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[courtneyslullabye]

A modern protest song: Massacre, The New American Dream.

Today’s post is again going to be linked to my main subject. In classe we talked about what makes a song political, so I am obviously going to talk about a specific type of political songs: protest songs. 

What is a protest song?

'It is a protest from the masses or a protest from an individual, for change in society and those words are put to music. Most lyrics call for direct change while others use humour, irony, a soulful Ballard, all of theses forms can make a point. A protest is to stand up to the rights of people who look or can be different to you, to unite together to amplify our voices as one. A statement put to music is a powerful tool. There are many obvious well-known examples of Protest Songs. […]

A protest can relate to equality of everyone or the equality of an individual. All my favourite songs have a message.' (1)

Nicky Rushton - January 2020

I had this idea while listening to Palaye Royale’s album “THE BASTARDS“. I was aware the song “Massacre, the New American Dream“ was speaking against the government, about gun violence, but imagine my surprise when I scrolled down the comments section on Youtube and saw this: 

"This is a protest. In hopes to give this new generation a revolution in the form of an anthem. We are all on the verge of waking up and truly understanding that people should not be afraid of their government, government should be afraid of their people. This is how we feel about the current state of America. We are the new era, United we stand, in search of retribution ​for​ those ​who have been wronged. 

We are tired of seeing innocent people being gunned down so unbelievably often and still there is no change. How many more innocent people have to die for change to happen? Government and the news share no sort of resolve or actions of change for these problems​. This is why we have chosen to donate proceeds from the single sales to Giffords and March For Our Lives who are on the front line, fighting to tackle the gun violence epidemic our nation currently faces. We encourage our fans to take a look at the incredible work they do and either ​purchase the single, ​donate​ directly​ ​​or learn how to get involved at Giffords.org and MarchForOurLives.com

We put forth our creative anger to depict the current state of our civilization. Our protest song is titled 'Massacre, The New American Dream'. It speaks to the fact that there seems to be more kids growing up to become famous for school shootings than famous for anything else in America. “In every Church, School and Synagogue, Virginia to Littleton when will it stop?”. We asked ourselves this question each time we see yet another mass shooting broadcast across our TVs. There is a shadow that looms over this generation, “What is the New American Dream?” To our understanding, “It’s a Massacre”​ but if we unite and work together, we can be the difference!"

Join The Revolution

- Palaye Royale  

(Daniel Curcio, Emerson Barrett, Remington Leith & Sebastian Danzig) (2)

This is not a mere discourse about how they hate the current situation, this is more than this.They literally directed the message at the government and the people fuming because of its actions (just like “This is America“ by Childish Gambino). Moreover, they decided to use this single and its sale as a way to support organisations against gun violence, PLUS they used their platform to put forwards these organisations and hopefully get more donations from their audience. They called for a movement, for protest and rebellion. 

As I already stated it in a previous post (Music and the Civil Rights Movement): Music “was a mean to earn money to contribute to the fight […]“. Therefore, their overt support and disdain against the system are what makes this a political song.  

Sources: 

(1) https://www.dur.ac.uk/sociology/inaction/protestsong/whatis/

(2) !!FLASH WARNINGS if you intend on watching the MV!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMpUPFARZDg

[courtneyslullabye]

Singers breaking Gender Binary.

Prince circa 1986. Photo by Rob Verhorst/Redferns

“The gender binary cannot really be broken because the gender binary has never been whole. It has always limped along in pieces, easily cracked by a brief foray into the historical record.“

Gender, and especially the idea of Gender Binary, has always been a social construct. The notion of “two genders only“ was never a fact, nor was it always the standard, as many people tended to believe. Christian colonialism is the reason behind today’s Gender Binary theory. Said theory has been used as a tool for white supremacy and patriarchy, as a mean to erase other cultures and show them in a degrading and undermining light. 

