Relationship between Music and Social Politics

Introduction

Music has always served as a barometer of society, whether or not those listening reflect on what it tells of their era. In China, during the construction of the Great Wall, one emperor sent servants to note down what his workers were singing - a primitive opinion poll. In 1703, the Scottish patriot Andrew Fletcher suggested: '' If a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation.''

Discussion

Throughout the history, music and politics have often been combined, with mixed success. Although politically oriented musicians such as Bob Marley and Joan Baez tried to collapse the distance separating singing and organizing, songs seem ephemeral when compared with bullets or votes. Their effect is subtle and virtually impossible to measure. The impact of a song is often separate in time and space from the original singer. Music's limited effectiveness in political organizing may be inherent (Banfield, pp. 45-68). As the English poet Stephen Spender pointed out, those writing revolutionary songs or poetry may be thwarted by the anti-materialist nature of their craft: ''Music is the most powerful of idealist drugs except religion.'' The most moving and effective political music actually distracts listeners from their daily struggles by spellbinding them. These songs thus evoke not the bitterness of repression but the glory of a world remade.

Music captures the soul in ways that few political speeches can; it has encouraged and inspired revolutions. Realizing this, governments have tortured musicians like Victor Jara in Chile or Mikos Theodorakis in Greece, hoping to destroy a song by silencing its composer. But songs are made of unbreakable stuff, words and music, which need only breathe and spirit to live. In the United States thumbscrews for composers are nonexistent; investigations are far more common (Eyerman & Jamison, pp. 145-189).

An important black musician who had important role in to politics of his era is Charlie Parker. In the year, 1955 he died at thirty-five years. With him, the illusions of American society, on the hopes of integration arising from the war died too. Parker has become a myth and a martyr: he lived for his music, while the white musicians who live and imitated pretty well. These observations, made ??in the atmosphere segregationist fifties, bringing musicians to specific conclusions about the future of their art. Musicians strived hard to keep a cultural identity, to be intransigent on the content and possibly on its market value. This upgrades black music and rising of voice against fading and recovery made him the icon. Parker then became the inspiration of younger generation. The thirst for creation, involvement in the social, cultural, political, and religious and also the awareness of participating in a special event are elements inherited from Parker (Broeck, pp. 220-239). The ideas of Parker lead to the formation of Free Jazz. It is characterized by the desire to innovate and release the discourse of commercial and aesthetic constraints of traditional jazz.

Jazz, and more ...