The Power Of Music

The Power of Music – and the beat goes on…

“It all starts with a song … a burst of human emotion that, for all its simplicity and relatively humble place in society, often has the power to change the world. Over the years, music has come to define the times in which various songs appeared, and proved to be the catalyst for the transformation of the cultural and political landscape. Music both reflects the world around it and simultaneously, transforms it. “

(Nine-part documentary series Impact: Songs That Changed The World, SBS Television)

Thousands of songs have participated in this iterative process of reflecting the world and simultaneously, transforming it. A few of them, and their stories, are found below.

Strange Fruit. “Few songs carry as devastating an emotional punch as Strange Fruit” (San Francisco Chronicle). Scornful, haunting, the song was an anti-lynching anthem that Billie Holiday recorded in the late 1930s. It's been called a declaration of war. The beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. One of ten songs that changed the world. The song's lyrics describe a lynched black man hanging from a poplar tree ("Strange trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root..."). In 1939, its performance sparked controversy (and often violence) wherever Billie Holiday went. Not until sixteen years later did Rosa Parks refuse to yield her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. It was twenty-five years before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led his famous march on Washington. Yet "Strange Fruit" lived on, and in the more than sixty years since its 1939 debut at Café Society, the legendary Greenwich Village nightclub, it has been performed by everyone from Nina Simone and Cassandra Wilson to Tori Amos, Sting, and UB40. The song foretold a movement, and is a testament to the lady who dared to sing it.

We Shall Overcome – It is impossible to explain the impact of the Civil Rights Movement without the power of this Negro Spiritual that became the movement’s anthem. “We shall overcome, we shall overcome some day. Oh, deep in my heart, I still believe that we shall overcome someday. We’ll walk hand in hand…” In every peaceful protest, in response to every violent arrest, whether marching against the most brutal of attacks by fire hoses, Billy clubs and vicious dogs, or reacting to cross burnings or the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church and the murder of four little Black girls, the response was the same – a song that reminded people of what they were fighting for, and encouraged them to stay with the fight, without resorting to violence. The Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, an associate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "One cannot describe the vitality and emotion this hymn evokes across the Southland. I have heard it sung in great mass meetings with a thousand voices singing as one. I've heard a half dozen sing it softly behind the bars of the Hinds County Prison in Mississippi. I have heard old women singing it on the way to work in Albany, Ga. I've heard the students singing it as they were being dragged away to jail. It generates power that is indescribable. It manifests a rich legacy of musical literature that serves to keep body and soul together for that better day which is not far off. Still today, it captures the spirit of our country’s most powerful and defining social movement.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin’s RESPECT, adopted by a generation of African American performers as a theme song, rapidly found a much larger iconic home, as an empowering statement for African American women in particular. Eventually it became a rallying cry for the Women’s movement, inspiring women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds for four decades.

What’s Going On? “Mother, mother, there’s far too many of you crying. Brother, brother, brother, there’s far too many of you dying. You know, we’ve got to find a way to bring some loving here today. Talk to me, so we can see, what’s going on.” Twenty years after his death, Marvin Gaye is still considered one of the most influential people in music history. He recorded What's Going On, his groundbreaking masterpiece, in only 10 days — while fighting Motown president Barry Gordy all the way. Gordy didn't like his matinee-idol star singing anti-war and pro-environmental anthems. He didn't think the album would sell. Gaye proved Gordy wrong. The song was like a shot going off. It went to number 1 in record time, instantly became the pre-imminent voice of the worldwide peace movement, and opened the door for other Motown artists like Stevie Wonder to explore and write music that reflected their souls. What’s Going on, now universally regarded as one of the greatest albums ever made, has had a much greater impact than can be measured by its number 4 slot in VH1’s Top 100 Albums of all time. The song has been recorded by over 100 different artists, and the questions it raised in the 1960s continue to be relevant today.

I’m Coming Out. Seeking to reinvent her sound, Diana Ross hired Chic’s Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards to write and produce her first album of the ‘80’s. The result was a major hit album and two of the greatest songs of her career. I’m Coming Out, the lesser of the two hits initially, has endured as an anthem for the gay community and anyone asserting personal rebirth and independence. When Diana Ross sang “I’m Coming Out, I want the world to know, I've got to let it show," the affirmation worked equally well for women, blacks and gays who were tired of trying to "pass" in roles defined by a society that historically did not include them. This song is credited with not only inspiring a movement, but popularizing this phrase to the mainstream public the world over.

