• Evaluate the social, cultural and political context of an important and influential album release (or a collection of songs) in the period 1900 to 1970.
• Choose an artist from this period and examine their relationship to the cultural and social framework of their era with reference to an important or influential album (or collection of songs). Please note: the artist must be different to the one chosen for the short essay.
• Analyse and evaluate your chosen artist in relation to their associated genre, their lyrics, their musical creativity, their social and political context, their impact on music and popular culture and their relationship to the themes of this module (class, race, gender, world events, technology, religion, etc) as they are relevant.
Popular music also known as “Pop Music” that originated during the 1950’s and 1960s. The style is derived from rock and roll music genre. Popular music as well as pop music is generally used interchangeably. It is that music which is eclectic and is accepted by the mass. Pop style of music is largely influenced by other forms of music such as rock tune, Latin, country, urban and various forms of dance. Pop music is generally a type of music that includes songs of medium length and is written by following a simple format. Pop music has impressed mass audience with catchy lyric, impressive songs and engaging tone. Time and again popular musicians have used the style to rebel or revolt against the existing system. Cultural issues, social aspects and changes in the human thoughts are questioned through the songs (Moore, 2012). Popular music therefore often represented as a symbol of revolution and artists are recognising for having unique charm and spirit.
It was during the 90s when the singers like John Lennon picked up the chord of popular tone and perfectly tuned in new thoughts, lyric and sound which not only became iconic but also evolved as audience’s favourite tune. His songs were steeped in political and social messages. The lyrics resonance the effect and impact of war, and sings the harshness, hollowness, devastation and waste associated with war. Born in the war time Europe, Lennon and his band sung on various songs highlighting social issues (Rojek, 2011). In all of his songs his anti-war theme was common and research even confirms that the songs were adopted as anti-war theme of Vietnam War and helped in eliminating the horrors of war through hostile campaigns.
Legendary singer, song writer John Winston Lennon was one of the most popular singer- performers of the age. John Lennon was born on 9th October 1940 in Liverpool. His parents left him soon after his birth and were raised by Aunt Mimi. Besides singing and performing singularly, he is respected for being the lead singer of one of the most famous British singing Band, The Beatles which was formed in association with Paul McCartney. The songs which remind us about Lennon’s creation, voice and thoughts again and again are “Give peace a Chance” and “Working class Hero”. These songs were adopted by the young listeners and sung religiously which later helped him evolve as the finest singer of the time who rebelled against the existing system of the time. With music as an innovative tool of initiating a mass revolution, Lennon attracted the mass, specially the youth and triggered anti-war movement (Policies, 2004). Very soon during the Vietnam War, his songs were adopted as anthem to continue the anti-war movement.
It was the music lover, Aunt Mimi who introduced Lennon to the famous style and music of Elvis Presley and listening to the legends rock music, completely changed Lennon’s life forever. He understood music and slowly developed a knack towards creative thinking and singing. At an early age he formed a group called Skiffle and used to play only the “spirited songs” at St.Peter’s Church. It was during a performance at the church when Lennon met McCartney and the band was formed. The group of British singers were heavily influenced by the American rock and roll tradition and therefore they came with their tune and music out of sheer impulse and desire to create performing music (Barnard, 2003).
After John Lennon, introduced the song “Give Peace a Chance”, it influenced the mind of the youths and they selected it as the anti-war anthem of the Vietnam War. The demonstrators of the anti war movement soon adopted the song and million joined and sung it during demonstration at Washington on the 15th of November, which is also known as the second Vietnam War. Lennon became the voice of the youth of the time and since he was born at the time of war he was heavily influenced by the war time issues and thus came forward with the songs which vehemently mentioned about the social injustice as well as harped on peace movement and requested people to encourage peace or lead peaceful life instead of engaging into war in the hope of a distant peaceful future specifically showcased by the politicians to encourage and involve public in war as mercenaries (Burnett, 2005).
