Music videos were at first used for marketing and advertising purposes. They were used to increase the sale of a certain album or a song. However, music videos has also been a great tool for artists to use to complement their songs. A music video usually gives one’s song greater meaning and an easier way to understand what the music is about. The sounds, visuals, and the effects all contained in the music video and the music creates a unique experience that is its own. The artist can use symbols or references to make their music video more relevant and deep. One of the sensational songs that uses the music video make the song greater is Bohemian Rhapsody.
There are six different parts in this song that is very different from each other. They all use a different musical style such as rock, ballad, or even opera. As the musical styles change, the visuals and the mood of the music video also change to fit the style that is being played. The song opens with an acapella of a multi-track recordings of Freddie Mercury singing. In the music video, it shows all four members of the band in dim lighting lip syncing the lyrics. The lighting helps with the mood of the slow style of the song. Later in the song, Mercury’s head is more prominent to depict him as the main character of the song as he sings the main lyrics. The other members are shown to be singing the chorus in the background.
After the introduction, the song enters into a ballad. Here, the music video changes to show the members of the band playing their instrument. The lighting here is very colorful but a little dimmed to match the ballad style. Then there is a little guitar slow that helps to transition into the operatic part of the song. Here, just like opera, the members of the band are a different character. When there is a different character singing, that member playing that part will appear on screen. It feels like they are having a conversation because of this. The lights are also dim again just like the introduction here. Towards this end of this section, the music builds up that leads to a rock section. The music video tries to imitate a rock concert here to fit the style of the song. The visuals here are flashier and more dramatic than before which could be described as more calm. The clothing the members wear here are even flamboyant to help. As the song ends, the style and the visual goes back to how it was during the introduction.
I thought that one of the strong points of Bohemian Rhapsody’s music video was how there were many different styles of visuals to go along with the song’s change of styles. I thought that each style matched the mood of the part really well. However, I thought maybe it could have used some symbolisms or allusions to give it greater depth and meaning to the song. I just feel like they could have done a little more with it to enhance the music video whether making the the contrasts between the styles more different or something else. They could’ve maybe tried to emphasize the lyrics with the visuals. However, it was said that the meaning of the song was very individual to the listener. There are a lot of words in the lyrics that seemingly don’t make sense.
Zoom Out
Bohemian Rhapsody is a great example that relates to what we have been learning in class. It shows how the use of technology can improve and be a part of music. Throughout class, we have been learning about how technology is used in a progressive way to change how we consume music. Some examples were recordings and the use of computers to create electronic music. With music videos, the songs that artists created were embedded with more meaning to help convey the message to the audience better.
The coexistence of music and visual media became a common occurrence as video-sharing websites (i.e, Youtube) and streaming services (i.e, Netflix) came into being over the last decade or so. As a result, we tend to perceive the two elements altogether as a single entity and rarely question the nature of their compatibility – for instance, how is the process of collaboration between directors and composers? What are some of the translative techniques used to accurately compose a piece of music for a movie scene?
Ever since the revolutionary integration of synchronized sound into film in the early 1920s, films became an increasingly popular medium through which artists tell their stories. The collaborations between composers and film directors have led to the creation of countless unforgettable cinematic moments. Today, the phenomenal partnership between Christopher Nolan (director) and Hans Zimmer (composer) gave birth to several award winning films such as Inception (2017), Interstellar (2014), and Dunkirk (2017).
In an interview with IndieWire, Hans Zimmer confessed that the memorable theme of Interstellar was composed without referring to the plot of the movie: “Chris said to me, in his casual way. ‘So, Hans, if I wrote one page of something, didn’t tell you what it was about, just give you one page, would you give me one day of work?'” Having had Zimmer’s agreement, Nolan sent him a one-page typewritten letter of a short story: A father leaving his child to take on an important job. Zimmer then quickly wrote the main theme with a simple yet moving chord progression: VI – V – vi. Moreover, the melody consists of four intervals that decrease in size as the harmony develops, representing the expectation of the son and daughter toward their father’s return. Specifically, in the Years of Messages scene, the main theme creeps in while Cooper (the father) is reading years of unread messages from his son and daughter. Tom (the son) eventually gave up on sending the messages because Cooper never responded. As he explained to Cooper in his last message about his loss of faith toward Cooper’s promised return, the significance of the music became prominent: not only did it bring out the son and daughter’s feeling of disappointment toward his father by resolving into the minor chord at the end of each harmonic cycle, but it also served to highlight the stark contrast between the silence that surrounds Cooper in space and the grand music gesture that continued to build until the end of the scene. As a result, the music was able to represent the character’s emotions whenever it came on, heightening the emotional impact of the music as the story develops. As one analyst wrote: “[R]ather than simply being associated with a certain character or group of characters, Zimmer’s themes tend to emphasize the emotions a particular character or group is feeling at various points in the film”. Furthermore, the cyclic quality of the theme captivates the audience by its minimalistic approach, leaving room for the monologue and plot to sink in; as Zimmer himself put it: “Rather than doing a lot… I’m hypnotizing you.”
