From Bob Marley’s musical beginnings, he has always had an important message in his lyrics. The subject matter of many of his most famous songs regard the political unrest within his home of Kingston, Jamaica. However, as Marley’s musical fame grew and grew, he was able to address more worldly issues in his music.
Bob Marley was very passionate about political justice, especially in Jamaica. Thus, as his fame rose, it seems he began to speak out more and more of the issues and political unrest he was experiencing and trying to change. Marley’s political activism seems to be primarily rooted in his album releases between 1973-1979, although this of course does not cover the entirety of his politically charged music. In The Wailer’s 1973 album “Burnin'” there are several tracks that very directly discuss the issues of racial inequality, mistreatment of people from authoritative figures such as police, government figures, etc. This album in particular is noted to have a much more direct tone in discussing these issues, rather than the cryptic lyrics present in The Wailers earlier works. Off of “Burnin'”, Marley notably wrote the songs “Get Up, Stand Up”, “I Shot The Sheriff”, and “Burnin’ and Lootin'”, among others. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnin%27_(The_Wailers_album)
“Get Up, Stand Up” has proven itself to be one of Marley’s most timeless songs. It very clearly discusses Marley’s displeasure with the treatment of African and Jamaican peoples in his homeland. In this song, the lyrics speak of encouragement and standing up for the worth of one’s life. Marley sings “If you know what life is worth, you would look for yours on earth.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2W3aG8uizA
More specifically, this song deals with the socioeconomic and religious inspirations for the mistreatment of these African and Jamaican peoples in Jamaica. He discredits the cultural idea that unfortunately has been around for a very long time: the mistreatment of those who are not in good socioeconomic standing, as well as racial discrimination. Marley also discredits the religious belief of waiting and settling for mistreatment in hopes of a substantially better afterlife, stemming from a typically Christian belief system. There was undoubtedly a great deal of religious conflict in Marley’s hometown of Kingston. Christian and Rastafarian beliefs often clashed, and were often bundled together with the mistreatment of poor and lesser-educated peoples. https://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/crawdaddy/2011/08/the-origin-of-song-the-wailers-and-get-up-stand-up.html
Another massively popular Bob Marley song off of The Wailers’ album “Burnin'” is “I Shot The Sheriff”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrnZSLwfzVs . While there is clearly a conflict depicted here of government/authoritative officials versus the common people, there is a much more specific connotation for this song. Marley details Sheriff John Brown as those who are discriminating against Marley and his peers, presumably for similar reasons that were discussed above: social, economic and religious discrimination. This song is Marley stating that he will not stand for this unfair treatment, and will continue to try to spark an uprising against this long-lasting mistreatment of Marley and his people. information used from: https://everlivingroots.wordpress.com/2016/12/04/10-strongly-political-messages-in-the-music-of-bob-marley/
This song is also meant to be an anthem of sorts, an inspiring message for all people to be able to connect to and, as a result, take action. Here is a video of Marley discussing his music and various inspirations, among other things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl0JpC7XO74
In reading Ted Gordon’s article on Dennis Prager, I found some stark differences between Prager’s approach in comparison to Bob Marley’s in both of their pursuits to spread music and it’s message. In Prager’s case, he argued that classical music must be integrated into culture in order to fortify Western supremacism and political “correctness”, in Prager’s case, being very far right.. Bob Marley is nearly the opposite of this, promoting the destruction of one’s ego and the support of one’s spiritual and compassionate beliefs. Marley promoted this positivity, peace and activism (not in any sort of violent way) in his music, whereas Prager promoted classical music’s integration into modern culture in a very destructive and hateful way; Marley’s integration of reggae into modern culture proved to be much more peaceful and universally accepted. http://musicologynow.ams-net.org/2017/09/does-music-trump-politics-dennis-prager.html
Ultimately, Marley proved to be a prominent political figure through his musical ideas and lyricism. He promoted equality, peace, and love in addition to highlighting political injustices such as racial discrimination and discrimination of people who are in lower economic and social standings. His music truly carries a powerful message for all.
*I’m sorry, I’m not really sure how to integrate hyperlinks so I just added the regular links..
Thank you for educating me on this important subject. I did not know that Bob Marley’s music was so political and vocal about injustices. I think it is really important that he got his messages about discrimination out through his music, since music is so powerful. Also, the differences between Bob Marley and Dennis Prager on spreading music into the world is very interesting. I think that music should always integrate itself peacefully within society, and to not impose itself over any other art forms. I like the idea of music remaining a peaceful art form. Prager’s philosophy seems to be destructive and violent, while Marley’s music peacefully reflected peace and activism.
One thing that I think would make the blog post stronger would be to have a little more direction and format. It has all of the information there, and maybe organizing it in a stronger way could make it even better.