The Unspoken Lullaby: Women, Music, and Oppression Essay

American history was radically changed when President Abraham Lincoln gave the very famous Emancipation Proclamation. This lead to the freedom of millions of African Americans who sought the same liberty and equality that was promised to everyone under the United States constitution. These liberties, of course, were not achieved right away. During the Reconstruction era, which is the decade right after the Civil War, many of the recently freed slaves did not have money, property, or credit. They could not buy the necessary things to enjoy their freedom, which lead to sharecropping, a glorified form of slavery. Sharecropping is a system of agriculture in which a landowner lets a tenant use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land (Sharecropping).. Added on to this, facilities were segregated to prevent the black man from enjoying the same things as the white man due to Jim Crow laws which were enacted after the Reconstruction era. The struggle for equality and rights continued during the Gilded Age (1873-1900), the Progressive Era (1900-1920s), the Great Depression (1930s), WWII (1939-1945), the beginning of the Cold War (1947), up until the Civil Rights movement (1954-1968). At this point in history, African Americans fought for their rights and changed the course of American history. Music was a very important tool used by African Americans that helped achieve this. Ever since the slavery times, music was a big part of their culture

Music is a very powerful expression of emotions that come together as a whole to morph your psychological feelings into a sub-reality vision. Over the many years, history has been able to capture the moments at which music has made an impact on human lives. We can start with Manu Chao the artist that sings about left-wing messages and portrays his concerts as “collective therapy”. Or Juan Gabriel the young man that rose out of poverty to become the world’s most beloved artist/songwriter and whose music carried a resonate flamboyant style. Music is a way of communication that is used in many realms such as entertainment, tradition religion and sporting events. So far this semester, Chic 316 has influenced me to seek a more coherent relationship

In cultures all over the world, music can be seen encompassing many aspects of life for many individuals. It is a form of mass communication that"speaks directly to society as a cultural form", and often reflects a collection and pattern of personal experiences (King 19). Music is so influential because it communicates on three different levels: the physical, emotional, and cognitive. Not only does it operate in a nondiscursive way, by affecting the physiological mode of the body, causing one to move and dance, but it also encourages one to think. This paper will explore music as a form of protest; showing how a political message, in general form, is presented through music.

Some may say music is just music; a song is just a song. However, music plays an enormous role in our psychology, because a single song has the ability to bring about many kinds of thoughts and emotions in the listener. Music is subtly one of the main factors in which people identify with certain groups and establish their belonging in society. It shapes people’s perspectives on how the world functions and the roles they play within it. Music can function the same way in a culture; it can reflect many of the culture’s values and ideologies. Music can have many effects on culture and the people’s idea of who they think they are within that culture. Music can serve in a way that promotes cultural identity and pride, yet it could also play a

“Music can change the world because it can change people” Bono. Society is an ever changing process. Because society is a collection of people, it is really a kaleidoscopic representation of what is happening in the world at that time. Music is a significant presence in society; it has been a part of the human element since the dawn of man. Throughout the centuries, music has been incorporated into the most significant and minor moments of history. People can remember events based on the song that was popular at the time. They genre of music varies as do people. The average person spends several hours a day listening to music. People use it as a major part of whatever they may be doing, or they see it just as something to fill in the silence in the background. It is not surprising, then, that music is a more powerful force on how humans think, communicate, act, possibly even affecting intelligence. Music is often used in

M. "Language in Action: Funk Music as the Critical Voice of a Post-Civil Rights Movement Counterculture." Journal of Black Studies 42.1 (2010): 71-82. JSTOR. Web. 8 Nov. 2015. (-- removed HTML --) .