Lastly, Zimmer’s music provides a level of spaciousness that is unparalleled in many other genres in music; it often fills up the frequency ranges with constant doublings of instrumental phrases and the use of synthesized sounds to provide a much fuller low end. As a result, his music sounds full and rich all on its own, yet the collaboration between the music and the film makes it that much more special – hence the power of film music to emote, inspire, and persuade.
Thinking logically, a music video can do one of three things: enhance, detract from, or do nothing for the music. A successful music video will enhance the music they accompany in a way that increases audience engagement, interest, and attraction to the production. There are multiple ways in which this can be done, and methods will vary across genres of music and what the producer(s) want to highlight. Since the possibilities are endless, for this post I’ve chosen to narrow in on what can make a music video successful specifically in the pop/indie genre.
Of course, whether a music video is “any good” or not is subjective and based on the opinion of the viewers, but one good way to see how the general audience is responding is by viewing the like to dislike ratio of the video as well as the comments (where the anonymity of posting behind a screenname guarantees for brutally honest and raw opinions). Based off of my own opinion and the YouTube audience (33K+ likes to 417 dislikes as of 4/17/19), I think it’s safe to say that the music video to Saw You in a Dream by The Japanese house is doing something right. But what, exactly?
One main difference between attending a live performance and listening to a recording is when replaying recordings, the human connection that exists in a live performance is somewhat lost or missing. Although it isn’t the same, music videos can create visual and mental connections with the audience in addition to the auditory connections that people make when hearing music.
The music video for Saw You in a Dream by The Japanese House creates a visual representation of the song’s atmosphere as the context of the video is dreamy and unreal. In the absence of the human connection that comes with a live performance, this provides the audience with more to grasp onto, deepening their relationship with the music. This creation of atmosphere is important because often times what makes a live performance so special is the ambiance of the performance: being surrounded with the energy of the audience and the mood created by the hall, performers, staging, and effects. Obviously you aren’t going to get that same experience from listening to a recording or even through watching a video and audio pairing, but when well thought out and produced, music videos can achieve a similar effect by giving the audience a taste of the song’s atmospheric character.
A main way in which the Saw You in a Dream music video creates this dreamy and unreal atmosphere is by switching between the incorporation of dark and cool scenes (dreamy) and warm hazy scenes (not grounded in reality). Additionally, the video incorporate elements from real life but use them to create scenes that would be more likely to be spotted in dreams than in real life.
Pictured above is a lone girl riding a two-person bicycle through a room draped with sheets towards a mural and past a potted cactus with a light coming out of it that casts a hazy glow over the room. These elements are all things that exist in real life, but abstract combination of them together in addition to the warm and fuzzy lighting creates the feeling of a dream world.
Additionally, there are multiple elements of the video that reinforce the music’s lyrics, which helps enhance the audience’s connection with the music (in the absence of the human connection a live performance can provide). For instance, during the lyrics “keep my eyes closed” people reach their hands over the eyes of other people, and during “then I awoke and it was so sad” a bright light shines down in the dark atmosphere and the people arise with the main character holding her hand over heart.
Scene during the lyrics “then I awoke and it was so sad.”
This connects and ties together the audience’s senses of sight and comprehension with their sense of sound, creating a more involved experience. Certain video effects used throughout the video also link visuals to melodic sounds in the song. In the opening, instrumentals slide up from E to B and C#, then back to B. During the melodic ascent, the video fades in from black then zooms into the scene, and as the melody settles back a step down to B, the camera pans upwards to show the surrounding scene. This combination of audio reinforced by camera movement draws the audience into the music video’s dream world atmosphere.
Now that you’ve heard from me… what is the general audience saying?
