Music has always been a tuneful force for political change

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1 Music has always been a tuneful force for political change BY EITAN GAVISH DAILY NEWS WRITER Saturday, October 10, 2009, 5:58 AM Politics and music have always been natural partners. Joan Baez and Bruce Springsteen as they opened an Amnesty International benefit concert at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, in Throughout history, music has mingled with the political. Colorful tones, pulsating rhythms and meaningful lyrics have been a catalyst or soundtrack for movements of change. The Greeks were among the first people to truly realize the potential power of music. Known for creating democracy and the republic, Greek intellectuals also understood how music could help move a society to rebel against their government. "Any musical innovation is full of danger to the whole state, and ought to be prohibited," Plato warned. "When modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the state always change with them." In America, music as a form of protest could be heard on the cotton fields of the South during times of slavery, with biblical songs that depicted themes of freedom and servitude, such as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Go Down Moses." Sixties folk and rock sung by such artists as Bob Dylan rallied people against thevietnam War as well as social inequality. Rap music of the late '80s pointed to more inequalities, with groups like N.W.A.

2 spreading stories of police brutality and poverty stricken neighborhoods. Huge stars like Bruce Springsteen, U2, and Madonna channel their political beliefs into their songs and live shows. Political music is meant to appeal not only to the oppressed, but to those compassionate to the cause as well, and popular acts realize the power they have to inspire people to action. "I think that music is probably the only medium that really does cross all boundaries, and all languages, and all countries," said Joan Baez, celebrated folk singer and revered political activist. Baez has spent most of her life standing up for a cause, using her talents as a singer and guitar player to bring people together in hopes of making a change. A documentary chronicling her life in politics and music, titled "How Sweet the Sound," hits DVD stands this Tuesday, and premiers nationally on PBSWednesday. For her, music has always been a means to an end. "The social change is never really made by music, it has to be backed up by what you do," Baez said. For Baez that action involved standing by Martin Luther King Jr.'s side during a march for civil rights; being arrested for helping young Americans dodge the Vietnam draft, and taking to the streets of a wartorn Sarajevo to sing "Amazing Grace." The group aspect of those landmark moments in Baez' political life is a key element of music as a political tool. "The main thing people talk about, when they talk about music and social movements is that music is kind of a resource for people in those movements," said Ron Eyerman, professor of sociology at Yale University and author of "Music and Social Movements." "They use it is a basis for recruitment, but it's also something for people inside the movement, it's a way of creating and strengthening a sense of collective identity, a sense of we, 'We are in this together,' " Eyerman continued. The purpose behind music still eludes many scientists, anthropologists and musical aficionados. Some claim music's allure is rooted in our biological evolution; the human brain learned to relate certain sounds together for survival purposes while living in the wild.

3 Some link music's primacy to its relation to courtship. The sex appeal in music we're familiar with harkens back to a time when it was an important way of selecting a fit mate. By way of more recent example, Elvis' gyrating hips acted much like the colorful tail of a peacock. Another idea suggests music's origins lie in the social. For early humans it was a tool - much like language - to bind a group together and help them thrive over those who remained alone. This group aspect of music survived well past the days of cavemen into the present, and one modern example is when live music becomes politically charged. Music with a message thrives in a live setting, for obvious reasons, and many politically conscious musicians aim to channel the heightened emotions of a concert into something productive "The political potential is greater when you go to concerts," Eyerman said. Baez goes even further. "It's a spiritual event, it is for me, and hopefully it reaches people more than just being a show."

4 Ruth Blatt Contributor I write about the intersection of rock n roll and business LEADERSHIP 1:58PM 2,148 views Rage Against The Regime: How Young People Are Using Music To Create Social Change In The Middle East Rebels in Egypt. Photo courtesy of MTV World