Ebony and Ivory: This song by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney was the first song to deal explicitly with the tensions between Blacks and Whites, and taught that we should all be able to live harmoniously together just like the keys on a piano. The simple but profound song was made even more poignant by Stevie’s renown as a piano player, and the imagery of him being completely blind to the color of the keys, and by McCartney’s role as rock royalty and his enduring commitment to a better society. The song had especially significant impact in places where racial tension were highest between these two groups, topping the play list charts of almost every major radio station in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta (all cities notorious for inter-racial tensions) and spanning music genres from pop to R&B, rock, and even country, and still influences perspectives today.

Do They Know It's Christmas: The biggest names in British popular music gathered in the summer of 1985 for the sake of charity to record a song to raise money for those people starving in Ethiopia. Organized by Bob Geldof, the singer for the British group The Boomtown Rats, the single Do They Know It's Christmas, gave birth to Live Aid, the world's biggest rock concert and television event which spanned two continents and was the catalyst for similar recording projects in the U.S. and Canada including We Are the World. The project would become the template and the inspiration for a number of other charitable recordings and live events to benefit various causes around the world and marked a new era of raised social consciousness for many entertainers as well as their fans. It raised political awareness around issues impacting Third World countries, extending into issues of Green policy, Third World debt relief, free/fair trade agreements, and global equity and sustainability. Bob Geldof received a knighthood for his efforts.

Conga. Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine’s feel-good dance hit became a worldwide top seller, leading the charge that resulted in Spanish music becoming one of the most popular musical languages in the world. Thousands of disposed Cuban exiles and refugees from Latin America and Florida attached themselves to Gloria Estefan’s music, and found the encouragement they needed to assert themselves, express themselves, and be themselves. Her music opened the door that exposed the world to the music and passion of a culture, while paving the way for the “Latin Explosion”, which has permeated every aspect of Western society, and generated unprecedented appreciation for Latin culture the world over.

Free Nelson Mandela! was the song released in 1996 that brought global awareness to a then little-known political prisoner named Nelson Mandela and initiated the public groundswell that finally led to USA economic sanctions against South Africa, and a 1988 concert dedicated to securing his release (broadcast in sixty countries). He was released on February 11th, 1990, subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (along with DeKlerk) in 1992, and on May 10th, 1994 Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa.

The Lilith Fair, a touring festival featuring a variety of women artists banded together to celebrate women’s issues, was an unqualified success. Originally, the organizers were unable to garner any support at all from industry leaders or the corporate world. General consensus was that there was no money to be made in music catered toward the values of women. Imagine their surprise when this event gathered more women together than any event in history, raised millions of dollars for charity and became the most commercially successful festival of any kind anywhere in the world.

Scores of artists over the years, from early legends like Louie Armstrong, Peter Paul and Mary, to enduring and reigning icons like Bono, Sting, Tracy Chapman, Bob Dylan, Aretha, Lauren Hill, Indigo Girls, John Lennon, Peter Gabriel, Kenny Loggins Matchbox 20, Creed, and many others – are known for their commitment to humanity, not just through their music, but through their lives. They’ve used their notoriety to draw worldwide attention to important issues, and have raised millions of dollars for causes they believe in. And while the good they have done has been immeasurable, we believe that the potential is far greater – that this is just the beginning. We make it possible for music’s full potential to be realized in today’s world. And the beat goes on…

“It is often said that’ there are no small gift’s. We believe differently. We would say that there are no “extraordinary” gifts. Only small gifts used to accomplish extraordinary things. MLK was a sermon writer. Mother Teresa, a care giver, Gandhi an attorney, and Schindler, a businessman. A group of 100 housewives in Oregon banded together to buy and save an endangered forest. And on it goes. So, the question – whether music maker, software maker, bread maker or shoe maker is – what extraordinary thing will you accomplish with your ordinary gift, and what will be different in the world because of you?”

Human Arts Music -- Change Music. Change the world.