I Feel Like A Wog By The Specials, And The Clash

More often than naught protest music is often associated with war and politics and a little less with the social norms of the current society and culture. The most iconic artist that did challenge and changed the social norms was Elvis, even though at the time he was not aware of doing so.

Rock and roll is about passion and honesty. In this paper I will describe how one band and another artist used their talents to fuel these traits. I will outline the events that lead up to the British invasion, what influenced the Beatles while dominating the world, and how they influenced the world around them. As time moves forward, I will describe the changing tides in the seventies and eighties for women’s rights and how Madonna used her music as a voice for those who couldn’t be heard.

Grime and trap music have slowly found their way to the top of mainstream popular music culture over the last decade. Grime is now one of Britain’s largest and well known musical styles as it is taking over from American Hip Hop and can be widely heard over radio stations such as “Capital 95.8fm” and “Kiss 100 Fm”. What Jazz was from the 1920s to 40’s or what R&B was between the 70’s to 80’s. Like most genres of music which have made mainstream popularity such as Rock n Roll, Grime too tends to have negative perception on the genre and within mainstream outlets, therefore impacting on the public perception of the music and the culture that it has sprung from. Throughout this assignment I will be looking at the negative representations of

The emergence of Rock and Roll was one of the most pivotal moments of our nation’s history. The impact that this genre of music made is still evident in our culture. However, before this genre was able to gain momentum, it faced many cultural conflicts. The book, All Shook Up: How Rock ‘N’ Roll Changed America by Glenn C. Altschuler analyzes the impact that rock and roll music has made on American culture. It explores how the Rock and Roll culture was able to roughly integrate and later conflict with preceding cultural values. This is especially apparent in chapters regarding race and sexuality. Overall, Rock and Roll was extremely controversial amongst parents and educators. This new music genre was condemned by the previous generation as

The peaceful life of the English society of the 1960s was struck by the clashes between the Mods and Rockers. Both Mods and Rockers were called “gangs”, which is a “structure sharing the same ideas, attachments and solidarity” [7]. Every gang usually has its own “interests, activities, membership, and status” [7]. Usually such groups appear spontaneously. Both gangs - Mods and Rockers - “represented opposite tastes with regard to a number of social conventions such as clothing, grooming, music, and so on” [7]. For example, the Mods (modernists) preferred to wear suits and pointed shoes, listen to Jazz and Rhythm & Blues style of music and ride scooters. In their

Musicians of all genres have spoken up against the racial inequality that is happening in America and throughout the world. These are the voices that have lived and witnessed injustice based solely on their race and skin color. As a result, musicians have deep emotional ties that have affected the lyrics and tones that artists take on in hopes to send a message. This musical revolution is nothing new, it has been around since the beginning of racial oppression as a means of optimism, but now, music can help spread the message of racial oppression. This message is spread in hopes that the views and opinions of society are altered and that future generations learn from mistakes of the

After a musical demonstration during the Civil Rights Movement, freedom singer Matt Jones reported that “[civil rights opposers] gassed us and beat us, burned crosses on the lawn during our concert.” (cited in Rose, 2007, p. 61). Such intense, violent action against singers was furthered by a crusade succeeding the movement. During the 1970s, there was a revolution garnered by revulsion of the minority’s empowerment: White Power music (Corte, 2008). The “…hard hitting, boot stomping rock…sang of truth, of clenched White fists, and the pride of our peoples’ past…” This quote was taken from the White supremacist biography Diamond in the Dust, written by anonymous author ‘Benny’ (cited in Love, 2013, p. 1). The White Power music had the same agenda and tactics as Black Power music; however, the ideologies were greatly prejudiced, being firmly embedded in racial discrimination. The music became a medium to spread White supremacist political ideals and recruit new members, as well as displaying the “pride of white ethnicity” (Corte, 2008, p. 6). Hate music “fuel[ed] and fund[ed]” white supremacy groups of the time, as well as perpetuating racial tensions in the modern day through its timbre (Love, 2013). It served as a “promise of a bright and glorious future for the youth who dared to dream and dared to fight” (Benny, 2001, cited in Love, 2013, p.

     The time was in the mid-seventies, there was a void in the music industry that needed to be filled. This need for a new sound was aptly filled by punk rock, a new type of sound that had evolved from mostly rock and a little pop music. The focus of this paper is on punk rock and it’s ample beginnings, early pioneers of the new sound, punk rock listener’s cultural background and their ideas as a whole, bands influenced by the punk rock movement, and the state of punk rock today.