5 Before the revolution we were like zombies, we were like dead people, says Egyptian musician Ramy Assam. But now we have dreams. Assam, who was arrested and tortured in March 2011 for his role as stirrer of the pot during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, is one of the musicians followed in a new MTV series, Rebel Music, on mtvu, MTV s 24-hour college channel and onwww.rebelmusic.com. Each episode of Rebel Music focuses on a different country grappling with inner turmoil. The series was created and executive produced by Nusrat Durrani, Senior Vice President and General Manager of MTV World. Our work is focused upon tracking and excavating and discovering what s happening with youth around the world, Durrani told me. He became interested in showcasing the musical activism of young people in countries that are often in the news, such as Israel, Egypt, Mexico, India, Mali and Afghanistan. We re not hearing from the youth in those countries. We re only hearing from politicians and vested interests and older people basically. The youthful voice is missing. The omission is particularly striking given that young people constitute the majority of the population in many of these countries. In Egypt, for example, 57.2% of the population are under 25 years old (compared with only 34% of Americans). MTV wants us to hear what the young people have to say because they are the ones who will decide their countries futures. The series shows how music both creates conflict and helps resolve it. The Egypt episode, for example, follows a group of musicians leading up to the demonstrations against Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood on June 30 th, Musicians worked alongside activists to get momentum for what was ultimately one of the largest protests in history. Art is expression and

6 expression is what we need right now, says an excited Egyptian music promoter named Mariman. The demonstrations were successful in ousting Morsi from power. According to Durrani, many of the protest musicians documented in the series were inspired by how music was used in American history to facilitate social change. If you look at the history of America I think we are leaders, we are such an inspiration to the world, he said. Whether it be someone like Billie Holiday or Woody Guthrie or James Brown, in each decade there are great musicians who have used their art to create social change. Rebel Music shows how music creates conflict by expressing discontent with the established regime, often at the risk of physical harm to the musicians and their families. But it also shows how music can create healing connections between people who have historically been at conflict. The Israel/Palestine episode, for example, shows several artist collaborations that transcend differences of nationality or religion. Kobi Farhi of the Jewish-Israeli heavy metal band Orphaned Land notes that as a source of musical inspiration, Israel is a land of riches. We re living in the most inspiring place on Earth, he says in the episode. Why shouldn t we take motifs from this place and put it into our heavy metal music? Farhi began a musical collaboration with Abed Hathoud, the lead guitarist of the Arab-Israeli rock band Khalas (which means enough in Arabic) that ultimately resulted in a joint tour for the two bands, the first of its kind. Khalas s bass player, Rooster Tuning, is Jewish, though according to him his nationality isn t relevant to his music. I belong

7 to the Jewish people, he says, but my real religion is music. The episode also tracks the activities of the popular Israeli musician David Broza as he collaborates with Mohamed Mughrabi, a rapper from a refugee camp in East Jerusalem. If you can bring in that creativity into a room amongst people who are uncomfortable with each other subjected to politics, subjected to war then you recondition the situation and maybe you re moving one notch forward toward the change, says Broza. Some people are skeptical about the real agenda at play when Israeli and Palestinian musicians join forces. Omar Barghouti is an academic who argues in the episode that these collaborations merely normalize a deviant situation of one people oppressing another. For others, like Khalas s Abed Hathoud, musical collaborations mean that there is hope for peace someday If we all do the right thing. Rebel Music is inspiring because it showcases young people who are passionate about music and are bold enough to use it to fight against forces much greater than themselves. According to Durrani, the series will remind young viewers of the power of music. Music does provoke, music does inspire, music does sting sometimes. But music does heal and music connects and music transcends. So it does all of the things that any good art does. In an era where radio is often dominated by bland party songs, this is an important message indeed. But what will perhaps surprise viewers the most about Rebel Music is just how fresh and relevant the music sounds. Everywhere in the world, talented musicians are making exciting music, whether hip-hop, metal, folk, or

8 regular rock n roll. And more than ever, we can connect to each other by sharing it. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. LEADERSHIP 5:46PM 6,364 views Beyond Bravado: Underground Rappers Resurrect Hip-hop's Roots As Protest Music Comment Now Follow Comments When rap started out in the late 1970s, it was a form of musical expression that was both entertaining and got you to think. It was a diverse genre that held many possibilities for its practitioners. Queen Latifah saw rapping as a way to educate. It was an expression, a culture, an attitude, she wrote in her autobiography Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman. Latifa had considered a career in law, but Hiphop showed me another way to communicate, another way to reach people, another way to state my case. Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five used rap to increase awareness of social ills. For Public Enemy it was a platform for political expression. There were always rappers who viewed the genre as party music. But as rap became more popular, the party took over. Rap became more homogenized. Professor Todd Callais from University of Cincinnati s Blue Ash College

