This essay on popular music society covers a popular topic many students choose when they address us with a ‘write my essays’ request’. If you also write your paper on this topic, the following will be a great example for you.
Music and society have a very interesting bond. In almost every culture, music has been given specific importance. It has been considered as the best way to express emotions, feelings and interlink with social issues. It is one of the oldest types of art that is used for self-expression. Whether people understand the language or have musical knowledge of every culture’s music, it delivers universal language. People respond and like the music of any culture or genre if it is properly composed. Music is a common phenomenon in many cultures, and artists use it as a tool to express their grief for any social issue. There are several examples from the past when music was used to protest against a certain issue. It influences society and has the power to bring change. However, it is important to understand that what kind of music can bring change in society. Being a great part of society, it helped in different times, whether in the form of flutes and lyres of the ancient Greeks or it excites the feelings and helps armies fight in the battles. Within the society, it has social conflict and a desire for change (Baur, 2001). Protesting is an important way to show concern for social issues and events, and music is one of the powerful protesting mediums to engage people. Music comprises the intonation and sound to create rhythms and appeal human ear. The potential and variety of rhythms in music influence emotions and lead to the specific behavior that affects and create interaction in the environment. This memo aims to suggest benefit concerts, an important part of social music, that will help in creating awareness among mass about the Black Lives Matter Movement that our agency wants to spread. This form of music will help motivate more people to raise voices against this issue, as it has done several times in history.
Music and Social Movements
There is a huge list of movements involving music to convey knowledge about a social issue and provoke people to participate in the protest. Several songs have historical movements’ background such as during Civil War Rights in America, music played an enormous role to provoke people to raised voices against Blacks rights. A few of the famous songs of famous artists of civil war rights are, “Oh Freedom” by Joan Baez, “We Shall Not Be Moved” by Mavis Staples, “This Little Light of Mine” by Sam Cooke it was a children’s song, but restored during civil rights movements to empower personal rights of people. Only a Pawn in Their Game’ by Bob Dylan talked about the great issues of Ever’s murder. “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday was made at the beginning of civil war rights (Bowen-Murphy, 2015). Several other songs and artists played an important part in hyping people’s emotions, giving their feelings a voice, and helping them express themselves with songs. Many songs were sung even during rallies, and even at this time, they have remembered and recalled the hardships that blacks faced during the civil rights movements. These songs and artists have proved that music can change the dilemma, infuse people to fight for their rights, and encourage them to take the initiative to change their social stances. Most of the music during the civil rights movement was spiritual, folk and gospel. Many singers and musicians collaborate and sing these songs to motivate people for a long march, give them mental strength to go against harassment and violence, and encourage them for their acts. Many activists also pushed musicians as they came to understand that music was very important during civil rights. Beethoven had a great saying that “Music can change the world”. Its power is not deniable as people have experienced it in different movements.
Black Lives Matter Movement
It is an international social movement that was formed to fight racism. For the past several decades, American society has had discrimination issues. This discrimination has never been evaded from society, even after employing several acts. Blacks are still struggling hard for their rights, and it is an ongoing process in American society. In 2013, Black Lives Movement started to condemn a brutal act of police killing Black people. Society started to demand safety even from the police that has made and aimed to secure people’s lives. Blacks are not even safe from police. They wanted justice for the people killed and the people who are still surviving in this society. Their lives are as precious as the lives of any other person of any other culture. Activists started this movement, and we, as part of society, our agency has also started this movement to give rights to Black people. When several people from different fields come outside from their homes to protest against this issue, at the same time, musicians also made their active contribution to show their grief and anger through their music (Tucker, 2010).
Music for Black Lives Matter Movement
Like several other movements, this movement also had a great contribution to music. This contribution was started by Garner’s siblings, who did not want to let this tragic moment fade away from history. To remember this social issue, they released “I can’t breathe,” joined by countless singers and musicians to raise voices against this brutal act. Many other musicians also made other songs that supported this event. For instance, Beyoncé’s fearless “Freedom” song is an example of it. Houston MC Z-Ro and icons like Prince also collaborated to release songs to show their heartache feelings against the police brutality. They all addressed racism in their songs and the rights that racists need to have while living in a civilized and developed country. Many other artists used music as a powerful tool to protest this inhumane act (Humphreys, 2020).
Benefit Concert
Benefit concerts are also known as charity concerts. They have held while having a special social concern. It is a very know form of music performance and is usually held during gala shows. These are usually arranged during an immediate humanitarian critical situation to give support to people and give them a motivation that the entire country is with them. Benefit concerts can either be subjective or concrete objectives. For the subjective-objective, they include raising awareness against the issues such as see live 8 held to understand the misery of Africa and help nation after the disaster and give tribute to their heroes.
On the other hand, concrete objective aims to raise funds such as Live Aid on television or if influence legislation Live 8: Farm Aid. In 1971, George Harrison organized a benefit concert for Bangladesh for a social issue. The main idea of the benefit concert started at that time. The modern form of benefit concert has created by Bob Geldof ass Live Aid. These were the two largest benefit concerts of history in size; both had billions of spectators. Researchers have analyzed that the trend of benefit concerts started after the popularity of these all-time famous. Therefore, I have planned to hold a subjective-objective type of benefit concert to give more awareness to people about the rights of Blacks in our society (McIntosh, 2020). They are constantly struggling for their rights. When the entire world starts thinking that they are settled down, any inhumane event again negates our approach that American society has vanished this discrimination issue from this society. To avoid any other issue as Black Lives would happen in the future, we need to raise our voice and boost people to bring a change. For this purpose, I believe music can give us more power to collaborate with people from different walks of life to share their common objective of saving a life.