As previously mentioned, the audience reception (judging by the YouTube likes and comments) is pretty positive. After much scrolling through the top comments, I actually didn’t find any negative ones (this is surprising for YouTube but less surprising when looking at the 33K+ likes to 417 dislikes ratio on the video). Well liked comments like these also show that the music video is effective in bringing the audience into the song’s atmosphere.
These comments, specifically the second one pictured show how the audience becomes so drawn into the production and all its elements that they relate to it on a personal level , even sharing their own experiences.
There are also a variety of comments such as these which bring up another topic – the role of technology (specifically electronic devices) in gaining exposure for smaller/less well known artists:
Gabby’s comment suggests that she discovered this song by hearing it in an H&M. She could have asked someone working there for the name of the song, but what also could have happened is she liked what she heard and decided to look up the lyrics to see what the song was. This illustrates how technology has made things so convenient for us as well as how it can help promote less well-known artists by making it easier for them to be discovered – for example if people hear something they like they easily look up the lyrics on google or a song identification website. Or if the music is used in a video they were watching it will be likely linked in the video description for them to click on for further exploration. This is an example of technology working at its prime to assist both the creator and consumer: convenient for the audience/listeners and helpful for the artist(s).
Evanescence is one of the bands that created the foundation for what is now referred to as “gothic rock.” Coincidentally, it’s also one of the only bands that can make me feel like I’m still 13 years old and no one will ever understand me. I’m not the only person that feels this way, though. The Youtube comments on the music video for “Bring Me To Life” mirror similar sentiments, with one user, Marco Alcocer, commenting “it’s not a phase mom.” Evanescence, through their music and their visual aesthetic, resonated with angsty teens on an incredibly widespread level.
Evanescence first became popular in the early 2000s; largely because their songs sounded unlike pretty much all of the other popular music at the time. Their debut album, “Fallen,” came out in 2003, which, to set the scene for the music landscape, was a year in which the Billboard Top 100 was dominated by upbeat songs like “Crazy in Love,” by Beyonce and “Hey Ya!” by OutKast. None of the tracks on “Fallen,” however, sounded like either of those songs.
The most popular song off the album, “Bring Me To Life,” was even described in terms of its relationship to popular music as the “anti-Britney” by the New York Times.Yes, the music was angsty, but what solidified this song as the goth legend it is today was the way the music was combined with visual elements in the music video. Basically, Evanescence used traditional symbols of the gothic style in the music video, which then reinforced the meaning of the lyrics by giving them a historically recognized aesthetic backing.
Bring Me To Life (Official Music Video)
The examples of gothic style that Evanescence used here are plentiful, but for the sake of this post, I’ll just examine a few.
The most easily identifiable gothic element in this video is the color palette. For the duration of the video, there are three main colors: black, white, and dark purple/blue. Notably, there are also flashes of red throughout the whole video, which is a quintessential color in the gothic palette. In fact, typing “gothic color palette” into Google yields the following image.
While the colors may not inherently mean anything, they symbolize a kind of inescapable darkness (especially to anyone who’s ever taken a high school English class) that corresponds to the lyrics of the song. One line in particular, ” call my name and save me from the dark,” exemplifies this idea that the singer is in a dark mental space, so it’s very effective visually that her external surroundings are dark as well.
Another, harder to spot gothic element is the inclusion of the grotesque. Many visuals in the gothic style include grotesque or spectral figures. In the music video, it goes by quickly, but there is a scene that includes clown-like, masked figures.
Screen capture from 1:49 in the “Bring Me To Life” music video
According to Justin Bienvenue, urban gothic (which is the setting of the music video since it takes place in a city during post-industrial society), “is known to put people in horror situations…for an overall dark feel and eerie look.” In this case, it does exactly that. The inclusion of these figures in the music video adds to the overarching feeling that something is not right or is strange in the life/mind of the singer. The fact that they’re masked and not just regular clowns makes it especially creepy, which contributes to the aesthetic of the video overall. Additionally, the speed at which they flash by in the video begs the question of whether they were actually there or creates a “what was that?” effect, which adds to the eeriness of their presence.
Lasting Impressions
In recent years, this song has adopted a new visual medium: the meme. If you didn’t know that this song spurred a popular meme, one scan through the “Bring Me To Life” Youtube comments would fill you in. Youtube user Turnabout Robin commented, “This has become a meme song as of late.” User KR Gaming adds, “I remember listening to this song as a child without thinking of memes…damn.”
