This week's articles are focused around the idea that Black music has always integrated a narrative surrounding the racial issues in America. First, looking at Kevin Young’s article, Final Chorus: Planet Rock, The End of the Record, we explore how hip-hop artists have used music as an outlet for them to express their lives, and the harsh reality they live in. Young states,
“The number of African American songs about this other side -- Else-- were -- are staggering. I’ll Take You There;(I’m Doing FIne Up Here On) Cloud Nine; Up on the Roof; A Place in the Sun; Higher-Ground; I Want to Take You Higher; Groovin’ High; I Will Move On Up a Little Higher; I Want to Get High… Not all of these are paradisiacal. Most are paradoxical as Cloud Nine is, the stark contrast of paradise and what is often a wrecked reality providing its profound sense of possibility. A ‘Pastime Paradise’” (pg. 313).
We now jump to a more present day representation of Black music and Black artists integrating racial issues into their music. We looked at Beyoncé’s 2016 Album Lemonade which has strong connections to the Black Lives Matter Movement which took full charge in 2016. I have found that Black Artists have been incorporating politics into their music. For instance, Beyoncé’s visual album of Lemonade not only took us on a journey through her heartbreak and recovery from being cheated on, but also introduced her political standings when showing the mothers of the slain African American men by the hands of the police. Those slayings helped spark the Black Lives Matter Movement, with the message of a need for change within our society.
Daphne Brooks, Professor of African American Studies at Yale University discusses the motivation behind artists Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar, and D’Angelo in her article, How #BlackLivesMatter started a musical revolution. She states,
“All three artists meditate in varying ways on the meaning, quality and value of black life by way of vastly different, thrillingly difficult, unconventional and unpredictable structures of form and content. This new music for a new moment born out of 400 years of subjugation picks up the echoes of gospel redemption and west coast black power combat, black feminist philosophy, Prince’s Minnesota love songs and Compton street poetry fury, the ghosts of black southern parlour life and black urban disaster born out of state neglect. All three artists are, along with their fellow musicians, breathing new life into this current moment when so many of us are longing for air.”
This rebirth of a movement has really asked us to look at our systems of power. It is clear that there is a great divide between who has the power in our country. These artists are using their platform to challenge those powers and to get us to challenge what “the norm” is.
I’ve picked songs that I feel capture what these articles are talking about. These songs have powerful messages behind them, looking at the systems of power we have in our country, and expressing their frustrations through music.
Songs:
Alright - Kendrick Lamar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-48u_uWMHY
Fear - Kendrick Lamar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdbQYDkNjfk
Glory - John Legend and Common: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUZOKvYcx_o
Black Rage - Lauryn Hill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_sdubWaY5o
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