Music as a Source for Change
Do you ever just sit alone and start tearing up due to a song? Music is everywhere and is a universal language living inside of people. It’s built by storytelling and tradition. Music has always been inspirational and influential to youths globally. It also moves people to want change and growth in the world. And yet, some see certain music as dangerous and evil for people and associate that dangerous music with minorities.
An artist freely expressing themselves within a movement is more rare in our modern world. People are more prone to be selfish and disingenuous. An example is when N.W.A was making gangsta rap, they were seen as a heinous group of people for speaking their minds about the reality of stereotypes against black people. Music has now shifted to a more party-hard approach, rather than a fight-for-change approach as in the past.
In order for society to change their certain views of hip hop and rap they must learn about what an artist is truly trying to accomplish with their music. An artist known as Lil Baby released a song titled “The Bigger Picture,” in which he states, “it’s bigger than black and white,” meaning race doesn’t need to be a factor in fairness and justice. According to Noel King, “The Bigger Picture,’ which draws on his experience with police and criminal justice, became a new anthem of the movement.” This song was shortly released after the death of a black man named George Floyd, and the outcry for justice was supercharged with the Black Lives Matter Movement.
Society sees hip hop — and any change in music genres — as a bad influence on the younger generation. The response is to try to block youth from expressing themselves creatively. According to Corey Miles, “Hip hop, which has served as the voice of black urban youths, has been socially constructed as criminal and, consequently, is considered a threat to the moral fabric of the United States.” Hip hop has grown on its own as an extensive genre with many interesting artists, and yet critics have still surfaced to hammer on hip hop.
According to Laurel Rineheart, “Naysayers will describe it as explicit, glorifying depictions of violence — a general indicator of the deterioration of modern society. Those who subscribe to this view have fallen prey to the negative stereotypes commonly associated with black men in our culture. In doing so, skeptics are missing out on the culturally significant experience hip hop offers to those who are willing to put aside these stereotypes.” Hip hop shouldn’t solely be depicted as something bad, but as a genre that is ever changing and influential to the youth of today.
Music speaks to many audiences and has transformed throughout the eras with people from diverse backgrounds tuning into other genres of music. Mainstream music and minorities are sometimes linked together as the perpetrator when violence happens in the United States. According to Autumn Carter, “The problem with suggesting that race and violence are causally linked is that it rejects the notion that individuals are rational beings each with their own volition. It suggests that an individual chooses to engage in violence because he is black, not that he chooses to do so of his own free will.” People fail to understand that violence and stereotypes should not be linked to music, but to the action of the person. Stereotypes should be forgotten and people should make room for positive views on people of color.
Playlist for Perspective
“Same Love” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (2012)
The song speaks to people of the LGBTIA+ community in which the world and music industry just simply ignores them for being of that community.
“Man that’s gay” gets dropped on the daily
We’ve become so numb to what we’re sayin’
Our culture founded from oppression…
Yeah, we don’t have acceptance for ’em
Call each other faggots behind the keys of a message board
A word routed in hate yet our genre still ignores it
Macklemore is speaking on the way in which conforming with the toxic culture has lead to a more broad form of discrimination towards gays and people alike. Hip hop is just ignoring the LGBTQIA+ community and supporting the growing stereotype of gay people.
“Hard Work” by Sally Rogers (1995)
Sally Rogers has a different take on the life of a man, in which the man lives the stereotypical role of a woman in a nuclear family society. The man is now the woman, and he even takes care of his kids, but his spirit is now taken away due to being silenced every single second of his life. His voice doesn’t matter anymore, so he just chooses to live every day without fighting for his voice. This song embodies the whole stereotypical role of women, and how society must change as a whole for the betterment of everyone’s rights.
“Beautiful Red Dress” by Laurie Anderson (1989)
“Beautiful Red Dress” relates to the stereotype of a woman not achieving much in the past decades and being subjected to hardships due to men viewing them as inferior beings.
You know, for every dollar a man makes
A woman makes 63 cents
Now, fifty years ago that was 62 cents
So, with that kind of luck It’ll be the year 3,888
Before we make a buck
She speaks from the perspective of a women and how society keeps them from making a bigger impact on the world, instead ensuring that men do so. The song is important to my issue, because this is still a problem till this day in our society. But it is getting better every single day.
“Free Your Mind” by En Vogue (1999)
En Vogue produces a song that everyone can relate to, because it’s solely about stereotypes of things in our everyday lives.
I wear tight clothing, high heeled shoes
It doesn’t mean that I’m a prostitute, no no
I like rap music, wear hip hop clothes
That doesn’t mean that I’m out sellin’ dope, no no no
Oh my forgive me for having straight hair, no
It doesn’t mean there’s another blood in my heir, yeah yeah
I might date another race or color
It doesn’t mean I don’t like my strong black brothers
The song connotes to me that everyone has a choice to free their mind by just being imaginative and free going, but if you think differently you may think about some stereotypes. Being free-minded is key to understanding everybody and the certain biases that another person might have. Understanding this can lead to a drastic change in one’s overall thinking. Overall, the song is teaching people to be free-minded, but at the same time, to think about the severity of certain stereotypes.
Final Thoughts
I believe that as a society, we must change our perspective on many issues and problems, because we must come to an agreement on certain things. I feel as though stereotyping people is unnecessary. We all come from different backgrounds; knowing this, we shouldn’t have any prejudice towards one another. The things I value in life are respect, hard work, and goals. As a collective we must listen to each other’s ideals so that the world can exist with less harm and prejudice. The conversation matters, because we as people hope for certain changes everyday, and we must end heartless behaviors associated with hate. If we learn to love one another for who we are, and respect each other as well, we can strive to make the world a better place little by little. As individuals, we must support each other in our movements because this course of action can lead to better changes for everyone. As a community, we can help one another when we’re in need of help because that is what being human is all about. Institutions and areas of work should hire people based on merit, not skin color, and in order to achieve that we must learn to respect each other. Honestly, change needs to occur, because senseless arguments and hate for one another is pointless. We must change as a society so that we can fully be capable of succeeding in the future, not struggling due to pointless interventions.
- Carter, Autumn. “Black Music and Black People Do Not Beget Violence.” Media Violence, edited by Noah Berlatsky, Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, Originally published as “Editor’s Note: Blackness Does Not Beget Violence,” Stanford Review, vol. 7,link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010153406/OVIC?u=mcc_chandler&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=179bfd66. Accessed 3 Oct. 2022.
- King, Noel. “Lil Baby on Taking Music Apart to See ‘the Bigger Picture.’” NPR.org, 21 Oct. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/10/21/923944010/lil-baby-my-turn-bigger-picture-criminal-justice. Accessed 3 Oct. 2022.
- Miles, Corey. “Mass Incarceration.” St. James Encyclopedia of Hip Hop Culture, edited by Thomas Riggs, St. James Press, 2018, pp. 272–276. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3679700132/GVRL?u=mcc_chandler&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=f2bb953d. Accessed 3 Oct. 2022.
- Don’t Let Stereotypes Turn You Off From Hip Hop Music. (2017, April 6). The Daily Nexus. https://dailynexus.com/2017-04-06/dont-let-stereotypes-turn-you-off-from-hip-hop-music Accessed 3 Oct. 2022.