The memes in question are similar in format to these:
The move from the music video to memes indicates that the feelings that this song evoked are something that a lot of people look back on with a humorous sort of nostalgia. Basically, we can identify that at one point all of this angst spoke to us, but now we realize that, as much as we hate to admit it, our moms were right, and it was just a phase. As Youtube user The Perfect Gaming Zone put it, “Music is the closest thing we have to a time machine…”
Jonas Brothers pose for the cover of their single, Sucker.
The Jonas Brothers took to world by storm when we were children in the late 2000’s, and now they are back to rock our world once again. On February 28, 2019, they announced their reunion, and on March 1, 2019, the Jonas Brothers released their single, “Sucker” after a six year hiatus. We thought 2013 was the last time we would see our favorite brothers, but after a few sudden Instagram and twitter posts, we prepared ourselves for their return. They quickly hit the top charts, reaching #1 on the Hot 100 Billboard. Not only was their song a banger, their music video was unique and unexpected, pulling us closer to our computer screens.
The elegance of the castle and the costumes contrasts with the pop, upbeat feel of the song. But I feel like there is a connection. In the ages where elaborate dinners and large ball gowns were in, there was an emphasis on showing off and giving importance to women. Their spouses are the center of their attention, the brothers singing these endearing lyrics to them for the whole video. Sucker seems to have been inspired by the fact that the three Jonas Brothers have grown up, and now have wives/fiancees. A popular comment from the video was about the brothers including their significant others, someone writing, “lol I love they added their significant others!” The inclusion of their beautiful, powerful spouses adds emphasis to the meaning of the lyrics “I’m a sucker for you”. Each of the spouses personality was shown through choreography, outfits, and even hair styles, adding to the personal effect that they wished to convey.
The video has a mix of old and new, antique and modern. The castle with the long driveway, the butlers, the elaborate dresses and the large dinner party with dozens of guests is a flash of the past, but they twist it to include a more modern vibe, with smaller details such as the colors and contemporary lyrics to add a 21st century feel. The outfits were bright and flashy, symbolizing their stunning return, but also shows how fashion has developed over the centuries, from monotone colors to bright pinks and sequins, but also referencing current fashion trends sported by other celebrities. For example, Kevin Jonas is seen wearing a psychedelic patterned shirt, a reference to one that Beyonce wore on a day out
This music video was everything good and new, and everything we could have hoped for. The technology used was mostly cameras and lighting, using aerial cameras to capture the mansion and its gardens in its entirety. Another effect of this music video was to be confused about the time period: is this a flashback or just a really ornate costume party? Surprisingly, most of the reactions and comments were positive, people stating, “who else is watching this video continuously cause its just awesome.” Everyone was so excited about their return, there was little room for negativity. Most people were just so shocked that they were back together that every other comment was “omg” or “I love them”. Audience reaction was exactly what the Jonas Brothers were hoping for, the video already at 106 million views.
“Sucker” by the Jonas Brothers. 106 million views.
There are so many different types of music videos out there. My favorites are the very extra and drawn-out ones that tell a story with the song and add to its meaning. That’s why I will be analyzing Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.”
“It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” was the leadoff song on possibly her most successful album and in my opinion, it is her most iconic music video, and one of the most iconic music videos of all time. The video and song are quite long-roughly 6 minutes in length. It starts with a 50 second instrumental introduction. In these 50 seconds, although she hasn’t started singing, we get set up with the overall feel of the video. The music, camera work, etc. come together to give us the feel of what is going on. Musically, we hear both haunting and passionate music as the melody comes in fragments. We already get the sense that something bad is about to happen from that. Not only from the music but from the lightning storm outside. Not to mention the shifting camera work, the scary dark, gothic mansion, the paintings, statues, old knick-knacks, candles and moonlight. And of course, something bad does happen. The person who Celine is singing about in the video dies in a motorcycle accident after a tree falls in his path and catches fire. So, lots of drama. This music video is way over- the-top. It was actually one of the most expensive ones to make. The man who wrote the song, Jim Steinman, is also a man driven to extremes.
“At restaurants, he routinely orders a half-dozen appetizers and a comparable number of entrees and desserts. He creates pop songs that are bigger than everything else on the radio — longer, louder, lusher, with exquisitely layered background vocals, crashing cymbals and emphatic titles…”
Now you can see that why the video is so excessive and extravagant. Check out this pic of Steinman:
The sound in this long instrumental opening is very well planned out. For instance, the motorcycle crashes and the music plays along with it with a sudden strike, along with crashing thunder sound effects. And visually, the sights play along with it too with the explosion of light and fire. The camera is constantly shifting scenes and points of view too which gives us a sense of chaos.
