Brainstorming

In my final project I want to write about something that I really like. for that reason the two options that I have in my mind are connected to my passions as a person, the first one is history and the second one is Rock.

The first event is the Salt March, in India, which began on March 12 of 1930, was and important part of the Indian independence movement. It was a campaign of nonviolent protest against the British salt tax in colonial India, and triggered the wider Civil Disobedience Movement. Mahatma Gandhi encouraged Indians to break the Salt tax law in order to involve Indian masses, including the poor, to confront the oppressive law imposed by British government. But in the other side this march is more than a mass political action. Gandhi saw the march as a pilgrimage, as a living sermon. It was not just about removing the British but to demonstrate what an ideal nonviolent society should look like, how ideal lives should be lived.

The other theme is the social and poetic analysis of the album and movie “The Wall” by one of the best rock bands of the whole time Pink Floyd.

Pink Floyd's the Wall is one of the most interesting and imaginative albums in the history of rock music. Since its release in 1979, and the subsequent movie of 1982, the Wall has become part of the visualization of the modern society in the world for many people. The Wall traces the life of the fictional character, Pink Floyd and the songs create an approximate storyline of events in the life of the protagonist and each one of them are about different issues (morals, politics, identity, freedom, family, love, sex, repression, isolation).

NINA SIMONE

Mississippi Goddam

The song “Mississippi Goddam” by the artist Nina Simone is a powerful folk protest song about the conditions of discrimination and segregation that African Americans were living in the south of the United States.  The state of Mississippi in my concept symbolizes all the social South system and its violence function in the song as the day by day of common racial aggressions. Also Nina calls attention to the contradictions and the hypocrisy of the public opinion, but at the same time she demands equality for herself and the black community.

It is important to mention that artists like Bob Dylan and Nina Simone were aware as well known artists, they were capable of reaching into the hearts of millions Americans so I believe the audience for this specific song it was very diverse. For this reasons, it could be a song of self-determination, warning, inequality, struggle, responsibility, racial discrimination, authority, unhappiness, loneliness, etc.

I think this song was very successful because Nina’s Simone voice and lyrics rest next to the actions of those young people who dared fifty years ago to organize the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later in April of 1964 found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge the brutality of American racism. And also artist like her, successfully inspire their listeners to not only have sympathy for the victims mentioned in the songs, but to make a decision not to stand idly by and let such atrocities to take place in the American society.

Music in the Civil Rights Movement and in our times

Post II

Question 2

In the book “The Art of Protest” the writer T.V. Reed show us how important was music in the development of the civil rights movement because music was a tool of unity, communication, participation and also helped to spread the idea of equality and respect that many African Americans required from the United States of America. For that reason in many social movements music has been very important in the expansion of ideas, ideals, morals, dreams, social standards, etc.

For example during the 60s music and protest get together and create a significant effect on some of the music that was produced. I believe that certain music and musical events derived from people’s feelings and views about the American society that occurred during the 50s and 60’s. Some of these events include the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, Women Liberation Movement, and society as a whole.

The 60’s was one of the most controversial decades in American history because Vietnam War and the racial tensions in the south, also there was an outbreak of protests involving civil and social conditions all across college campuses. These protests have been taken to the extent where people either have died or have been seriously injured. However, during the 1960’s, America saw a popular form of art known as protest music, which responded to the social confusion of that era, from the civil rights movement to the war in Vietnam. A authentic generation of musicians, such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan sang their songs to encourage union organizers to protest the inequities of their time, creating a diverse variety of popular protest music, which has reached out to the youthful generations everywhere demanding for a revolutionary change. The protest music took the children of the 1960’s to a completely new different level. Musicians of this generation were not going to sit and do nothing while the government lied to the people about what was going on in Vietnam and the south . Instead they started to use art as a form of protest, expression, unity and equality and they became and important part of the public opinion about many social issues in that time.

In contrast the current political music movements are very weak first   because in our current times there is not a solid and strong social movement and also because the Media is extremely powerful so any movement that is growing is put on the market like any item. Of course we have exceptions and we still have bands like Rage Against the Machine and like many protest artist in the past RATM music contains the political and social views of the band members. They are very passionate about defending constitutional rights of the individual and large groups of deprived people. The members of Rage Against the Machine each bring diversity and strong political views into the music they produce. Each member is unique in his childhood background and his introduction to music. It is

Important to understand their backgrounds to fully understand their

Passion for political justice.  But in general the current youth generation of Americans is easily manipulate by the Media (Government) and they listen the music that is design for their specific social environment and they never notice that they are part of the game of the stratification of music and people.

        

         In conclusion music is a strong tool of social communication and participation for that reason was use in the 50s and 60s to protest and explain the social movements of that time. but later the same ideas and a lot of the musician became part of the new order of fashion music that we have today.