GWSS Blog Post #4

Maricruz Maldonado


Popular music most of the time has little to no activism involved in it. Some songs look like they could have had potential to change society such as "God is a Woman" by Ariana Grande. There is of course artist that have had expressed their opinions and advocate for change. The issue is that there is not enough of them. The fact that Beyonce made her album Lemonade and started to give a voice to the Black community and especially Black woman is powerful. The public had opinions and some were not happy that her songs were not meant for them. This comes from a White privilege that has been mentioned in past discussions. There has been history were White artist like Elvis Presley stole from Black artist like Big Mama Thornton. Talented Black Women like her have been ripped off and left to be forgotten because racist people only like White artists. They will not be forgotten because of classes like this one that are in a way like an altar. This is because they educate us to not forget how popular music was created by people of color. In Quetzal Imaginaries Quetzal Flores' "was raised with a family of social activist he saw music as a means to work for social justice as well as a form of creative expression"(8). In other words, he is using his music to raise social justice which is something Artist today should be doing. What they fail to reinforce is that music holds so much power. In American Sabor it talks about how "Quetzal and other Chicano rock bands at the turn of the century expands on the earlier musical fusions of Los Lobos  and foregrounds the ideals of community building, border crossing, and social justice"(31). It goes on further to say "Quetzal, Ozomatli, and other bands have opened up a space for the next generation of Chicano music that responds to the social experiences of Mexican Americans"(31). These bands were able through their music to tell a story and pave pathway for future artist to talk about social justice.

Some artist that I recommend listening to that have activism in their songs are Calibre 50- El inmigrante https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9zLchnWQcs and Logic- One Day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIZhyifo6Q4  Calibre 50's song El Inmigrante is in Spanish but essentially what this song does is call out society for saying they hate Donald Trump yet they made him president. Through the story of an immigrant he spreads the message that we are not criminals but hard workers who all we ask for is equality, respect, and tolerance. This is the type of music our society needs because it tells a story and advocates for social justice. In Logic's song One Day the video is what makes his song part of activism because we know how immigrant children have been locked in cages when they are separated by ICE. Little do we know is that then they are trafficked and sold to other families. Logic is trying to expose ICE by using his platform and the way he does it is in a smart way. Some people don't want to hear the truth and when he drops a song the music video comes as a surprise. The children must be released and the separation of children from their families must be stopped. Overall, these are the types of artist that have my respect and will continue to change the world as they educate the public on social injustice.