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In the grand tradition of rock, music was used to “stick it
to the man.” Over the years, “the man” has taken
on different forms. At times, it is the government, yet at other times,
the man is anyone with authority.
While the Vietnam War started in around 1956, much to the dismay
of the young public, it was a time when no one seemed to believe in
either the government or the war. The only thing that many people
could do was protest – thus rock ‘n’ roll rebellion
as we know it, was born.
Folksingers such as Joan Baez and Country Joe McDonald openly protested
through their music the war and the government. Harder rock artist
like Jimi Hendrix also protested the war – who could forget
his electric guitar version of the National Anthem? Young people who
felt powerless to stop the war used music to escape into a world that
seemed to offer hope and at the same time carried a message of social
and political unrest.
If you flash forward a few generations and look at the changes in
it as a whole, you find that music today doesn’t sound at all
like the music of yesteryear.
Rap music, for example, is something that didn’t really start
to take form until the late 70s and didn’t become mainstream
until the late 80s. Rap music offers the most abundant evidence of
social unrest. In no other form of music can one find as many songs
about people living in the midst of violence and poverty. Now, stars
like Eminem talk about domestic violence as part of their everyday
lives, whereas before domestic violence was something that many people
had to deal with, but were never allowed to talk about.
Rock music, in its multitude of forms, expresses similar social unrest.
For example, the song “Youth of a Nation,” by P.O.D. talks
about the lives of kids who are forced to deal with issues like school
violence, low self-esteem and social acceptance. In an effort to convey
how young people don’t feel anyone listens to them, Linkin Park
screams at its audience to “shut up while I’m talking
to you . . . everything you say to me takes me one step closer to
the edge – and I’m about to break”
There are many other songs in which it appears that the youth of
today are begging, screaming, and pleading for someone to listen to
and accept them. While this is not the same defiance toward the government
that music of the past took on, it is a commentary on the issues that
the youth of today face, and in a major way, defiance toward the views
and opinions of older generations.
While most would agree that our government and the world around us
is not in the best condition that it could be, perhaps the bigger
problem is more local. If we take the time to listen to the music
that is popular today – P.O.D., Linkin Park, 50 Cent, Eminem,
Sum 41 and many others – we can still hear the same defiance
that is reminiscent of the social and political defiance of the past.
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