Music is a way for people to express what they are thinking or beliefs that they possess. Most recently, music is used as an outlet for people to protest against unfairness and inequality they see in the world. Music is able to encourage people to stand up against what they deem as wrong and promote group action. In the reading, How #Blacklives Matter Started a Revolution, we learn about how Beyoncé uses her fame to make a musical statement and take a stance using protest pop. We learn from her, “how popular music culture – and especially black women’s popular culture – can awaken, acknowledge and articulate the pleasures and distastes of those in the margins” (Brooks). As someone who is powerful with her music and widely admired, Beyoncé is able to make people aware of the injustice and violence against black people. Similarly, when one type of music progresses, a pattern follows, and this is seen in “Planet Rock: Final Chorus.” Kevin Young notes how Run DMC’s Hard Times is a song of “black secular protest” and the rhymes about these “hard times are as contagious as the flu… and that the groove is going around” ( Young 324). Once one person makes a stance that other people agree upon, this stance can be followed and change can occur.
One song that reminds me of using music for recognizing social change is “We are the World,” written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. This charity single was written by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985 to help relieve the famine that was occurring in Africa. These two artists were able to use their fame to write a song that would help raise and donate money towards this non-profit organization that can be sung by a group of famous people.
Another song that also uses music to create a message is the Black-Eyed Peas’ “Where is the Love?” They sing about how the world is unjust and people cannot tell right from wrong. This song brings to light how there are role models in the world that need to do a better job so that love can be found.
Young, Kevin “Planet Rock: Final Chorus” The End of a Record
Brooks, Daphne A. “How #BlackLivesMatter Started a Musical Revolution.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 13 Mar. 2016, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/13/black-lives-matter-beyonce-kendrick-lamar-protest.
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