(This is the first draft of my essay.)
Be
yourself with the power of music
In
contemporary societies the expression be yourself is commonly heard, it means
to exteriorize your personality that includes the various aspects of a person´s
character. To this respect, some basic rights are needed, like freedom of
expression, freedom of choice and freedom of worship. These civil rights have
been conquered throughout the fights of many generations against the oppressive
status quo, especially after the Second World War. The social movements of the
1960s and 1970s claimed the renewal of democracy as a central guiding principle.
As a consequence, many artists contributed in terms of expressive freedom,
creativity and commitment towards minorities. The emergent songs of this period
not only reflected the political context as well as the cultural restrictions
that common people suffered, but also contributed to social changes. Musical
and social movements are instruments that contribute to social change, by the
creation of collective Identity, emotion and social movement culture.
Collective identity often materializes from ritual
events where music can create new meanings or maintain old ones (Taylor and
Whittier 1995). Music in the form of song is important in developing a shared
identity because singing can bring people together. As an example for the Civil
Rights movement, the next song written by Sting called “They dance alone”
visibilizes a social protest of the Mothers of the missing people in Latin
America during the military regimes of Pinochet in Chile and Videla, Massera
and Agosti in Argentina. .
“They're dancing
with the missing
They're dancing
with the dead
They dance with
the invisible ones
Their anguish is
unsaid
They're dancing
with their fathers
They're dancing
with their sons
They're dancing
with their husbands
They dance alone
It's the only
form of protest they're allowed
I've seen their
silent faces scream so loud
If they were to
speak these words
they'd go
missing too
Another woman on
the torture table
what else can
they do…”
Sting joined Amnesty
International Movement and went to these countries with other musicians, like
Bruce Springsteen and Tracy Chapman, among others. They shared this song with
“Madres y Abuelas de plaza de Mayo” in Argentina , who joined the musicians on
stage, giving a clear message against illegal State repression, claiming for
Freedom of thought and expression to everybody, and demanding Justice to be
done. The identification with a group of people that is suffering crimes
develops the sense of solidarity and community. Collective identity needs
emotions to be established.
Goodwin and Pfaff (2008)
argue that emotions are key causal factors leading to social movements. To
exemplify the idea of emotions over gender identity, that is the way in which somebody
considers his own gender, let me illustrate with an example of the famous
singer Elton John´s experience of life. He admitted his bisexual condition in
1976. After some years, Elton married Renate Blauel in 1984, and they divorced
four years later. In 1989 he confessed he was gay. His lover forced him to
check into a hospital for drug abuse and bulimia. His best friend was AIDS
victim and died in 1990. Elton married David Furnish in 2014 after gay marriage
became legal in England. Exactly nine years earlier, they were one of the first
couples in the UK to form a civil partnership after the Civil Partnership Act
came into effect. Actually, Elton and David have two sons. Through his own
life, Elton exposes his personal struggle against English restrictions over
homosexuality. Probably as a consequence of the censorship over race and sex
that reigned in England during those years, he even attempted a heterosexual marriage.
Despite having passed through demoralizing situations, he´d compromised himself
with the gay movement and became an activist. In his song “All girls love
Alice”, performed by Elton in 1973, he mentions some psychological torments of
a lesbian girl:
“Raised
to be a lady by the golden rule
Alice
was the spawn of a public school
With
a double barrel name in the back of her brain
And
a simple case of Mummy-doesn't-love-me blues
Poor
little darling with a chip out of her heart
It's
like acting in a movie when you got the wrong part
Getting
your kicks in another girl's bed
And
it was only last Tuesday they found you in the subway dead.”
This song
portrays the severe rules that girls were required to follow to behave
properly, and the psychological problems that occur when a person is excluded
from a group. Social prejudices conducted Alice to a tragic end. In addition, discrimination also has a significant impact
on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) persons' mental state, with the most common
psychological issues that include increased levels of stress and anxiety,
depression, lack of self-confidence, drug and alcohol dependency and attempted
suicide (Neary, 2010). Another song that
denotes homosexuality is “Englishman in New York, which Sting wrote about his
gay friend Quentin Crisp and his experiences as an outcast. Crisp moved from
London to New York in 1986, and Sting spent several days with the author.
“If
"manners maketh man" as someone said
He's
the hero of the day
It
takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be
yourself no matter what they say
Modesty,
propriety can lead to notoriety
You
could end up as the only one
Gentleness,
sobriety are rare in this society
At
night a candle's brighter than the sun
Takes
more than combat gear to make a man
Takes
more than a license for a gun
Confront
your enemies, avoid them when you can
A
gentleman will walk but never run”
Through these lines Sting
encourages Quentin to behave in the way he feels, without considering potential
discrimination from an ignorant society whose main values relies upon arms and
violent conflicts. This song provides an example of how a song shapes
collective identity, appealing to the basic problems that homosexual people
face, and it offers a solution.
In conclusion, I can say that
minorities have been beneficiated with the power of music especially since the 1960´s
Cultural Revolution. Music has been the vehicle for developing and maintaining
collective identity, and therefore it has permitted people to share grievances
and to express emotions through songs, with the help of lyrics to describe
these protests. Furthermore, symbolic influence of music forced politicians to
attend social claims. In current societies, we can say that music has helped us
to express ourselves with the liberty provided by the rights passed in the
Constitution.
Figueroa Marlene.
Bibliography
- Danaher
W.F. (2010) – “Music and social movements”
Department of Sociology and
Anthropology, College of Charleston Sociology Compass 4/9: 811–823,
10.1111/j.1751-9020.2010.00310.x
- Denisoff
R. S. (1968) “Protest movements: class
consciousness and the propaganda song.” Sociological Q. 9(Spring): 228–247.
- “How to write a Literary Essay. “ https://www.bucks.edu/media/bcccmedialibrary/pdf/HOWTOWRITEALITERARYANALYSISESSAY_10.15.07_001.pdf
- International Courts as Agents of Legal
Change: Evidence from LGBT Rights in Europe(n.d.)http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgiarticle=3025&context=faculty_scholarship
- Ron, E. ( 2002) “Music
in Movement: Cultural Politics and Old and New Social Movements“ Qualitative Sociology, Vol. 25, No. 3.
- Songfacts :http://www.songfacts.com/