In the rest video, Celine Dion’s character frantically runs alone in the scary mansion while the wind is blowing crazily inside from the open windows. She’s haunted by her dead lover’s ghost image, which she sees in mirrors and picture frames replaying their lives together. It ends with her holding a photo of them, followed by a shot of the storm being over and the sky clearing up, leaving us with a feeling of release.
As you can see, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” is very melodramatic and gets us all feeling some type of way. And I think the commenters agree:
Taylor Harris says “Gosh. I used to belt the hell out of this song when my parents went to work all summer. I sang as if I was longing for love and needed it back. I was 13 and never had a boyfriend…but when I sang this song I sang it as if I had lost one.” Another commenter saying “throwback to when music videos had ACTUAL storylines.” Another person agrees saying “I got chills listening to it and watching the storyline in the video.”
I think these comments show exactly what this music video is going for. It is trying to evoke emotional responses and it does a good job with this in its dramatic, overindulgent fashion. People are reacting to the sounds and images exactly how the director and Celine wanted them too. It’s interesting how much effect a music video can have on a song. A good video can enhance and give deeper meaning to a song through its visual cues, while a bad video can completely ruin a song. Music videos are amazing because we can get another insight into what the artist had in mind with their song. It create this multi-sensory experience. It adds in a new element of feeling. In a lot of ways, it is the song visualized.
These words were spoken in Coventry, England–the same sight for the premiere, 20 years earlier on Memorial Day, 1962, of Britten’s War Requiem at the consecration of the reconstructed St. Michael’s Cathedral, which had been bombed out along with the rest of Coventry in 1940.
The Conception: Britten the Pacifist
For many, the destruction of Coventry, a non-military target, was symbolic of German brutality during the war. As such, it’s reconstruction from ruin was, despite limited post-war resources, a much-needed healing of old wounds and a statement of Britain’s recovery and resilience (Wiebe 194).
When the new Cathedral was finally rebuilt … it was both a monument to the losses of the Second World War and a powerful statement of renewal, a statement given new urgency by rising Cold War tensions.
Heather Wiebe, Britten’s Unquiet Pasts, p. 194
Britten was tapped to write a piece to commemorate the newly rebuilt St. Michael’s Cathedral at the 1962 Coventry Festival ostensibly because of his major international presence and success as a distinctly British composer. This was despite Britten being a well-known pacifist who went abroad just prior to the second world war breaking out and later registered as a conscientious objector, an important point of contention at the time.
Acting on his beliefs, Britten chose to interweave the traditional Latin requiem texts with the poetry of Wilfred Owen, an anti-war poet who died in military service during the First World War. Erin MacLean, of the University of Regina, postulates that Britten’s choice to use the words of a young soldier-poet provided crucial sentiments informed by real war experience that Britten himself lacked (MacLean 44).
The Execution: Vishnevskaya’s Absence
And yet, its premiere was not to go without a hitch. Britten, in order to bolster the anti-war symbolism of the event, intended for the three soloists to be British tenor Peter Pears, German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Soviet soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. It was to signal a union of Europe from the ashes–a new spring.
Britten himself kept close ties with the Soviet Union following the war, visiting often and befriending and working with many Soviet composers and soloists, including Shostakovich, Rostropovich and Vischnevskaya. He drew on these connections to bring Vishnevskaya out of the country to Coventry for his premiere, but mere weeks before the piece was to be performed, the Soviet Union blocked Galina Vischnevskaya from leaving the Soviet Union, likely because of the involvement of Fischer-Dieskau with the project. After all, she was allowed to record the piece and perform it only a year later at the Aldeburgh Festival in Suffolk.
The British Ambassador rightly concluded that the Soviet decision not to allow Galina Vishnevskaya to sing at the premiere of the War Requiem in 1962 … was due to “the character of the occasion at Coventry and possibly to the joint participation of Fischer-Dieskau rather than the work itself/
Cameron Pyke, Benjamin Britten and Russia, p. 171
Music could not be freed from political interests, even to pray for peace. Ultimately, Irish soprano Heather Harper stepped in and performed at the premiere with only ten days notice.
