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Throughout historical past, protest songs have galvanized the oppressed into resisting their oppressors. Martin Luther King Jr stated, ‘freedom songs serve to provide unity to a motion.’ The revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East have been impressed by rap music, which the authorities tried to ban, pointing once more to the potential of political music to impact social change. However, the inevitable query that comes up when contemplating protest music is whether or not it actually issues – does it make a distinction? Or do the commoditization of music and the banality of TV expertise exhibits devalue its political potential?
Steve Biko, a number one anti-apartheid activist and founding father of the Black Consciousness Movement who was tortured and murdered in custody by the South African police wrote that, ‘The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the thoughts of the oppressed’. When authorities, media, and schooling is essentially within the arms of the oppressor, whether or not that be overtly in authoritarian regimes or extra covertly in a democracy, the protest music turns into one of many solely methods to foster resistance because it speaks to the top in addition to the guts. The singer songwriter Phil Ochs wrote ‘One good music with a message can deliver some extent extra deeply to extra individuals than a thousand rallies.’ Likewise, the Swedish-American Labor activist Joe Hill, who was controversially executed in 1915, wrote that, ‘A pamphlet, regardless of how good, isn’t learn greater than as soon as, however a music is discovered by coronary heart and repeated time and again.’
Jimi Hendrix goes additional and claims that, ‘If there’s something to be modified on this world, then it could actually solely occur by means of music.’ And there’s a number of proof for a way political music has made a distinction. As Martin Luther king Jr claims, music was a key element of the American civil rights motion. Pete Seeger – referred to as the daddy of American people music – launched ‘We shall overcome’ to King and it turned an anthem for these resisting racist oppression in America within the 1960′s. The title of the music additionally turned a theme for considered one of King’s main speeches. There is little question that songs comparable to this galvanized individuals to bravely face the brutal racial cruelty of the American south – typically non-violently. See the movie ‘Let Freedom Sing’ for a superb depiction of the civil rights wrestle.
In Estonia, one-third of the inhabitants gathered to sing songs banned by the Soviet regime and this contributed tremendously to the nation gaining independence by means of a cold revolution. This is properly documented within the movie, ‘The Singing Revolution – a single nation, one million voices, the autumn of an empire’. And as Joan Baez claims, the Vietnam War was stopped as a result of growing fashionable opposition within the USA – the federal government had needed to proceed the warfare – the individuals have been knowledgeable and enlivened by protest songs.
In South Africa, the connection between protest songs and social change is maybe even clearer. The Apartheid regime in South Africa was supported by America, the UK and different European allies. This was regardless of the whites making up solely eight% of the inhabitants, holding virtually all of the wealth and the federal government brutally suppressing any opposition – blacks weren’t allowed to vote. The British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, even claimed that Nelson Mandela was a ‘terrorist’. Particularly within the 1980′s, western populations have been knowledgeable of the plight of the South African individuals by musicians reminiscent of Eddie Grant, Labi Siffri and The Special AKA and this led to growing strain on the Apartheid regime with boycotts of South African items and sanctions imposed on the nation. The exterior strain coupled with courageous inner resistance ultimately led to the downfall of Apartheid. The Special AKA’s music ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ was on the forefront of this wave of influential political music.
Music has performed a strong position in different areas of oppression. ‘Glad to be Gay’ by Tom Robinson was written for the 1976 London Gay Pride parade and identified the hypocrisy and cruelty of the ‘straight’ institution – particularly the police. At one stage banned by the BBC, it turned an anthem of the gay rights motion and performed its half within the more and more widespread acceptance of homosexuality within the UK.
The highly effective are absolutely conscious of the facility of protest songs, although they not often acknowledge it. In our opinion, the best protest singer songwriter of the 20 th century was Pete Seeger. Yet, he was indicted for Contempt of Congress in 1957 after refusing to testify earlier than the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) about his socialist political beliefs on the grounds that this may violate his First Amendment rights. He argued that “I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this.” He was blacklisted for 17 years consequently. Likewise, the Soviets and Chinese clamped down closely on any music that appeared to oppose the celebration. But such censorship isn’t just historic. As the Americans ready to invade Iraq in 2003 with the ‘coalition of the prepared’ (principally blackmailed and threatened!’), probably the most profitable feminine group of all time, The Dixie Chicks, appeared on stage in London and stated that they have been ashamed that President Bush was a fellow Texan. The outcry in America led to them being blacklisted by many radio stations with DJs sacked in the event that they performed Dixie Chicks’ music.
As we face the various challenges of the 21st century with environmental destruction, rising inhabitants, diminishing assets, ongoing regional wars and the rising hole between the ‘haves and have nots’ or has George Bush put it the ‘have mores and the have nots’, we belief that an rebellion of widespread resistance will discover options. This is already occurring within the Middle East and North Africa in 2011 however appears a way off within the extra snug West. If options are to be discovered it is going to probably be artists and musicians who will lead the change as as soon as once more protest songs and political music impress public opinion within the course of freedom.