Protest musik (på engelska)

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People have protested fore as long as we have existed, that means we have haled together to make at difference or to make at point of view noticed by our superiors and/or mankind. In this essay you will be able to read about some important peaces of protest music. For example Billy Holiday, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, sex pistols and the Clash, gut also about some modern protest music like Pink, Green day and Mange Schmidt.
This essay will be written whit my own thoughts bout in the beginning and in the end. This is because I want to begin whit saying what is a good protest song is, and I would like to end whit saying some things of my own choice to.

(What is protest music and what makes a good protest song?)
I think that a good protest song needs to protest about some thing of current interest during that time. In that way people will be more involved whit the topic and knows what you’re talking about. Because if the people are not interested in listening (or don’t understand the meaning of the song) they wont care and the song will have no input on the world.
An other thing that is important for a protest song is that they use a stile of music that is popular so that the song will reach as many people as possible. The song have to be great and at the same time nag enough to make you remember the message is not forgotten.

Billie Holiday

I am sure a lot of protest songs have been singed throe out the years but one of the first “modern culture” protest song was written by Abel Meeropol and singed by Billie Holiday in 1939 and it was called strange fruit.
Abel Meeropol was a Jewish school teacher and the song started out as a poem about two black men who were being lunched in Indiana. He published it in The New York Teacher under the false name Lewis Allan in 1937, and then he set his poem to music.
1939 he had got in contact whit Billie Holiday and she first sang it at Cafe Society.
Then Billie tried to get her recording label (Columbia) to agree to record the song but they refused, her “agent” didn’t support the idea either.
This song was written to protest against the killing of black people that was going on in South America at this time.
The only instrument played to this song is the piano and it was written in a jazz stile. Jazz was weary popular during this time so it reached out to lots of people, and because it was a popular stile more people listen and enjoyed it.

1960s

During the 1960s there wear three big artists in protest music and they wear Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Phil Ochs. Their protest music wear influenced by the on going war in Vietnam. The music they played wear pretty similar, both Dylan and Ochs wrote mostly folk music.


Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan was born the 24 of May 1941, he is a great song writer, guitarist, harmonica player, poet and singer. He is often referred to as a ledged in rock music. He debuted in 1961 and realised his first track in 1963.
The two songs we have listened to in class whit him is Blowing in the wind and Masters of war. Both are peaces of folk music and singed to a guitar, but Blowing in the wind also have a harmonica to it.
Bob was weary honest in his texts and this is what Masters of war is built on. Blowing in the wind also has a weary honest text but it’s more built on questions;
“How many miles must a man walk down before you can call him a man?”.

John Lennon

John Lennon was born the 9th of October 1940 in Liverpool. He was a British singer, composer and musician. He is a big icon in the rock culture, he was the founder and leader of the popular band The Beatles.
8 December Lennon got killed by a mentally ill Beatles-fan, he was arrested the same day and got sent to prison for life.
The two songs whit Lennon that we have listened to in class is Imagine and Give peace a chance. Lennon wrote Give Peace a chance to have a song to sing when he and Yoko Ono was protesting against war. To make it easy fore a whole group of people to sing it together it repeats it self a lot and the only instruments used are a guitar and stamps and claps from the crowd.
In many pleases the song Imagine was voted to the best song of the 1900. Imagine is a beautiful song, it really moves a lot of people and that’s way it got so popular. The instruments that are used for this song is drums, piano and guitars.

Phil Ochs

Phil Ochs was born in El Paso, Texas the 19th December 1940, he was a US musician and song writer who was known for his insightful and alternative lyrics.
Ochs was involved in a lot of protesting and preformed at many political events; for example anti- Vietnam war and civil rights rallies. During the 1960s Ochs wrote lots of political protest music. In the 1970s he got several problems involving alcoholism and eventually took his own life in 1976.
We also looked at two songs in class whit Phil Ochs, they wear I ain’t marching anymore and The men behind the guns. I think that the lyrics to I ain’t marching anymore are fantastic, they reflects over a lot of big battles in human history and it is a weary good tune that sticks in you’re mind. The men behind the guns was realised in 1965 on Ochs second Long playing track.
Phil Ochs mostly used guitars to his songs and so did hi in these two.

1970s

During the 1970s a new kind of subculture grew I Brittan, this was cold punk or punk rock. The punk rockers wanted to tell their opinion by dressing different and by standing out. They wear weary anti-fashion and started making their own clothes of stuff out of porn stores.
The music stile was weary aggressive and raw. Their political opinion wear that the governments doesn’t care.


Sex Pistols

Sex Pistols wear a punk band that was created in 1975, their wear four members of the band, but the original bas player was replaced when it was discovered that he was a Beatles fan. Because of the bands political opinions many of their songs wear banned. Some unfortunate events a cured and the band disbanded in early 1979.
We listened to one of their songs in class and that one was called God Save the Queen, the song is a protest against royalty and monarchy. This song was banned by the BBC but still reached the top in the NME carts.
The only instruments in the song wear electric guitar (Steven Jones), drums (Paul Cook) and bas (Sid Vicious).

The Clash

Was a bad that was created in 1976. Al thaw the band originally was a part of the wave of punk rock music in the late 1970s, they later started experimenting whit reggae, funk and new wave. The punk stile wasn’t what pointed out The Clash, it rather was their use of energetic and the lyrics about life in London in the 70s. But in 1986 something went wrong whit the band and they disbanded, the members’ went on to doing different new projects.
We listened to two songs by The Clash in school, they wear called Career Opportunities and London Calling. The song Career Opportunities was written in 1976 and is a typical punk song whit a political message, they write about the on going crises whit available jobs – their weren’t any. The three instruments used in this song is drums, electric guitar and bas.
The other song London Calling was in this song the band comment on a number of things, they protest against the incident at Three Mile Island, The flooding of Themes that was a major concern at the time and also their own desperation of hanging on in the music industry. The instruments used in this song are the same as the ones used in Career Opportunities.

Modern Protest Music

To day al kinds of bans and stiles are protesting against different things. The ones I’m going to bring up is Green day, pink and a song of my choice by Mange Schmidt.

Green Day

Green day is a weary popular rock band from America, they wear formed in 1987. The band has three members; Billie Joe Armstrong (guitar, lead vocals), Mike Dirnt (bass) and Tré Cool (drums).
The song we listened to whit them was American idiot. It was released in 2004 and was recently voted 18th best protest song of all times. The song protests against President Bush, but mostly against the American media.



Pink

Pink or Alecia Beth Moore was born the 8 of September 1979, she is an American songwriter and singer. Her break throw came in 2000 whit the CD Can’t take me home. Today she is a weary popular singer who has sold more than 23miljon CDs.
The song we got to listen to in class whit her was Dear Mr. President, and it is simply against President Bush’s politics, almost everything gays, women’s rights, homeless, minimum wage and so on.

Mange Schmidt

He is a Swedish hip-hop/ rap singer, first he was known for his many covers of known Swedish classic rap songs. But now hi has started to write some own songs and his latest hit Jag talar ut (I’m speaking out) is a protest against the medias way of “hanging out” celebrities, but also about the way celebrities does crazy stu...