The other night as I was brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed, the new Green Day song "
21 Guns" came on the radio. I personally am a very big fan of this song. For some reason it just speaks to me, and that sounds really corny, but it's true. So as any teenager would do, alone in their room, half past midnight, I blasted the radio and started to air guitar. After the song was over, I started to think about what Billy Joe was actually saying. I liked the beat of the song so much, that I didn't really pay attention to the words. So I referenced good ol' lyrics.com and saw what he had to say. I interpreted it to be an anti-war song, because he says things like "Put down your arms" and "Give up the fight". After seeing the lyrics, I realized that Green Day is as much about their words as they are their music. And I also found a sort of pattern. All their songs seem to be protesting about something; war, America, etc. I mean, their 2004 album is even entitled "American Idiot". The song also called "
American Idiot" is practically the epitome of protest music. The lead singer says things like "Don't want to be an American idiot", "Don't want a nation controlled by the media", and "I'm not a part of a redneck agenda". To put it simply, every line is a criticism of America. Despite the words, I still don't hesitate to rock out to it. But I can't decide if that's a good or bad thing.
After this little epiphany of mine, I was reminded of my humanities class in seventh grade. The assignment was to bring in a protest song. I decided to bring Bob Dylan's "The Time's They Are A-Changin'". It was a very interesting assignment because people brought in everything from "War" and "Let My People Go" from the Disney movie
The Prince of Egypt. This is very interesting to me because it shows that protest music has been around forever. I know the Disney movie was made in the 90's but I'm sure the Jews really had songs of their own that begged for freedom, and think about all the African American slave songs that spoke of freedom and justice. Music serves very many purposes, whether it's to get people to think in a different way or to get someone to do something. I remember that during the 2009 elections, my grandma sent me a song that a bunch of celebrities made to get people to vote for Obama. If you think about it, music is probably one of the smartest ways to get people to listen to you. The singer may not have anything intelligent to say at all, but if they're famous, people will listen. It's a very powerful way to express yourself and your opinions.
But do people listen? Can one song really change a person? I don't necessarily agree with everything Green Day has to say, but that doesn't mean I can't air guitar every time "21 Guns" comes on the radio.
After this little epiphany of mine, I was reminded of my humanities class in seventh grade. The assignment was to bring in a protest song. I decided to bring Bob Dylan's "The Time's They Are A-Changin'". It was a very interesting assignment because people brought in everything from "War" and "Let My People Go" from the Disney movie The Prince of Egypt. This is very interesting to me because it shows that protest music has been around forever. I know the Disney movie was made in the 90's but I'm sure the Jews really had songs of their own that begged for freedom, and think about all the African American slave songs that spoke of freedom and justice. Music serves very many purposes, whether it's to get people to think in a different way or to get someone to do something. I remember that during the 2009 elections, my grandma sent me a song that a bunch of celebrities made to get people to vote for Obama. If you think about it, music is probably one of the smartest ways to get people to listen to you. The singer may not have anything intelligent to say at all, but if they're famous, people will listen. It's a very powerful way to express yourself and your opinions.
I agree that music can send a message to listeners because so many people listen to music and the market is worldwide. However, like you said, people often can't understand what the artist is saying in the songs and most people don't bother to look up the lyrics so they have no idea what they are singing along to (I do this all the time). I think a lot of people don't really listen to the music and I definitely don't think that one song can change a person. Maybe it will get them thinking about some issue, but when they can't understand half of what they are listening to how is a song supposed to change their entire world view??
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