9 analyzed the content of lyrics of about 900 top-charting rap songs from 1989 to He found that rap lyric topics became less varied, concentrating on sex, partying, consumerism, violence, and self-promotion. Political advocacy has all but disappeared. In this way, the story of rap is similar to that of many new innovations that, once they become institutionalized as part of the mainstream, lose their edge. It is an example of how success can kill creativity and narrow the range of what is possible. As professor Callais wrote, once hip-hop became mainstream, For black artists to survive they might need to sacrifice some of their originality and allow commercial rationality to dictate musical style. It also shows how success can kill, or at least dilute, a social movement. Historical research on movements shows there is a strong trend toward becoming very institutionalized or mainstream and then losing both the initial idealistic ambitions but also the ability to accomplish much, told me Klaus Weber, a professor at Kellogg School of Management who has written extensively about social movements. When the labor movement or the environmental movement or the civil rights movement became formalized and co-opted by commercial interests, they lost some of the vibrancy of a grassroots movement. But for a small group of underground rappers, hip-hop has not lost its potential as a vehicle for social change. They are drawing on the legacy of hip-hop to send a broad message of awareness and empowerment. And they are doing it in part by attacking the mainstream. It is a smaller movement than in the 1980s, told me professor Callais, But it is more aggressive and

10 politically aware than in the past, and it targets mainstream hip-hop and its potentially negative consequences. Brother Ali White rapper Brother Ali is among the leaders of the underground hip-hop movement. He presented at a talk Hip-Hop: Movement Beyond the Music as part of Chicago Ideas Week. Hip-hop is here to empower people, he told me. Hip-hop is here to reconnect us with our humanity, which is a very empowering thing if we can get over that initial hurdle of being insecure and fearful because we re not active as men, as white people, as middle-class people, as straight people, as English speakers, as people whose citizenship isn t questioned. I interact with people on a regular basis who are white and view themselves as entering into an identity and a lifestyle because of their connection with hip-hop, he said. So I guess my challenge for them is to take that

11 connection more seriously to the point where they start to look at it and discuss What effect does white privilege have on our lives? What are ways that we can actively engage in our own reality? I m not saying go set up soup kitchens in the hood, sort of have this white savior thing, but I m saying what are ways that in our lives we can fight for the music scene to be more equitable, for our day-to-day lives to be more equitable, so that we live in a society that keeps our community that created this culture strong and healthy. Brother Ali sees college students as key agents for promoting politically and socially conscious hip-hop. Students have a choice and a say over how those dollars get spent at their schools, he said. One of the first steps would be to say if you re going to bring an artist here that s going to talk to us about smoking weed and having sex that s fine. But we would like to see somebody that also talks to us about the other reason that we re in school that gives us some substance as well as being a great artist. Underground rapper Psalm One has spread her positive message about hip-hop through educational programs for kids. We teach kids that a lot of rap that they see is fantastic, meaning its fantasy. It s not based on reality, she said. They take pieces of reality and blow it up. A lot of things that rappers in the mainstream talk about aren t true. She also teaches the kids to write raps about their lives.

12 Upcoming Rhyme School Workshop Psalm One s message is that ordinary people can be extraordinary. It s being amazing on the regular. It s being dope on the regular. Being a regular person that does extraordinary things, she said. In this spirit, her website iswww.regularblackgirl.com. Being regular is something that a lot of people don t want to be. Everyone wants to be different and unique and when everyone tries to be unique, everyone is the same. I used to be a chemist. Now I m rapping. I ve seen two dreams realized, and I m definitely a normal girl. Even if you don t see yourself as a huge superstar or a person who wants to personify something that is way more sensationalized than yourself, you can still do sensational things in your life. Psalm One will be doing a workshop at The Chicago Cultural Center on November 8th.