Essay Example on Music & Resistance: Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready

The article by Barret Martin on "Music and the politics of resistance," gives a clear picture of the use of Music to resist oppression and spread awareness. Barret mentions that" Music also happens to be one of the most excellent tools for social evolution." Curtis Mayfield's song "People get ready" was composed during a period of great social inspiration. The song was released during a time of civil unrest in America. When the country was in turmoil over racial issues as expressed by the line "there ain't no room for the hopeless sinner, who would hurt all mankind to have his own way."

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Music has been used to put across great inspiration and hope. The song by Curtis Mayfield came after the March on Washington and carried and enduring message. The song followed several nerve-wracking events in the American past, like the bombing which hit Baptist church in Birmingham. It killed four little girls and the killing of President Kennedy. Mayfield passes on a message of great hope and inspiration following these out comings by saying, "there's a train a-coming. Get ready." This gives people great inspiration knowing that they would get a chance, regardless of the occurrences.

Barret Martin states that "Even with just a song title and a melody, music allowed the listener to create their own storyline in their mind." The "train" in Mayfield's song brought this picture, the much-awaited opportunity to fight racism, and not be involved in revenge amongst masses. "All you need is faith-this was the only input required to bring about change, and not any form of payback. People saw this as an end to their cycle of pain.

What makes something a protest song include; Ability to make people know that they are not alone when they are fighting certain injustices, at a personal or more overreaching governmental level, it is so infectious hence you cannot help but sing along, being composed after some significant events in America, having chants, being deeply rooted in American history, and having a lot of ambiguity and slogans.

The song "what about us" by Pink is a protest song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClU3fctbGls). "What about the broken happy ever afters" invokes a feeling that the government has made promises that it did not keep. The president Donald trump had promised coal miners that he would help their crumbling way of life. He did not. He said he would improve the economy. If anything he has escalated the gap between the ultra-rich and the ever-dwindling middle class.

"What about the plans that ended in disasters." This is an outcry that could have been accompanied by some significant events in 2017. These zeros in on developments like the president's infectiveness in Puerto Rico and diverting of 3.6 billion dollars to build a border wall. All this at the expense of the U.S military. Plus the withdrawal of U.S military from Syria that threatened national security.

Conclusion

In conclusion, protest music is arguably a great tradition in the American folk music scene. The force used in the delivery is to be reckoned with as the current generation is not an exception. In as much as it promotes change around us, it can help us feel as though we are not alone in our beliefs.