Bob Dylan And Starr's Music Analysis

The cultural movement of the 1960’s, described by many as anti-establishmentarian, sculpted the modern world through various modals of communication to the public. Such opinions of the cultural revolutions and rebellions were popularly synthesized and depicted into songs. Two influential compositions performed and written by Bob Dylan and Edwin Starr explicitly portray important issues during the era they were created. In addition to that they socially commentated their perspective and positioned the audience to effectively pursue their opinion.
Both of the artists’ messages were greatly impacted from the social, cultural and political turmoils surrounding the era and it was vital in the development of both songs. Firstly Bob Dylan’s song of
However, Bob Dylan as a singer–songwriter was criticized as a chronicler of civil unrest. This can be linked to social commentary as Dylan emphasized his individual perspective. Through his motivation and passion for issues causing civil unrest and social turmoil as mentioned earlier it was a catalyst to compose these powerful songs.
The artists’ use of powerful emotive language triggers the audience subconsciously, linking them to empathize with the artist’s viewpoint. Edwin Starr’s ‘War’ includes prime examples of this, such as; ‘War has caused unrest within the younger generation, Induction, then destruction who wants to die’. This verse plays on a person’s fundamental instinct, the want to live. And this causes a person to briefly reconsider their life decisions and to question, what if?
In contrast, Bob Dylan’s song ‘Only a pawn in their game’ uses imagery to paint the picture and place you in the shoes of the conveyed character or group, which in this case is the killer of Medgar Evers. This is depicted vividly in verse ‘From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks’, which, while being imagistic also forms a view of social commentary depicting the poor white society. Later in the verse ‘To hang and to lynch’ later followed by ‘He’s only a pawn in their game’; Bob Dylan further expresses how white elites are influencing poorer white men to attack the Negro society.
This is strongly seen in verses as mentioned earlier and also largely in Edwin Starr’s war, ‘War has shattered many young man’s dreams, Made him disabled bitter and mean’, also in ‘Only a pawn in their game’ Bob Dylan stated ‘You’re better than them, you been born with white skin, they explain. And the Negro’s name, is used it is plain, for the politician’s gain, as he rises to fame’. This implicates that Dylan believed that the society during the mid 1960’s had the common opinion that if you were born with white skin you were ultimately better then any other. Also that the political leaders use, and view of the African American populous was in just and for popular societal