He not only picked the war time issues and promoted peaceful lives, he even wrote songs to protest against human issues, such as he came forward with the song to protest against the death sentence of James Hanratty whom he thought was hanged unethically. Hence his musical protest strums out way of expressing a systematic hostility against a dominant culture and social issues, or war time England (Chin, 2007). Thorough studies on people, culture and society reveals various important facts about culture and its impact on people. Researchers have often identified it as the exclusive symbol of human existence which influences the system and often leads to modification. Just like human culture, music which is a representation of human, mind psyche and soul, or the voice of human soul nurtures a very Popular culture or Pop that is a mass preference which is different from the older people but has evolved as a language of the new generation and even help them connect emotionally through the lyrics of the song. This Pop culture, is not restricted to music, but is a frame of mind which engages young people to think and speak their mind in a unique way selected by them (Collins, 2012). In most cases, the younger generation successfully expressed their mind through unique fashion statement, art, poetry, song, dress and so on. Some even coins specific words to revolt against the existing system and establishes new words which not only represents their identity but also emphasises on “difference” in their demand and behaviour which is prominently symbolised through fashion and communicated through iconic words. Thus popular culture of a pop culture of early 90’s in which John Lennon holds a special place. Lennon was witty, humorous and creative in a distinct way. His word power is worth mentioning. Steeped in talent and creative juices, Lennon introduced a path breaking style, engaging lyric and rebellious attitude in singing style, thus evolved as the perfect entertainer of the genre who represented the pulse of his time in a true manner (Cruse, 2004).
Lennon’s song harped on issues like suffering of men under the existing system. His message were stark, sings of the gory and hollowness of war thus highlighting war as something which leads to mass devastation, loss of life and emptiness which became popular during the anti-war campaign and were sung during the Vietnam war demonstration. His messages travelled to different parts of the world and the theme of futility of war and how war is not about glory, but about loss, that is in war soldiers are mere mercenaries who dies fighting are loss to the society, and soldiers are not heroes instead suffers were is predominant theme. Just like war poetry, his songs also sung about ways in which innocent lives suffer and how society looses all it young talent in mere battle which leads to loss, economic waste and mass destruction (Dunne et al. 2005).
Lennon is respected, listened, sung and remembered for his unique craftsmanship. His lyrics were one of its kinds. They perplex innocent mind and encourages thinking between right and wrong. The use of word play has helped in conveying the rebellious ideas, such as the societal issues that demanded attention, such as inequality, war, discrimination and loss of lives. The songs conveyed about pathos and suffering as well as discrimination and young lives as victim of pain and distress. Soon Lennon and McCartney joined and formed the Beatles that earned severe recognition in and around Europe. Beatles gained tremendous popularity and achieves recognition and awards and soon came to be known as people’s favourite band of 20th century. The songs hit the chartbusters and albums earned about 14 million US dollars. Their album Double Fantasy soon became the number one selling album (Lennon, 2008). This album also helped them achieve the respect and admiration with Grammy Awards in 1981. The very next year 1982, Lennon won the BRIT Award for contributing to the music in an extraordinary way.
Music historians and thinkers often identify the period of twentieth century as a period of revolution which led to many changes in the countries around the world. Both developed and developing countries came under a variety of influence, one of the main changes which the countries experienced was commercialisation of different products. Both in the society and in the entertaining industry, a variety of movements initiated, such as the hippie movement happened to protest Vietnam War in 1960s. After Second World War, the regiment experienced refusal from the younger generation, people no longer wished to join army and work as mercenaries, they no longer identified army generals or war legends as heroes, instead Lennon became the youth icon and anti-war songs became anthem for these movements. Horrors impacted on human life, people feared the condition and horrors of the war, and people in the hope of living in peace as well as nurture love raised their voice against issues of the society through peace songs and powerful lyric (Lennon and Davies, 2003). The subculture “Hippies” was adopted by the youth generation to rebel against the existing system, specifically the traditional system. Younger generation adopted music as their tool and raised their voice in rebellious nature to question the existing system and raise their voice against the pre-existing system. Pop culture was soon adopted and demanded concentration from various perspective. The “pop-revolution” soon evolved and then the pop culture took its place in the sixties era. Many young singers joined the popular group. Music of the genre became the tool for giving voice to the tormented mind. Just like the war poetry, protest song singer-writers were born in different parts of the world. Other singers such as Bob Dylan, Pete Seger from United States became famous and popular at the domestic level. Entertainment and techniques of entertaining such as performances on the stage, messages in music and songs were important (Lennon and Wenner, 2005). The key aim of the songs of Beatles’ songs was not only to entertain, but entertain in an enlightening manner. His songs were food for thought for the audience and messages informed public about various issues around the society and politics.