Zooming Out
Fifty-five years after the Coventry Festival of 1962, conservative radio personality Dennis Prager sparked remarkable controversy when he was invited to conduct Haydn’s Symphony No. 51 with the Santa Monica Symphony in Los Angeles, as was highlighted in a September 2017 article in Musicology Now by University of Chicago PhD candidate Ted Gordon.
Guido Lamell, music director of the Santa Monica Symphony, defended his invitation to Prager, which triggered protests from those who disagreed with Prager’s cultural and political views, by stating “music trumps politics.” Similarly, Prager responded to the backlash by stating that this particular performance–of an innocuous Haydn symphony–was in essence apolitical. But as Gordon wrote:
Yet Prager’s performance with the SMSO is of course political: it uses the “genius” of classical music as evidence towards his political ideology of “Western” supremacism. In addition, more practically speaking, his presence at this concert worked towards the creation of a new political group: people united by their supposedly “apolitical” support of “Western Art Music”.
Ted Gordon, “Does ‘Music Trump Politics’? Dennis Prager and the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra”
Britten’s War Requiem shines as an example of just how intertwined politics and music often, inevitably, are. One can look back at 1962 and see the politics at play, the powers and views embedded in the very essence of the project’s conception and execution. Music does not trump politics so much as it reacts to politics–either by willful ignorance, support or subversion. Britten’s was more the latter two, and while Haydn’s symphonies may ostensibly exist independent of today’s politics, the context in which they are presented today can invite politics’ influence in profound ways.
Sounds of a Better World: Music in Protest of War
Despite Pope John Paul II’s plea in 1982, war has not left humanity’s agenda. It is in the news, on our Twitter feeds and on our breath: Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria. The list of violent conflicts, new and old, is extensive, and ever-growing. And yet, so is the body of music produced in response to and in protest of war.
Britten was not the first composer to ever sing in the face of violence, and he is certainly not the last. In 2015, children’s choral composer Jim Papoulis set a poem written by Virginia 7th grader Claire Latimer entitled I Ask For One Day for the Fairfax Choral Society Poetry of Music collaboration with Fairfax County Public Schools.
I ask for one day
Where I don’t have to hear about pain or life that’s lost.
The sentiment of a 12-year-old child making a plea for peace and non-judgement, for just one day, is about as pure and as real of a feeling as I can imagine.
The piece was published under Boosey & Hawkes’ Sounds of a Better World. Of course, a 7th grade student from Virginia doesn’t have quite the same experience as a poet who died in the trenches of World War I, and it may be a while before we align Jim Papoulis with the likes of Britten. In fact, Benjamin Britten and Wilfred Owen seem as far removed from Jim Papoulis and Claire Lattimer as just about anything, but I believe one can draw a powerful comparison in good faith under that fitting phrase: sounds of a better world. Those who would separate music from politics would invalidate the possibility of such sounds.
For generations, music has been used as a political tool, giving power to groups of people that otherwise may be powerless. For the black community this has been the case since the first slave ships arrived in “the land of the free”. Our ancestors sang spirituals on the ships that ripped them from their homeland. They sang as they worked the land that they were forced to adopt. They sang as they marched, rallied, and drove hundreds of miles through the South. And now we sing, but we also rap. Over the last several decades hip hop has become the predominant social, economic, and political voice of the African-American community in music. From “its birth in the 70’s” to its entrance into mainstream culture in the 90’s and continued evolution today, hip-hop tells some of the narratives found inside the ‘African-American’ community. No artist better represents this then the honorable Kendrick Lamar whose album ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ covers a wide array of racial issues from police brutality and mass incarceration to gang violence, black on black crime and mental illness as a result of systematic oppression.
Kendrick Lamar’s political platform arises from his many years of living in Compton California. His father Kenny Ducksworth, was a former member of the street gang Gangster Disciples and was allegedly a drug dealer in Compton. His mother Paula Oliver is originally from Chicago Illinois and had Kendrick 3 years after arriving in Compton in the hopes of avoiding gang violence. Unfortunately, Compton in the 1990’s suffered from the rivalry of two of the largest gangs ever formed in US history, the Bloods and the Crips. Respectively, at their peak the membership of the gangs numbered more than 10,000. In this community Lamar began his musical and poetic journey. He released his first album at age 16 and soon after signed to Top Dawg Entertainment. He steadily gained a following collaborating with many other West coast rappers including Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, and Dr.Dre who he eventually signed with after the release of his critically acclaimed 2011 Section 8.0. The rest is history.
