newton.
The song transcends religious, political and cultural boundaries with its universal message of redemption, forgiveness and salvation, rooted in timeless and unconditional love (Sawyers, page 24).
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This song was just the start of the political music, when the 20th Century came there was a whole new culture emerging from it. In the early 20th Century most political music came from black Blues singers such as Woody Guthrie; who wrote songs about common people and social issues in the nineteen thirties, and Muddy Waters (Gollust, 2010).
These Blues singers influenced the next generation of political music that would shape the next few decades.
History Since The 1950’s
The political music of the time was reflected in the movements and social attitudes of the time. In the 1950s political music hadn’t really boomed yet compared to what was going to happen in the following decades. In the 1950’s, Pete Seeger was blacklisted from the House Un-American Activites Committee because he had been singing about labour unions and the civil rights movement which then added a new dimension to protests (Galioto, 2005).
It wasn’t until the 1960’s that protest music began to change with culture evolving alongside it. For the following 30 years political music took over the scene. With so much happening in the world many people used it as an escape.
In the 1960’s the Nixon Administration, and the Vietnam war beginning which came with the Anti-War Movement, protest songs were in. Previous singers influenced the current artists such as how Woody Guthrie was then a mentor for Bob Dylan (Galioto, 2005).
Bob Dylans “Blowin In The Wind” was one of the first protest songs to reach a mass audience. Music was an important part of the movements at this time as the leader of the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley claimed that these songs were the “machine” of the movements (Eyerman and Jamison, 1998).
Throughout these years there was always something to sing about and someone to listen to. The youth were bombarded with political music making movements stronger and more popular.
By the time the 1970’s and 1980’s came around political music turned less about peace and more about the actual events such as; how terrible war is, and violence. This was when Bob Marley was popular with his song called ‘Ambush in the Night’ which was about the 1976 assassination attempt, Bruce Springstein had ‘Born in the USA’, and Don Henley released ‘All She Wants to do is Dance’ (Galioto, 2005).
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The protest song was on its way out.
From the past two decades the youth have had a very different popular culture and most are more interested in reality television, internet and pop music (Ruel, 2011).
Many protest songs that have been released are about the war, poverty, terrorism and governments. Popular artists such as Pink singing: Dear Mr President and Pearl Jam: World Wide Suicide, with other artists such as: Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down, 2pac, and The Dixie Chicks (Garofalo, 2006).
It’s rare the political music such as that of Bob Dylan would be nowadays would become popular, websites such as http://www.bornbackwards.com are active to ensure that political music can still be released.
Conclusion
With there being so much political music throughout the years, there were only a few that still are recognised today. The few that still stand are ‘Where Have All The Flowers gone? Which had hidden references to certain social conflicts happening (Cousins, 2007), ’ ‘Strange Fruit’, originally sung by Billie Holiday in 1939 was said to be “ the significant protest in words and music, the first unmated cry against racism” by Leonard Feather, and ‘Blowin in the Wind’ by Bob Dylan which came to be an anthem for both anti-war, and civil rights movements. One of the main songs still recognised is ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon. Others included, Woody Guthrie, Don Henley, The Beatles, U2, and Bruce Springstein.
Music without words cannot express anything definite at all, and certainly nothing about the urgent issues in society. A music which loses its sense of community, loses itself; music is composed for the people by the people (Goehr, 1994).
Political music, whether it be a code for slaves to escape, or a way to stand up against an issue, has given people a chance to express themselves and what’s happening in their society. To let others know that there many other people out there thinking the exact same thing. It doesn’t have as much role nowadays as it has in the past however artists will always have songs about what is impacting the world.
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References
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