Beatles is the most popular band of the particular century. According to many music historians, their talent was highly appreciated and contemporary. People idealises Lennon’s talent and courage. He had immense courage and therefore raised voice against the US President, Nixon. He even risked his career to raise voice against problems. Thus John Lennon the singer who gave birth to Lennonianism is respected around the world even today (Lesniaski and Lennon, 2005).
The legendary musician John Lennon was a versatile artist and was equally talented in playing a number of musical instruments. In his early years, Lennon started playing mouth organ which he gradually expertise in the coming years. John Lennon continued to play harmonica during his professional years in the Beatles. In the later years, Lennon’s harmonica playing style became the signature statement of the Beatles band. Apart from playing harmonica, John Lennon also learned to play a musical instrument named banjo and later he started playing acoustic guitar. Reviews from the journal revealed that John Lennon at an early age of 16 years played rhythm guitar along with the Quarrymen. As the versatile musician stepped into his professional life, in the later years John Lennon started playing a vast range of electric guitar. He was quite efficient in playing the Rickenbacker 325, Epiphone Casino and Gibson J-160E. Apart from this, the music maestro was tried his hand in playing a six string bass guitar. Lennon gave the background music for the popular Beatles compositions like “Back in the U.S.S.R.”, “The Long and Winding Road”, “Helter Skelter” with the six string guitar model, the Fender Bass VI (Lennon and Wenner, 2000).
An extensive in sight regarding the musical journey of John Lennon revealed his inclination towards another musical instrument, piano. It was during the year 1963, when Lennon in joint association with McCartney played piano and gifted one of the popular music number, “I want to Hold Your Hand.” Lennon’s musical journey further stepped into a new horizon when he started to play the Mellotron keyboard. According to the records, it was John Lennon who was the first among the British musical experts who began to play the Mellotron keyboard. The lyrics of “Strawberry Fields Forever”, composed by Beatles were accompanied with the musical chords of the Mellotron keyboard. It is also notable to mention that John Lennon who was one of the most popular music experts during the 20th century, apart from his excellence in playing a wide variety of musical instruments also have a unique vocal style. John Lennon voice was used in number of songs composed by the Beatles. He gifted the music lovers across the world with popular music pieces like “Cold Turkey,” “This Boy” and many more Lennon had given his voice. A brief look back to the honours and awards achieved by John Lennon revealed Lennon was honoured with Grammy Award in the year 1981. Lennon for is marvellous contribution to music was also honoured with the BRIT (British Record Industry Trusts Show) Award in 1982 (Miles, 2009).
John Lennon who was not only a legendary musician who is remembered with great honour was also a social activist. Being a protestor of the war, his contribution to the society was an anthem which supported peace and was against war. This popular creation “Give Peace a Chance” was such an example which he gifted to his music lovers. It is also worthy to mention that Lennon’s anti war anthem was presented by a huge mass of people, in Washington DC dated 15th November, who supported peace and were against the war of Vietnam. Lennon was expressed harmony with Clydeside UCS workers during 1971 and also supported the freedom rally of the famous poet, John Sinclair through his popular musical works. It was during the year, 1972 when John Lennon in protest against the dominance of British and the brutal killings which took place in Northern Ireland forwarded two music lyrics. These music pieces were included in the well known album “Luck of the Irish” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. Apart from being an active protestant fighting for various civil rights of the general people, John Lennon was also known to support the sanitary labour class population of San Francisco during 5th December of 1980. Literatures provide information regarding John Lennon’s support for the rights of this labour population. Apart from being an active political worker, the world famous music maestro, John Lennon during his later years of his life turned towards conservatism (Lennon et al., 2000).