Although biographical information can feel trivial when reading, and writing, to understand the message Kendrick Lamar delivers on TPAB is impossible without some insight into his background. His musical voice addresses the “reasons, and problems, and solutions” to the social and economic problems of black people in Compton because he is legitimately from Compton. Kendrick lamar is not an outsider of the community exploiting hip hop music for celebrity status. He’s a concerned, active member of his community looking to shed some insight on life in Compton. Kendrick considers himself a “writer” who has “to connect to the music” in order to have it speak the truths he’s been told in conversation. It seems that for the honorable Kendrick Lamar music is not just a means of communicating stories but a sort of therapy for all the pain and loss he’s experienced in Compton. Mental health and its impact on impoverished neighborhoods and communities as it pertains to black people specifically, is often overlooked. This album is one of few since the birth of hip hop to subliminally outline the PTSD, depression, and other forms of mental illness one can experience form living in communities full of violence and drug abuse. In TPAB one hears the multiple voices of Kendrick Lamar engage in dialogues with himself and with a symbolic Lucifer over depression, leadership, suicide, and “survivors guilt’ as Lamar calls it.
Kendrick Lamar’s rise to fame wasn’t so much “straight from the bottom” as the song King Kunta may suggest but a testament to his wanting to rise above the violence he saw in ganglife. His contribution to the African-American community as a witness and political activist has had a stunning impact on society as a whole. The honorable Kendrick Lamar is considered one of the best if not the best rapper in the World. His performances continue to astound audiences everywhere while delivering powerful social commentary that cannot be ignored. His use of music to create a platform from which to share the Compton experience is unrivaled in its authenticity, creativity, and power.
In the summer of 1941, Shostakovich began to play his seventh symphony for his friends and family in the city of Leningrad. His new symphony’s first movement began to fill the room, which centered on the sounds of the German invasion. Just as the first movement was coming to a close though, disaster struck as the bomb sirens began to echo throughout the city, the Germans had arrived. Shostakovich quickly gathered his family together and headed for shelter, promising everyone the performance would resume as soon as the sirens went off. Valerian Bogdanov-Berezovsky, a composer that attended this performance later wrote, the Seventh Symphony “is an extraordinary example of a synchronised, instant creative reaction to events as they are being lived through, transmitted in a complex, large-scale form, yet without the slightest hint of compromising the standard of the genre” (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/02/war-music-the-humanity-heroism-and-propaganda-behind-shostakovich-symphony-no-7)
This Symphony in my opinion embodies the idea of an artist recording personal political turmoil on paper and using it to covey and scream a message to his audience. Shostakovich had the worlds throat with his own two hands with his music.
The premiere of the Seventh Symphony is astonishing. In August of 1942, in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Shostakovich premiered his new masterpiece with a starving orchestra, some close to death. These musicians had seen tremendous suffering at the hands of the Germans to the ones they loved most. They defied Hitler’s control, and in response, they made history by using their gift of art to make a political statement. In August of 1942, they filled the “Grand Hall” with sounds that longed and begged for victory and an end to their suffering. G
An interesting thought as a conservatory student: Shostakovich not only was a soviet composer that used propaganda in his music but he was a hero that protected the Leningrad conservatory as a firefighter to keep the school from being destroyed in the war. Shostakovich protected what he loved most. I wish my conductors loved me like this </3 :(…. On July 20, 1942, Dmitri Shostakovich became the first composer to appear on the cover of TIME Magazine. “Amid bombs bursting in Leningrad,” said the caption under a portrait of Shostakovich in an ornate fireman’s helmet, “he hears the chords of victory.” https://www.seattlesymphony.org/watch-listen/beyondthestage/shostakovich
The idea that a composer could write a symphony of this magnitude while a city was being bombed and starved inspired listeners to believe that the Nazis would not gain control of Russia.
The first movement is centered around a simple, singular tune, that implodes and causes destruction throughout the movement. This is meant to resemble Hitler, a singular, simple man who caused destruction on masses of populations and changed the world forever. He later told a friend that he wasn’t exactly trying to portray fascism, but all forms of terror including slavery and control of peoples spirit and joy.
The symphony eventually builds up until the final movement (4) where you would think we would hear a joyous victory. We do, BUT, Shostakovich throws in the simple tune a couple more times and adds sounds of the pain and suffering that occured in his country, reminding the listener of the terrible horror that happened.