Advantages of Benefit Concert
The main advantage of a benefit concert is that it is the calmest and nonviolent form of protest. People gather to protest against a social issue. Still, they do not throw anything; they do not say aggressive slogans, no police is involved in stopping people from expressing their emotions and sentiments. Millions of people can join the concert without committing any violence. They come to enjoy music and pay tribute to the people who suffered from any social injustice. The next important advantage of benefit concerts is that people from all over the world are welcome to join artists and musicians to protest against an inhumane issue. Otherwise, cultural and political boundaries sometimes do not allow people from other countries to come together and join protests for any social dilemma. Benefit concerts eliminate personal interests, and people have only one common interest to awake the world against some issue. It has considered the most active and considerable way of getting the attention of the entire world. Benefit concerts can be arranged for people to physically join the concert. With the help of media, live coverage has made it possible to broadcast live concerts so that people who cannot come can join the protest while sitting in their homes (Long, 2013). In past examples, we have analyzed drastic changes have made in society through music. Therefore, I have planned to take help of benefit concert. Other than musicians and artists, several companies also collaborate to sponsor these kinds of concerts. In terms of musicians and singers, they do not demand high charges to be a part of these concerts. They always like to attend these charity-oriented concerts that give benefit to society. Therefore, we can approach big and famous artists and musicians for this noble cause. If we involve these artists, there will be more people coming to attend this concert. These concerts can be prolonged for three to five days, depending on the strength of the audience. If many people want to come and attend a benefit concert, then the number of days can extend. It can be held for one whole day; however, it depends on the audience’s demand.
Disadvantage of Benefit Concerts
There are no significant drawbacks of the benefit concert; they should be arranged properly. No mishap should happen during the concert that could lose the attention of the audience. The authority is responsible if any negative event happens, such as the fight between the audience related to the issue. It is very important to consider the sensitivity of the issue. Therefore, the security and other arrangements should be accordingly. If some problem happens during the concert, people do not like to come and attend next time and even leave the concert immediately.
Benefit Concert Plan
I have planned to arrange a benefit concert to grab the attention of people in our society towards the rights of the Black community. After spending several years in American society, now they must be given a right of a citizen. They are still treated inhumanly. The main aim of our benefit concert is to condemn the social issue of the murder of Blacks by American police officers. We will call different leading artists such as Jay Z, Daye Jack, Killer Mike, Lauryn Hill, and Janelle Monae to participate in our benefit concert (Skrypchenko, 2020). All of these artists have already made songs against this issue. We should invite them to give their tremendous performance and specific songs that they have composed to support blacks and raise voices against police officers’ brutal acts. When they were released, people loved these songs; their music, lyrics, and tunes were so healing that people remember their songs even now. Through our benefit concert, we will arrange three days benefit concerts and ask these artists to play their music on different days to hook the audience and help them express their emotions on the suppressed rights of blacks in this civilized society.
Recommendations
In several concerts, the sound arrangement is the main issue. If any chaos happens related to the sound system, the entire concert can collapse. To avoid this kind of situation, a backup sound system should arrange, so the artists and the audience will not annoy in any case. Unexpected weather is another problem that can ruin any benefit concert. This issue can be solved by arranging an indoor space of any hall near the outdoor area, so that, in case of rain comes down or before the day of the concert management will come to know that there will be rain, they can quickly communicate audience and artists to change their plan of arranging the concert in indoor settings. This plan will help to save the event. If the rain starts during the concert, the management should arrange umbrellas for the audience to save them from the worst weather conditions. Long queues are another major issue that people face during a benefit concert. To resolve this problem, we should plan and estimate the number of people coming to our event. After clarifying or predicting the number of people, we can increase the number of people to sell tickets. Therefore, people will not wait in long queues. The arrangement of toilets and food vendors should be proper so that people will not distract from the main cause of the event. We should arrange our staff according to the number of people so there will be proper control during the concert and no one will ruin the purpose of this concert. All of these necessary steps are required before arranging the benefit concert. I have found it the most effective way of contributing to any social issue. Thus, I have planned that our agency involves music to protest against the intense action against the Black community.
References
Baur, S. (2001). Music, Morals, and Social Management: Mendelssohn in Post-Civil War America. American Music, 19(1), 64. https://doi.org/10.2307/3052597
Bowen-Murphy, A. (2015). Music Along with the Rapidan: Civil War Soldiers, Music, and Community during Winter Quarters, Virginia by James A. Davis. Civil War History, 61(4), 461-463. https://doi.org/10.1353/cwh.2015.0075
Humphreys, S. (2020). Review of Black Lives Matter and Music: Protest, Intervention, Reflection. Popular Culture Review, 31(2). https://doi.org/10.18278/pcr.31.2.14
Long, N. (2013). The Power of Music: Issues of Agency and Social Practice. Social Analysis, 57(2). https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2013.570202
McIntosh, H. (2020). Charity Benefit Concerts and the One World: Together at Home Event. Rock Music Studies, 8(1), 76-82. https://doi.org/10.1080/19401159.2020.1852773
Skrypchenko, I. (2020). Black Lives Matter As A Political And Social Movement: Imagination And Reality. Politology Bulletin, (84), 218-227. https://doi.org/10.17721/2415881x.2020.84.218-227
Tucker, J. (2010). Mediating Sentiment and Shaping Publics: Recording Practice and the Articulation of Social Change in Andean Lima. Popular Music And Society, 33(2), 141- 162. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007760903142863