The American British Invasion of the 1960s changed the music industry forever while also helping move along many cultural changes of the era (MacDonald 14). The Beatles’ introduction into America sparked a revolution in the music industry that has yet to be rivaled by any modern musical group (MacDonald 1). The value of their music, as well as the phenomenon of “Beatlemania,” will live on forever (Millard 7). The social and cultural movements of the 1960s illustrate a change in America’s youth - and the music they listened to - that pushed society forward into the modern era.

As with every decade, the 1960s were a tumultuous time filled with various social issues affecting a wide array of social groups. African Americans endlessly fought for their rights as a human being, women tried to achieve the same opportunities as men and dismantle workplace inequality, and families fought for their loved ones to come back from war. In their development, these diverse issues seem unrelated, but was eventually unified and blanketed as “social issues”. The merging, or convergence of these social issues was a direct result of a myriad of musical artists who perpetuated their opinions and feelings to all of America. These artists took the various “I’s” of social issues and were able to put them together and form a conglomeration, turning those “I’s” into “we.”

In order to understand the topic that is to be discussed in this essay, one must first understand two seemingly unrelated topics. Those topics are feminism and punk rock. These two social movements spawned the love child that has come to be known as the riot grrrl movement. The history of the riot grrrl movement is deep and intensely intertwined with themes of monumental social change, musical evolution, and the previously unseen all-encompassing nature that is unique to third wave feminism.

When one thinks of rock-n-roll music many images come to mind. In the 50’s, pop culture was inundated with rebellious, teen-aged rockers for the first time. They wiggled and crooned their way through songs like, “You Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound Dog,” and America, or at least the youth of America, loved them for the effort. The 60’s brought the British invasion and mop-topped foreigners belted out the frustration of the counter culture with songs like, “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” The 70’s brought blood spitting freaks who screamed anthems such as, “I Wanna’ Rock-n-Roll All Night,” for crowds of stadium rock devotees. In the 80’s big hair and spandex ruled, and through their make-up glam-metal bands pouted songs like, “Don’t Need Nothin’ but a Good Time,” as an expression of their rebellion against the uptight Reagan era. The 90’s entered with flannel-wearing grunge acts but ended with a unique blend of traditional rock, hip-hop, and strangely, country. Songs like; “I Don’t Want No Scrub” proved that some things never change. Rock-n-roll, no matter what its form, still touches millions and still uses horrendous grammar.

The British invasion began with the popularization of the rock group “The Beatles”. Their fame created an open door for other rock groups from england to make their debut in America. Although more intense, the music from the british invasion, and music influenced by it, also reflected the peace loving counterculture that was incorporated in folk music. Songs like “Revolution” by The Beatles and “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones clearly express the concerns that the public had for their own safety during war times. “Revolution” is about exactly what you would expect with the lyrics “We all want to change the world / But when you talk about destruction / Don't you know that you can count me out.” These lyrics, and akin lyrics found throughout this popular rock age, pushed many people to realize that it is better to be pacifist and fight anger with peace, rather than put american lives in jeopardy. Not only did these tunes reflect popular sentiment, they educated people on the importance of unity over segregation and

With the economic decline and availability of jobs with upward movement, a culture of youths formed in Britain that challenged the ideals and cultural norms of the generations that came before them. A consistent movement from traditional society through youth subcultures brings light through the eyes of the musicians that describe their generation’s feelings of homelessness in an era filled with unemployment, low wages, and violence. The insurgence of the counterculture movement, poor economic conditions, and the commercialization of previous Rock and Roll music in Britain directly led to the punk subculture because it allowed youths to speak up about their conditions and frustrations through an easily understood and accessible medium while maintaining a different stance than their predecessors.

Wind back to 1994, the band Green Day were topping the charts with their catchy punk rock tunes. Leading the way for Punk Rock culture, they were youths and 20 somethings’ outlet for expressing their frustration and angst with puberty, adolescence and the beginning of adulthood. Each day society would see another kid ending up as a victim of a broken or abusive home, leaving the number of youths raising themselves, ever on the rise. At the time of Green Day’s rise to fame the generation of youth strongly identified with the Punk Rock scene and culture that was home to bands like Green Day. Their lyrics and musical style portrayed feeling of being alone in their pain, of struggling with being different, and of speaking against society issues. It’s no wonder that Green Day became a huge influence to this TV and Media raised generation. ‘“My education wasn’t school,” says Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong. “My education was punk rock – what the Dead Kennedy’s said, what Operation Ivy said”’ (SPIN, 11/04).