Fast forward: Leningrad siege ends 1944->Great Patriotic War->1948, Shostakovich’s music is banned.
As Shostakovich’s 7th symphony travels through time, we get to observe new interpretations that pertain to the political turmoil today, Shostakovich may have written this Symphony in defiance for Russia, but in the end, it can be as a political outcry for anyone. We can see an example of this when Colin Kaepernick refused to stand as the Star Spangled Banner played at a football game. This can clearly be compared to Shostakovich’s act of political resistance with his seventh symphony because both figures used peaceful protest in order to effectuate their point that what was going on in their countries at both times wasn’t right. I personally agree with Colins choice because the state of our nation is weaker than ever and seems to be heading in the wrong direction. People like Colin with large social platforms have the ability to make change and wake people up, which is exactly what he did.
You can read more on the article here on Colin here:
“A revolution is unfurling-America’s unfinished revolution. It is unfurling in lunch counters, buses, libraries and schools-wherever the dignity and potential of men are denied. Youth and idealism are unfurling. Masses of Negroes are marching onto the stage of history and demanding their freedom now!” These fiery words from Civil Rights leader John Philip Randolph capture the call to revolution in the 1950s and 60s. The United States were in upheaval as Black Americans fought for equality in a nation which claims that “All men are created equal.” Around the nation, freedom fighters were participating in sit-ins, boycotts, and other forms of protest. In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, in 1957, the Little Rock Nine braved the harassment of their school, and in 1960, Max Roach recorded an album that would prove to be a jazz anthem the revolution happening all around him.
John Phillip Randolph, the Civil Rights Leader who’s words appear in the “Freedom Now!” liner notes (biography.com)
The Album Cover to “We Insist!” depicts a sit-in, with three black men sitting at a what is most likely a white bar
It was into this scene that Max Roach inserted his musical call for freedom, the legendary album, “We Insist! The Freedom Now Suite!” The album had been politically motivated from the beginning. The liner notes suggest that the NAACP had hired Roach and vocalist Oscar Brown Jr. to write a piece for the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which would occur in 1963. Although the Brown/Roach collaboration would be ended due to differing political views, the theme of freedom remained. Roach was joined by Vocalist Abbey Lincoln (who would be his wife from 1962-1970) and a star-studded cast of instrumentalists such as Booker Little (trumpet) and Julian Priester (trombone). The album captures Roach’s transition to the be-bop jazz-club scene to the harsher, grittier avant-garde style of the 1960s. This transition suits the harsh subject matter extremely well and provides a powerful picture of his world. The liner notes begin with the revolutionary quote from John Phillip Randolph. Roach and company were intentional about getting their message across. They wanted freedom, and they wanted it now.
The Album is composed as a chronological history of black culture in the US. “Driva Man” is a reference to pre-civil war slavery; “Freedom Day” recalls the excitement, anticipation and tension of Emancipation Day; “Triptych: Prayer, Protest, Peace” paints a vivid picture of the troubles blacks experienced in both the US and Africa; “All Africa” is a celebration of African culture; and “Tears for Johanassburg” is a response to the Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa.
A live version of “Freedom Day” performed in 1964. In this version, Roach plays a powerful solo near the beginning of the tune.
The performances on the album are all noteworthy, showcasing extreme virtuosity and expression. Particularly, “Freedom Day”, the most arranged tune on the album, stands out. Although the melody is simple, the tempo is absolute breakneck. Roach manages to keep up with this extreme tempo throughout, and provides a beautifully motivic and powerful solo near the end of the song. He begins simply, and then builds these simple motives to a thundering conclusion. Equally impressive is Little’s trumpet solo. Despite the extreme tempo, Little provides a fiery solo that is motivically sound and technically impressive. The tutti sections before and after the solo sections is particularly effective thanks to the powerful bass pedals that change shift under the dense chords of the horns. The lyrics, sung hauntingly by Lincoln, show an absolute disbelief that freedom day has come. This can be seen as powerful commentary of current events in the 50s and 60s. Although the Emancipation Proclamation provided some measure of freedom, true freedom still evaded black Americans. Roach himself stated that “we don’t really understand what it really is to be free. The last song we did, “Freedom Day” ended with a question mark.” This explains the mournful quality in a tune which subject matter would suggest jubilation.
The original Album version of Freedom DayMax Roach and Abbey Lincoln
