Tonight I am going to a program at Wake Forest University called [u][url=http://www.wfmynews2.com/sear...]Putting a Face on AIDS in Africa[/url] [/u]. It will highlight the work of Clive and Mary Beckingham who have served the needs of abandoned, orphaned and HIV positive babies in Kenya since 1993. Since they started, the Beckinghams have rescued more than 500 abandoned babies, and placed them in loving homes. It's amazing work, especially when you consider the fact that currently there are over 13 million orphans in Africa alone as a result of HIV/AIDS. Anyway, all of this got me to thinking about the role of music in social activisim. Over the years, there have been a number of songs that have gone onto define a social movement or change. I can think of a few off the top of my head:
Of course there are the obvious:
We are the world/Do they know it's christmas? The colaborative efforts of artists to raise awareness and monies to fight world hunger. And of course, LIVE-AID followed.
The soundtrack to the antiwar movement of the 1960s contained classics by such folk heroes as:
Peter Paul and Mary Bob Dylan Pete Seeger
The American Civil Right's movement coincided with the emergence of many powerful female African American vocalists such as:
The Shirelles The Chiffons The Supremes
In less recent history, the spirituals sung by slaves in the fields were used for inspiration and to communicate rebelions, of both a violent and passive aggressive nature.
Even as far back as the French Revolution, we can see the use of music as a backdrop for social change when revolutionaries danced in the street to La Carmagnole while raising the severed heads of aristocrats on pikes in the air!
I guess my point here is that music is powerful. Even our [url=http://www.generationvote.com...]politicians[/url] recognize this fact... spending countless hours searching for just the right campaign song. And it can be on both a micro and macro level. Music interacts with the individual and in some rare instances with society as whole. Incredible.
So... tonight, I'll sit in the audience and listen as the plight of 13 million voiceless, yet innocent, babies in a far away nation is laid out before me. And I'll wonder if there is a song powerful enough to make the world spring into action to save them... or is their music yet to be written?
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I know I have left many bands off the list who have contributed to a social movement. Please feel free to correct me.
posted by: marz (reply)
post date: 02.24.04 (1:10 pm)
Some political musicians that come to mind:
Bob Marley
Public Enemy
Consolidated
Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
Billy Bragg
posted by: olygirl71 (reply)
post date: 02.24.04 (9:10 pm)
Yes--it's me...how about John Lennon? We can talk about all sorts of different social movement categories...Domestic Violence, for example, has a lot of artists that have something to say...Martina Mcbride, Mary J. Blige, Tracy Chapman just to name a few.
