Musically Impactful

A recent idea that often catches my attention, is the fact that many things we experience today are nothing more but scenes from the past. Throughout the years, black people have been associated and heavily affiliated with the protest tradition. The protest tradition is characterized by oppression and the resistance to the oppression. Since the early 1800s, African American’s have strived for freedom from their oppressors, although we have made progress the oppression still stands, it has just loosened its reigns for lack of better words. In thinking about this protest tradition, the civil rights movement falls in the center, later giving rise to other movements that ultimately would be created to achieve equality and racial justice.

            One of the things that is reoccurring and really grabs my attention, is the influence of music on a movement. I think music first hand plays a major role because it is a part of our culture. During slavery, enslaved peoples would spend their down time either in church services or engaging in something musical whether singing or just holding a steady tune. Spirituals were created to be a hidden code amongst the enslaved to attempt escaping. It has more widely translated to simply be comforting songs to sing to pass the time. It was this kick start that implemented the musical ability for expressing ones struggle and feelings.

            During the Civil Rights movement, we had artists like Marvin Gaye to tell us what’s going on and Curtis Mayfield tell us “People get ready for change to come”. During the black militancy phase of Black Power, African American’s began to take pride in their blackness. James Brown helped solidify that pride with the hit, “Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud”. As we continue to move through time, rap music evolves and groups like Public Enemy, NWA, and others take a stance against police brutality. Today the biggest talk has been about Kendrick’s “Alright”.

This song has escalated to an anthem amongst the black community just like those that have come before him. Like past artists Kendrick takes his talent and uses it as his pedestal to speak up against the injustices that the African American community faces. What makes this song so revolutionary is the visual. Outside of the moving music video, his performance at the 2015 BET Awards displayed a symbolically chronological representation of the injustices of the black community. I say symbolic because the entire time Kendrick along with others on the stage are chained together, one may automatically assume that it represents issues of mass incarceration and brutality; however, I saw it as the early 1800s when our ancestors were first chained to this land they built called America, home of the “free”. This caused a lot of controversy because it displayed an “uncomfortable” visual. Dr. King once said, “the nation doesn’t move around questions of genuine equality for the poor and for the black people until it is confronted massively, dramatically” (Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution). It is no longer acceptable to consider instances like this uncomfortable, we must be uncomfortable in order to bring about change.