Protest Songs

and

Music for Social Change Workshop

Synopsis:

Workshop participants will learn a brief history of Protests Songs and Music for Social Change by listening to musical examples spanning from 1540 to 2014. The participants will then explore a series of questions pertaining to techniques that are used in protest songs and how they might begin to create their own.

Objectives:

To become aware of the history of music for social change

To listen to musical examples of music for social change over the years

To analyze what tactics each piece of music uses and why that was powerful at that time

To begin to think creatively how one might create their own protest song

Materials and Resources:

  • Computer
  • Speakers
  • Access to the Internet
  • Links for:
  • William Byrd:
  • Shostakovich:
  • Charlie and His Orchestra:
  • Freedom Riders:
  • It Better End Soon-Chicago:
  • Ohio-Neil Young:
  • Pussy Riot:
  • Emmanuel Jal:
  • Remote First Nation’s kids create haunting versions of Cup Song
  • Colored Markers
  • 8.5 X 11 or 17 X 11 pieces of paper

Check In (5 min)

  • Ask each participant to say their name and a brief description of where they’re “at” emotionally in the moment. Anything that helps the group get a read on our collective mood.

Icebreaker (5 min)

  • Name a song that could describe your emotional or spiritual condition and why.
  • Debrief: What are the similarities between the songs just listed? The differences?
  • What are different ways that songs relate to us, our mood, and our needs etc.

Warm-up Discussion:

  • Breaking up into groups of three or four, list as many protest songs that you can think of.
  • Which songs out of your list do you find especially powerful?
  • In your groups, use the colored markers and pieces of paper and the names of the songs, and if possible, the artists associated with the songs on the paper.
  • Lay the paper on the ground with the favorite songs ranking first, from left to right
  • The groups will come back together and will go ask a large group to each “station” to view the lists of songs that each group has put together.
  • What do you think each song is trying to achieve?
  • What techniques does it employ to achieve the goal?
  • Sociologist R. Serge Denisoff saw protest songs as being in two different categories: Magnetic and Rhetorical.
  • Magnetic: songs were aimed at attracting people to the movement and promoting group solidarity such as “Eyes on the Prize” and “We Shall Overcome”.
  • Rhetorical: personal indignation with a straightforward political message designed to change political opinion. –Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” and “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye.
  • Listen briefly to “We Shall Overcome” and “What’s Going On” to hear examples of this.
  • “We Shall Overcome” –Pete Seeger
  • “What’s Going On”-Marvin Gaye
  • Which style appeals to you? Why?
  • How do the songs we came up with in our groups fit into this framework?
  • Which of our songs were magnetic?
  • Which of our songs were rhetorical?
  • Which style would you rather write in?

Listening and Reflecting Through History

Hidden Messages:

  • Music history is filled with composers having to discretely insert their beliefs into their music for fear of going against wealthy patrons, the church, the government or the aristocracy.
  • William Byrd: 1540-1623 was a devout Catholic in a Protestant country who buried pro-Catholic messages into the Latin texts of the sacred motets he composed for Queen Elizabeth I.
  • Listen:
  • Shostakovich: 1906-1975 endured close scrutiny throughout much of his career. After Stalin died he created his Symphony No. 10 and it is said that the Scherzo movement is a depiction of Stalin’s ruthless persona.
  • Listen: Shostakovich symphony No. 10 Second Movement: Scherzo

These are two (though there are so many!) examples of compositions with hidden protests

 Do you think that hidden protests are as effective as blatant ones? Why or why not?

More History: Subtle and Not so Subtle Protest:

  • During WWII, the Nazi’s banned Jazz music. An entire movement arose called “Swing Youth”
  • “Charlie and his orchestra” was a propaganda big band
  • Listen:
  • Freedom Riders: Were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern U.S. beginning in the year 1961 to challenge the non-enforcement of The United States Supreme Court’s decisions Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia and Boynton v. Virginia which ruled that segregated buses was unconstitutional. The Freedom Riders would ride interstate buses in the South in mixed racial groups to challenge local laws or customs that enforced segregated seating. Violent reactions occurred and police often wouldn’t intervene until after white mobs had first been allowed to attack. Ernest “Rip” Patton was one of these Freedom Riders and was arrested on one of the bus rides.
  • Watch and listen:
  • What were the purposes of these songs?
  • Why were these songs effective?
  • What else could they have done?
  • What was effective about the demeanors of the leaders of the Freedom Riders?
  • What were the goals of the Freedom Riders?
  • Why were the songs staged the way that they were to achieve those goals?
  • Of course, Vietnam War has offered a lot of what most of think of directly when we think of protest music. These are couple of examples:
  • Listen to:
  • It Better End Soon-Chicago
  • Ohio-Neil Young
  • Pussy Riot(current) is a feminist Russian punk rock group. This video is a “performance” staged at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The women say that their protest was directed at the Orthodox Church leader’s support for Putin during his election campaign.
  • Watch:
  • What are your thoughts after watching this video?
  • Do you think that “staged protests” like this one are effective?

Storytelling As a Way for Social Change:

  • Emmanuel Jal- former child soldier tells his story through Rap music
  • Listen to:
  • Do you think that storytelling in this way with repetition and music is more effective than spoken word?
  • What are musical tactics that Emmanuel Jal is using that he wouldn’t be able to use in spoken word? (Repetition, Video “choreography” etc)

Co-Opting:

  • Watch:
  • “Remote First Nation’s kids create haunting version of Cup Song”
  • This popular song with the repeated words “You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone” and “It sure would be prettier with you” which is flashed briefly at the end of the video take on different meanings as these children from the remote Berens River First Nation in Manitoba sing it. Images of decay as well as the beauty of the area are shown throughout the video as the children of the area join together to sing the song.
  • What is the goal?
  • What is the impact on you?
  • What did they do technically to achieve it?
  • Was it effective?
  • What would you change?

Protest in Action: Creating the Songs

  • What message would you put into your protest song?
  • What is the goal/desired impact of your song?
  • What techniques from history will you borrow or steal?
  • How will you update them for our moment in history?

Presentation and Reflections

Final Debrief