Joan Baez

Joan Baez: A Voice Straight To God Joan Baez is an extraordinary American female icon, most notable for her contributions to the folk music scene, as well as her involvement with civil rights and antiwar movements. Baez, still alive today at 75 years old, continues to inspire and lead people along an inclusive and nonviolent way of life, as she knows that “action is the antidote to despair” (Loder). Joan Chandos Baez was born in Staten Island, New York on January 9th, 1941, to a white mother, Joan

as Joan Baez. She used her “language” of freedom, hope, and liberty to get her voice heard and take a stand on civil rights. Her “language” was spoken by many, but not the way she did it. Her “language” was music. Joan Baez was born on January 9, 1941 in Staten Island, New York City, NY. She first introduced herself to the “music business” in 1959 performing at the Newport Folk Festival. There she introduced herself as an American Folk singer. She then came out with her first album (Joan Baez)in

and Americans were “emotionally close…to sixties music”, despite there being “little agreement on what folk music is”. Joan Baez “got the whole ethic of nonviolence at an early age” from her Quaker upbringing. In addition to her pacifist background, Baez took an interest in Ghandi and Martin Luther King from a young age. After hearing King speak at a high school event at fifteen, Baez said King ““solidified what I had already felt from learning about Ghandi”” and that ““[h]earing about the boycotts…hearing

cruelty. “Dylan's lyrics were not so much a form of entertainment, but created to get the public aware of what was going on in the world. Bob Dylan's imagination and energy with words is what made him famous” (Jake Rae). By the time she was 22 Joan Baez was a well-known folk singer. She sang in concert halls, college campuses, and in foreign countries on tour. She never had the need to take voice lessons to improve her voice because it already reached over three octaves. The Vietnam War had a huge

blacks, and challenge society to change the status quo. Vincent Writes “Music that went beyond the personal issues, dealt with higher forces and spoke of the society.”(Vincent, 4) Outside the black community, white artists such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez played a prominent role in civil rights movement. They raised issue of civil inequality, while performing songs like: “The Times They Are a-Changin” and “We Shall Overcome” during the “March on Washington for Jobs and freedom”. Like civil rights

A History of Protest Music – Revolutionary War to the 1960s Protest music in the United States dates back to the 19th century. This protest music focused around subjects that were topical for the time period. Among these topics were the Civil War. Another topic was slavery, and its abolition. A final topic was women’s suffrage. A famous group of protest singers was the Hutchinson Family Singers. Their notoriety, which spanned the mid-19th century, began in 1839. Their songs about abolition were

“Music and social movements have been widely celebrated as two catalysts that can elevate the human condition by lifting spirits and undermining subordination” (Reds 10). The 1960s were a time in American history that by many can be described as chaotic. A time in history where folk music was revived, also called contemporary folk, and seeked to challenge the racial boundaries in America. A time in which Pop and Rock music were influenced by contemporary folk and revealed the discontent of the young

Odetta After reading the articles about folk music as well as articles about the famous folk singer, Odetta Holmes, I have learned that, folk music is music with lyrics that contain social issues, economic issues, hardships as well as relationship difficulties. Folk music is traditionally played with no more than a acoustic guitar or banjo. I have also learned that folk music has been around for a very long time and is, perhaps, the very first genre of music that started all around the world

Response Paper #4 The folk music of the Civil Rights Movement “came out of tradition, common experience, and generations of resistance” (Dunaway 2010: 140). The songs used throughout the movement derived from the shared experiences and struggles of African Americans while connecting “the gentle, idealistic world of folk music and the integrationist world of civil rights” (Dunaway 2010: 145). Songs, such as “We Shall Overcome”, were put through the folk process, where a song is passed on and alterations

hippy movement, and how war changed the beliefs of the American people Because of change it leads to a conflict between generations. In nonfiction, the tone and hidden meaning shown in the story are heavily influenced by major events at that time. In Joan Didion’s essay, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” she uses descriptive imagery, structure and references to WB Yeat’s poem “The Second Coming” to convey the turmoil and generational divide during the 1960’s in America. Slouching Toward Bethlehem took