Music has a way of expressing certain thoughts and feelings that cannot be articulated with words. What goes on in a culture at any given time period is directly associated with and connected with the music that accompanies it. It is the music that directly reflects any type of social and/or political change. Even though, in some societies, its use has been controlled and monitored, it has nonetheless never failed to instill some sort of change due to its ability to spread like wildfire amongst protesters and individuals who are seeking change. People can relate with one another through the use of music and express how they truly feel. This is evidently seen during the Civil Rights Movement. This paper will look at how music was an integral

The 1970’s, a time of strife found within racism, prejudice, war debates, political troubles, and more. One way that many found to escape these troubles, was on the dance floor; with bright flashing lights, a steady beat, and a sea of hot bodies all packed together and dancing the nights away. This music, soon to be considered as disco, was a revolution, in this time period disco was not just music, it was a revolution broadcasting out movements of the era; feminism, the black freedom struggle, and gay social and political rights. Through this music's quick rise to the top it was able to slur itself together with these movements and transform its way into America’s new sensation. The author, Alice Echols in her book, Hot Stuff: Disco and the

Music Brings us Together. The article argues that in a world full of negative and divided messages, music has a chance

Music is something we hear everyday whether it be from our phones,in our cars,or background music wherever we go. Over the years there have been numerous types of music that have different beats,sounds,and different emotions. Such types of music is hip hop and rap,alternative music,and rock and roll music. Music has a long time line and every single sound and type of music is intertwined within each other and influenced by each other. For these reasons music not only defines a type of sound but also recreates lifestyles and defines entire generations. The power of music can be seen from all different types of music.

The majority of society does not believe that music is an influential component of social inequality, social deviance and social networks. When in reality music has been proven to be both beneficial and important in society to stimulate our appreciation, learning and understanding of this contemporary art. In so we must learn about the history and the role it plays in placing our understanding of human kind. Additionally, from the day music was developed in this world the artists, industry, music’s fans have changed. As we are approaching the 21st century, we tend to see music as “commodity” instead of understanding the effect it has on the history of human kind. Through this paper, I will attempt to explain the two genres on the topic of

There are roughly around seven billion people in our world. We speak different languages, live different lifestyles, love different people, but we are all humans. No matter how far across the world or far back in history we look there’s always has been one aspect of life that bring people together. The sweet melodious words within a song bring us into a trance until we realize we are all one in the same. Music is a form of expression that allows humanity to come together by breaking the social barriers that divides us. Victor Hugo is a French poet and novelist, his work is considered to be some of the most well knew works within French culture. Victor Hugo describes music as an expression of human emotions, “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent” (Hugo, 1). Music is the only universal language of the world, people from every background can all relate to the lyrics within music because it speaks directly to our conscious.

Why Music Matters by David Hesmondhalgh  Why Music Matters, book writing by David Hesmondhalgh, published by Wiley Blackwell. Hesmondhalgh is a professor of media and culture. In this particular book, Hesmondhalgh reflects on the fundamental argument of ‘why music matters’ by studying music through various concepts and approaches to make a better understanding of why music is important in society and how it enhances people’s lives as well as investigating the social and political meaning of music in the modern society. David Hesmondhalgh conveys a historical and sociological process in understanding music in relation to social power difference. He investigates the importance of art and culture in the modern world, aspects of wider problems

Throughout history the unspoken but highly evocative language of music has exerted powerful influences on individuals and societies alike. Felix Mendelssohn once remarked that music is more specific about what it expresses than words written about those expressions could ever be. That music has the power to express, convey and illicit powerful emotions is without question, however the issue of music's moral and ethical power, and how that power affects individuals and societies, is one that receives too little attention in our post-modern world. Ancient cultures held strong beliefs in the moral and ethical power of music and as such it was imperative for artists within those cultures to exercise a certain moral and ethical responsibility

Music is a universal language that conveys various of emotional messages depending on the recipient’s interpretations. Although many believe that it is only a figure of speech and there are barriers concerning understanding the language, I believe that music is not a culturally specific activity (Miller and Shahriari 3). One does not have to fully understand the words in a song to infer the meaning behind it. For example, despite being fluent in only two languages, I am captivated by music from many other countries. Most of the songs that I listen to derive from international television shows that I have seen. My ability to recognize the characters’ feelings throughout the shows serves as the emotional language that I hear and feel when I entertain myself with the voices and instrumentals in the songs. Moreover, throughout our Fall term, I was able to entirely enjoy the examples of the music of the world by simply interpreting how the performers deliver them in terms of sounds rather than just focusing on what the words meant.