According to the late, tragic folk hero, Joe Hill, “A good song could be learned and remembered, while a pamphlet would be read once and thrown away.” (Weissman, 175) Such an idea proves its validity when examining the long-lasting professional and societal success of the depression-era folk protest singer, Woody Guthrie. Throughout his adolescence and his adventures as a box-car musician during the early 1930s, Guthrie faced hardships unparalleled by popular singers of his day. Taken aback by the horrors he witnessed as the dust bowl and the Great Depression tore through the badlands he called home, Guthrie faced emotional turmoil, both in himself, and in the society that surrounded him. By transforming these emotional struggles into incredibly …show more content…
In his textbook, 33 Revolutions a Minute - A History of Protest Songs, from Billie Holiday to Green Day, Dorian Lynskey explains that, “by cloaking his intelligence, artistry, and radicalism in hillbilly vernacular and plain common sense” (Lynskey, 14), Guthrie could sing from a position of familiarity to the unfortunate Americans he encountered during his travels. This sort of cultural identification rings most true in his hit song, “This Land is Your Land.” In “This Land is Your Land,” Guthrie sings about the beautiful American landscape he has encountered in his travels, arguing that this land was made for “you and me,” rather than the corporate elite whose greed left the common man to rot in the southern United States. Guthrie condemns the elite most poignantly in a verse that has been largely lost throughout time, “In the squares of the city, in the shadow of a steeple/By the relief office, I saw my people/As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking/Is this land made for you and me?” (“This Land is Your Land”, Guthrie) In one short verse, Guthrie rips at the morality of America’s elite, condemning them for their disregard of the common man, and simultaneously asking the average American if their country truly supports every man, or just the successful businessmen who abuse the system for their own hoggish ends. In an ironic twist, this song lives on in American pop-culture as a nationalistic pride song, a sharp contrast to its original purpose as an invigorating protest
John Cougar Mellencamp’s 1985 song “Rain on the Scarecrow” embodies the tumultuous time experienced by American farmers in the 1980s. Mellencamp makes use of an emotional tone and depressing lyrics to chronicle the foreclosure and auction of a family farm – an unfortunate reality for many marginal farmers in the Midwest during the 80s. The extravagant boom of farming in the 1970s yielded record harvests between 1974 and 1979 , though the majority of which was funded through borrowed money. The 70s ended with a slowdown in production and a subsequent reduction in earnings. Many farmers, as a result, defaulted on their loans and had to stop production.
The first half of the book, Dr. Glenn Altschuler, largely focused on how rock ‘n’ roll and those who wrote and produced it stirred up topics such as race and sexuality. As with any new social or cultural shift, rock ‘n’ roll faced an almost immediate resistance from both religious and fundamentalist extremists. In most cases, it was the same types of people that opposed rock ‘n’ roll also opposed other major social reforms such as racial integration.
In the reading for today, Benjamin Filene describes the controversial performance of Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. Although the author acknowledges that stories about the performance have been wildly embellished since the event, he notes that “[Pete] Seeger’s backstage rage was real” and that Dylan received boos from a moderate portion of the audience because of his use of electric instruments, as well as the shortness and the poor sound quality of his set(pg. 184). Folk purists were allegedly outraged with Dylan turning his back on both the acoustic guitar and politically motivated lyrics which encouraged crowd participation. For example, Peter Yarrow, who introduced Dylan at the festival and also performed with his three-piece
Guthrie, Steinbeck, and Rogers helped society with their entertainment by expressing the realistic ideas and relatable experiences that were
Thus giving a small part of the American Dream. In comparison reading the poem "I hear America singing by Walt Whitman the tone
The reading “Popular music and the civil war” explained the heavy influence that music had leading up to and during the civil war. Music was used to express the way Americans, those in the north or south, were feeling during this time. Through their lyrics, writers and singers were able to convey their feelings on topics such as being separated from loved ones, losing someone, patriotism for the confederates or the union, and anything else that related to war time. Many of these songs appealed to the Americans because they could easily relate to what the lyrics were saying. Therefore, songs were being greatly produced during this time because people were purchasing the music, whether that was by going to see the performance of it, or buying
“There’s never been equality for me, nor freedom in this homeland of the free.” America never was America to me! Both poems were written about the American Dream and how it benefited some people, while not so much for other people and the two poets wrote about how America seemed at the time they were living. “I Hear America Singing” and “Let America be America Again” are two popular poems from history and they have their similarities.
The Irony of “Born in the U.S.A.” As the fireworks explode in the night sky to celebrate Independence Day, “Born in the U.S.A.” by Bruce Springsteen plays loudly for the audience to hear. As the men, women, and children bellow out the chorus proudly, they never seem to grasp its intended meaning. By studying the appeals and irony used in Springsteen’s lyrics, it is easy to see how Springsteen’s message of the poor treatment of Vietnam War veterans is misconstrued by millions of listeners into American pride. Springsteen’s intended audience is a group made up of mainly white, blue collar Americans-
The tone of Langston Hughes’ poem “I, Too, Sing America” is determined and talks about how “tomorrow” he will do what he pleases instead of doing what his master
Born in the USA Even though people may think this is a patriotic song is actually the opposite from that. Bruce Springsteen 's born in the USA tells the story of a boy born in a dead man 's town and has no future. “Born down in a dead man 's town/ The first kick I took was when I hit the ground/
To begin, Billie Holiday’s song, “Strange Fruit”, includes chilling imagery to help the listener imagine the treatment of African Americans. As sang in the song, “Here is fruit for the crows to pluck / For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck / For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop / Here is a strange and bitter crop,” (Holiday, 1939).
Carrying such powerful lines as “the world is big / big and bright and round / and it's full of folks like me” (Simone, 1967), Backlash Blues became a popular song in the civil rights movement, allowing African Americans to express their proudness and protest racism in a more accessible way. Freedom songs such as Backlash Blues were and are still so significant to African Americans as they “sustain as well as … publicise the struggle[s]” they face (Stefani, 2015). Furthermore,
The second speaker also reshapes the first two lines of the entire poem into a plea to the majority. Beforehand, the first speaker uses those lines as a call for the old American spirit to be revived: “Let America be America again / Let it be the dream it used to be” (1-2). Both speakers change the meaning of the lines to express their thoughts on America. As a result, the poem expresses the desire for everyone to be treated equally in the land of freedom. The readers can relate to the speaker because they wish that everyone has equal rights in the country that proclaims itself to be the symbol of freedom.
Music is not only used to capture peoples hearing but it is used to power peoples minds through the power of an individuals voice. Music served a critical role in the African American’s lives, as it was used to uplift their spirits as well as providing them with hope and strength to fight for civil rights and overcome segregation between white superiority and the unfair treatment of the inferior black. Music was defined as the voice of the people that lived through the oppression of the civil rights movement. During the civil rights movement, there were many different types of music genres sung, dependent on the culture, this included spiritual music; gospel and even folk music, which was performed by musicians, singers and even people of any musical talents. Through this, it brought about the uniting of people to join together and sing songs that helped them go through the oppression of the civil rights movement.
With the ability to transform ordinary mediums, artists create a new perspective. Bob Dylan uses his music to express a message in each of his songs. Bob Dylan is not only a musician, but also an author and a painter. He utilizes these different art mediums to spread awareness of the social and political injustices of the United States. Dylan began to write songs after his mentor,Woody, encouraged him to do so.