John Lennon who gave birth to “Lennonianism” is respected for using right words in the song lyric. Expressing rebellious attitude or writing societal message oriented lyric is not an easy task, however with sheer talent and rare wordplay wit, Lennon successfully penned some of the finest rebellious songs of the musical history. With powerful lyric, impressionist vision, he successfully conveyed the horrors of war and requested for peace. Through his twenty-five all time greatest lyrics, he requested people to adapt peaceful measures and proceed life in absolute harmony. Some of the thinkers, like John Stevens, even identified Lennon as a rare talent whose songs are steeped with powerful tone and important messages by resting on three pillars, namely, harmony, lyric and melody (Moore, 2012). His ability to play with words became his most powerful tool which helped in informing public in a unique way by adapting unusual technique and twist in the tale.
It has been also studied by the thinkers of the music domain, that John Lennon introduced a music style which was politically as well as socially inclined in the early 1960s. His songs are ageless and even today people connect with the beautiful lyrics. He therefore picked music as a tool to impact on human mind by informing about the political as well as social changes.
The musician and social activists has spoken about empowerment of human rights as well as protested against war and hatred (Rojek, 2011). Music is a language of liberating tormented soul. It is often identified as the tool for expressing freedom of mind. Beatles took a responsibility of informing public in an entertaining way. They conveyed powerful social messages in the most entertaining way, so that the audience is engaged to the particular performance. Influencing message and rebellious lyric helped in enlightening the audience who soon picked the song as the anthem of the anti-war movement (Cruse, 2004). He is therefore even known as the key person who helped in ending the Vietnam War through activism. His songs literally identified as powerful messages that walked the streets with the peace protestors. The songs encouraged anti-war movement.
References
Barnard, S. (2003). The Beatles Reader: a Selection of Contemporary Views, News and Reviews of the Beatles in Their Heyday. Popular Music, 5, p.292.
Burnett, M. (2005). Pop music. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chin, D. (2007). Pop Pop Pop (New) Music. Performing Arts Journal, 12(2/3), p.137.
Collins, M. (2012). The Beatles’ Politics. The British Journal of Politics & International Relations, 16(2), pp.291-309.
Cruse, Y. (2004). Appreciating Pop. Music Educators Journal, 78(2), p.8.
Dunne, J., Lennon, T., Walshe, D. and Strong, E. (2005). Love under Stress. Books Ireland, (174), p.6.
Lennon, J. (2008). The Penguin John Lennon. 7th ed. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin.
Lennon, J. and Davies, H. (2003). The John Lennon letters.
Lennon, J. and Wenner, J. (2005). Lennon remembers. 3rd ed. San Francisco, Calif.: Straight Arrow Books.
Lennon, J., Ono, Y., Sheff, D. and Golson, G. (2002). The Playboy interviews with John Lennon and Yōko Ono. 4th ed. New York: Playboy Press.
Lesniaski, D. and Lennon, J. (2005). Voices. American Music, 10(4), p.499.
Lennon, J. and Wenner, J. (2000). Lennon remembers. London: Verso.
Lennon, J., Ono, Y., Sheff, D. and Golson, G. (2000). All we are saying. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.
Moore, A. (2012). Pop Music, Pop Culture. By Chris Rojek. Music and Letters, 93(2), pp.274-276.
Miles, B. (2009). The Beatles diary. London: Omnibus.
Policies, P. (2004). Pop Music Acquisition Policies. Notes, 34(2), p.504.
Rojek, C. (2011). Pop music, pop culture. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press.
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