Protest Songs For The Civil Rights Movement
4. Protest songs
4.1. Global concerns: Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Fasia Jansen
Joan Baez has commonly been described as the ‘voice and conscience of the 60s’ as she achieved international recognition with her activism, her political engagement and her music as a means of voicing her protest and of making herself heard all across the globe beyond the borders of America. In her protest music, references to the American civil rights movement, thus to national mass concerns of the era, play a significant role. Together with Bob Dylan and others she repeatedly performed the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome”, a song that emphasized the ties of the student protests with the civil rights movement and thus expressed the activists’ unity in their fighting …show more content…
The central message of the song is the future wish of “We shall overcome” (l. 1-3), that voices the hope of the activists to overcome all injustices and deficiencies. Together with the line “We’ll walk hand in hand” (v. 2) the song also expresses the belief that this hope will come true one day. Used as song to protest against the Vietnam War by Joan Baez and Fasia Jansen, especially the line “We shall live in peace” (v. 3) voices the message of the activists in their fight for peace. Thus, with its use of the pronoun “we”, this song emphasizes the solidarity amongst the activists worldwide in their protest against a global concern like the Vietnam …show more content…
These songs deal with issues that are specifically related to Germany’s national context. Thus, on the one hand there are songs by singers from that West that deal with the issue of coming to terms with a fascist past. On the other hand, there are also songs by singers from the East that deal with the issue of German division and of the repressive nature of life in the East (Robb, 2007: 228). Again, music plays a significant role of transmitting these issues, which further underlines the role of popular culture as a medium of voicing criticism and standing up for change, also on a local or national
4.1. Global concerns: Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Fasia Jansen
Joan Baez has commonly been described as the ‘voice and conscience of the 60s’ as she achieved international recognition with her activism, her political engagement and her music as a means of voicing her protest and of making herself heard all across the globe beyond the borders of America. In her protest music, references to the American civil rights movement, thus to national mass concerns of the era, play a significant role. Together with Bob Dylan and others she repeatedly performed the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome”, a song that emphasized the ties of the student protests with the civil rights movement and thus expressed the activists’ unity in their fighting …show more content…
The central message of the song is the future wish of “We shall overcome” (l. 1-3), that voices the hope of the activists to overcome all injustices and deficiencies. Together with the line “We’ll walk hand in hand” (v. 2) the song also expresses the belief that this hope will come true one day. Used as song to protest against the Vietnam War by Joan Baez and Fasia Jansen, especially the line “We shall live in peace” (v. 3) voices the message of the activists in their fight for peace. Thus, with its use of the pronoun “we”, this song emphasizes the solidarity amongst the activists worldwide in their protest against a global concern like the Vietnam …show more content…
These songs deal with issues that are specifically related to Germany’s national context. Thus, on the one hand there are songs by singers from that West that deal with the issue of coming to terms with a fascist past. On the other hand, there are also songs by singers from the East that deal with the issue of German division and of the repressive nature of life in the East (Robb, 2007: 228). Again, music plays a significant role of transmitting these issues, which further underlines the role of popular culture as a medium of voicing criticism and standing up for change, also on a local or national