Music as a form of Protest.

What Is Protest Music? Protest music is music that aims to send social messages and make a change (associated with a movement for social change or other current events through music). Often using the popularity of the artist to bring more attention to a particular issue.

Music allows us to express ourselves in a way that speaking or writing cannot. It serves to connect people and bring them together through song and harmony—what better way to protest than to use music to join others to a common cause. Music allows us to express the extreme feelings that lead to protest.

Many American social movements have inspired protest songs spanning a variety of musical genres including but not limited to rap, folk, rock, and pop music.

The social power of music
"Music is the great uniter. An incredible force."

Music has the wonderful power to transcend borders, bring people together, and serve as a unifying force for positive social change. Musicians have often served as unofficial ambassadors, bridging gaps in cultural understanding and providing opportunities for connection and exchange.

According to Beethoven, “Music can change the world.” Music is one of the earliest forms of artistic expression. It is a worldwide language with a long history of being used in activism as a form of art. Dissent through music is a pretty typical occurrence, and musicians have long used it as a formidable weapon in their conflicts.

Music is an integral and irreplaceable aspect of most cultures' daily lives. Music as a form of human movement is a social miracle that creates a vital social substance when people create music and form relationships with it. Music, as a social miracle, is constantly created and re-created to reflect changing socio-social capacities.

Music may be a memorable method to get people involved in a cause. Protest songs are musical compositions that are concerned with social change. These songs are usually created and composed with the intention of being a part of a cultural or political movement that aims to change things. The songs are recorded in such a way that they capture people's attention and bring them together, inspiring them to take action.

Protest music has played a significant role in a number of well-known movements around the world, including the anti-war movement, women's suffrage, Black lives matter movements, and labor movements. The impact of protest songs cannot be overstated. Such songs have been sung in England since the Middle Ages. Slave hymns like 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' and 'Steal Away' were sung in the United States as secret messages of freedom (McGuinness, 2019).

In the early 1900s, social movements provided musicians with not only a mass of listeners, but also a sense of mission that went beyond financial gain. Protest songs were especially essential at a period when society was seeking change because they delivered the message to a worldwide audience while also unifying the various demonstrators under a single flag.

I think music is a really great and efficient tool to get the protests going. It strikes the chords of your heart and affects you greatly, it's a great way to make people care for a cause!

Music is an effective way of protest due to it being a peaceful way of giving out your thoughts and opinions in the form of song and good sounds, not harsh screams and rants.

From “Yankee Doodle” to Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly,” music has always acted as a vessel for change. Melodies can be more than just pleasing notes — they can have the power to function as rallying calls as well. Similar to protesting, music is meant to be heard, and both practices draw on the innate human need for connection.

From this, an important question arises: How has protest music changed throughout American history, and why has music historically been such a powerful tool for social change?

From African Shorelines to Red Coats

Music lies just below the surface of American history, subtly acting as a catalyst for change and a chronicle of the effects. One of the first instances of American protest music predates America itself, originating in the 13 Colonies: “Yankee Doodle.” What began as a simple tune soon became one of the most famous songs in the Western world and a hugely recognizable symbol of American patriotism.

It is believed that “Yankee Doodle” received its famed lyrics from a British doctor, Richard Schuckburg, during a time of increasing turmoil between American colonists and their British rulers. In 1755, Schuckburg penned the song’s mocking lyrics to the widely used tune to ridicule the increasingly restless 13 American Colonies. Words like “Doodle” and “Yankee” caused quite a stir in the 18th century: They roughly translate to “hick” or “uneducated” in 21st century terms, and highlight the increasingly unfair power dynamic between the colonists, who were viewed as uneducated and inferior by many British aristocrats, and the continental British population.

From the moment that enslaved people were forcefully brought to the land that would eventually become the United States, music accompanied them. As chattel slavery stripped enslaved peoples of their culture and bodily autonomy, music and hymns existed as the only surviving ties to a homeland many kidnapped African people would never return to.

As centuries passed, the songs from West African shorelines, which utilized iron bells and drums, transformed into Negro spirituals. These songs, disguised as gospel hymns or storytelling songs, sent signals for escape and warnings about slaveholders and the Underground Railroad. As the ratification of the 13th Amendment brought about the end of legal slavery in 1865, these integral Negro spirituals transformed into jazz and blues.

While the 1920s brought glitz and glam for America’s elite class, Americans of color were suffering from various forms of racial discrimination, such as sharecropping and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. In the hopes of escaping the crippling discrimination, over six million Black people left the South, in what became known as The Great Migration.

From 1910-1970, many of these people went to Harlem as part of “The New Negro Movement,” or what would later be known as the Harlem Renaissance. From their lived experiences grew a collective of writers, artists, and musicians stationed in Harlem, New York City. These artists created a new form of music with syncopated beats and enticing rhythms in the inner sanctum of 1920s Harlem: blues music.

After building new lives in unfamiliar cities, many Black folks created communities through music as a way to feel connected and seen.

Blues music focused on the struggles of Black Americans. From overworking to police brutality, Black folks used blues as a vessel to tell their story. The wildly addictive tempo of blues spread its melodies far beyond Harlem, reaching the ears of many White Americans who had not before interacted with the Black struggle.

Songs from Billie Holiday highlighting the horrors of lynching found popularity even outside of the Black community. Lyrics like “Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees” from her hit song “Strange Fruit” told the story of racially motivated lynchings in southern states. Even though the song was banned in the South, it would go on to sell one million copies and reach the ears of many White Americans in the North.

For the first time in America’s 400-year history, Black artists found fame and were cast in a positive light in the mainstream media. As a result of the newfound spotlight, racial discrimination was thrust in front of White Americans and would become a starting point for the civil rights movement. Although the Harlem Renaissance ended with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, its impact resonated for generations. Eventually, its legacy became the precursor to the American civil rights movement.

220 years after the Revolution, Americans still used music to protest the powers that be. This time, however, they were protesting the American government itself.