Popular music and social change

Culture, Society and Popular Music

Week 1:

Does popular music have the power to bring about social change ? I would have to say yes, but indirectly. I think popular music is a good platform for highlighting social injustice, but usually whatever cause is being highlighted has to be adopted by a bigger movement before governments and the powers that be take notice. An example of this is the 60s folk movement in  New York where artists such as Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan were masters of articulating the social injustices of the day in the lyrics of their songs, but these issues were only recognized by the government of the day when they were given more publicity by Martin Luther Kings civil rights movement. And while the music of Guthrie and Dylan didn't directly lead to social change, it did succeed in bringing news of the cause to a wider audience and may have influenced a mostly white fan base in recognizing the injustices of the day.

There have been occasions were popular music has had a direct influence on social change, but only at a localized level. One of the biggest impacts popular music has made on society was the Live Aid concerts in 1985. Under the guidance of Bob Geldof, this movement succeeded in highlighting the terrible living conditions and famine in Africa. But rather than rely on governments to address this human catastrophe, Geldof and friends raised millions in charitable donations that directly affected and improved the social living conditions of those suffering in Africa. Commendable as this movement was, it has had little impact in changing the huge difference in living standards between 1st and 3rd world countries.

The second topic for this week is whether there is a hierarchy of genre in popular music. I think there is but it is a linear hierarchy. When one looks at the history of the development of popular music one cannot escape the fact that all genres sprang from the two initial genres of blues and jazz. In my opinion the amount of status a particular genre has is dependent on how long the genre has been extant. The fact that blues and jazz are still as relevant today as they were back at the start of the 20th century is testament to their popularity and importance. Some genres, although hugely popular in their day, were short lived and thus their worth is measured by how much influence they had on subsequent genres. I don't think the status of a genre can be measured by sales but rather by a musical aesthetic, and only those genres that influence those that come after it are to be found in the higher reaches of the genre hierarchy.