There are many mainstream songs that envision a better world. There are songs that are subtle in their critical perspective and others that use strong, blunt lyrics in order to get their point across. I have listened to songs like this numerous times throughout my life and at first did not even realize the meaning behind the lyrics. This is because I was originally attracted to the song because of its rhythm, melody, vocals etc. This is a significant point since many artists use music in order to raise awareness about issues and therefore tend to balance an attractive melody with powerful lyrics so their audience enjoys listening to the song while at the same time is exposed to the concerns the artist is discussing in the lyrics.
An artist who does this is John Mayer in his 2006 album “Continuum”. After listening to most of the album, two of the songs I fell in love with were “Belief” and “Waiting on the World to Change”. The first few times I played “Wainting on the World to Change” I did not really pay attention to the lyrics and focused more on the overall beat, timbre, harmonies and vocals. It was not until I had the song on repeat where I actually found myself examining the lyrics and I was caught off guard by the strong message John Mayer was trying to express. He discusses the importance of the people coming together in order to advocate change and potentially rise up against the government, especially when it comes to the war in Iraq and all the soldiers that rarely can come home to their families. Ultimately, the song was very popular when it was first released and is still liked/listened to today. Since, I am a fan of the song and artists I am more prone to listen to, examine, understand and agree with the things John Mayer is trying to get across in the song.
One of the songs I came across was shown to me in another one of my classes and it stuck with me. It was a song by Emmanuel Jal called “We Want Peace”, which was released in December 2010. The song is part of the WWP campaign and it is trying to raise awareness of concepts such as justice, equality, unification and conflict prevention through the power of music. It is a dedication to Southern Sudan’s historic referendum. What I found most intriguing about the song is that it has a very upbeat, catchy, optomistic melody and rhythm, but it is discussing very serious, violent and powerful issues in the world. Overall, it does make sense to use a popular, catchy melody in order to attract a larger audience and thus spread the message within the song to a greater number of people.
After talking to my parents about the assignment they listed a number of artists ranging from The Beatles, Madonna, Simon & Garfunkle, Jackson Brown and Bruce Cockburn. One song by Bruce Cockburn in particular my dad mentioned is his 1984 “If I had a Rocket Launcher.” These lyrics emphasized how Cockburn was against the US involvement in the central wars such as Vietnam. The main point of the song is that if he had a rocket launcher he would react himself against the government. However, despite the powerful lyrics my dad was first attracted to the song because he liked the melody, its strong beat and folkish timbre.
Both “If I had a Rocket Launcher” and the 1971 \”Four Dead in Ohio\” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young have significant meanings to my dad whenever he hears them. For instance, whenever my dad hears “Four Dead in Ohio” he automatically remembers the history behind that song. He thinks of the arrests on campuses and the Kent State shootings where four college students were killed. Overall, the fact these songs to this day effect my dad when he hears them emphasizes the power of political songs.
(Lauren Kirchberger)