“There have always been more than two genders, and music and gender nonconformity have gone hand in hand since long before pop music emerged as a product—since before the concept of “product” existed. But the patriarchal order, in order to survive, needs to brand threatening ideas as artificial, superimposed, harmful, and new, so as to distract from the underlying truth: that patriarchy itself is artificial, superimposed, harmful, and not nearly as ancient or universal as it pretends to be.“

Somebody oppose the notion of Gender Binary the moment they refuse to abide by the stereotypical idea of Masculinity or Femininity. Elvis can be considered non-conformist due to the face that his dancing was considering rather feminine (gyrating hips compared to burlesque in the article).  

“White men in postwar America were not supposed to exhibit so base an emotion as lust. In 1956, New York Times critic Jack Gould panned Elvis using the same language that many male writers still use to criticize female singers, effectively characterizing him as a male bimbo. […] His one specialty is an accented movement of the body that heretofore has been primarily identified with the repertoire of the blonde bombshells of the burlesque runway.“

Nowadays, many artists oppose this idea; they use their media to go against a system based on lies and (physical AND cultural) genocides. In this article that explains it better than I ever could, we can realise how music becomes political the moment it shows something ‘different‘ by society’s standards.

There are lots of LGBTQ and cis-straight artists nowadays who challenge society with their music, or their mere existences. I could mention quite a few, but I would rather have you guys give the names of those you like (if you know any). 

Sources:

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/04/16/how-pop-music-broke-the-gender-binary/

[courtneyslullabye]

“1312, A.C.A.B”

This week’s post is going to talk about a song you’ve probably already heard: “1312“ by The Casualties. It was released in 2018, as a part of their 11th studio album entitled Written in Blood.

Clearly linked to my choice of subject, I’d like to use this song as an introductive example of why I believe Music has no power over politics per se, but is more of a tool meant to express one’s opinions, support, companionship and/or solidarity. 

This song, as some of you may know, speaks about the corruption of the police, about the bigotry of the institution and how individuals should be held accountable for their brutality. The group actually said something about this subject:

“This is a statement very true to our culture, our way of life, 1312 ACAB! We didn’t grow up watching cops walk old ladies across the street, we grew up watching Rodney King get BEAT, not detained and man handled, fucking BEAT," comments Rodriguez. "If normal citizens must pay the price of the 'long arm of the law' they can be held accountable for their actions. Anyone of color can be pulled over for being suspicious? Well we can be suspicious of them! 1312 ACAB. With great power comes great responsibility!" (1)

Music and politics interact a lot, but music in itself holds no power whatsoever over the fate of politics and the choices of individuals. If anything, it reinforces the opinion of the audience it targets. It is a communication tool, powerful, but not miraculous: it will not convert a Republican into a Democrat unless that person chose it by themselves. 

“1312“ is a call for unity, it has the power however to incite people to protest police brutality, to serve as a marching anthem, but it will not make a bigoted cop change their career or the way they behave on the field. 

Mankind is stubborn; words and a musical arrangement do not hold any power over the made-up mind of a person. 

Here is the music video.

Sources:

(1) The Casualties Debut New Singer in '1312' Video, Announce Album | https://loudwire.com/the-casualties-1312-acab-video-new-album/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

[courtneyslullabye]

Music and the Civil Rights Movement.

Bob Fitch photography archive, Stanford University Libraries

We’ve all seen that music proved itself as a mean to help individuals, now let’s see how it affected — and still does— oppressed minorities. 

Today’s post will focus on music during the Civil Rights Movement era. 

This era mainly took place during the 50’s and 60’s in the United States of America. The aim of the movement was to fight the oppression Black people faced (segregation, unequal opportunities, discrimination, etc.) after the abolition of slavery. 

Music played a huge part during this era, due to the fact that it had the power to mentally unite people and physically mobilise them; it was reassuring, it was mournful, it was a mean to earn money to contribute to the fight for equality. 

Music also evolved the same way the fight did. 

As far as we can go, the first protest songs were spiritual, religious, then as the younger generations joined the movement, these songs became more spread and turned into unofficial anthems of the movement. Younger generations brought folk music as a new weapon, changed the lyrics of religion-inclined protest songs to attract more of their generations and make a greater impact on them. 

Even Black people who have been imprisoned came to learn of these songs as they were being sung in the cellblocks:

“James Farmer, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality and a Freedom Ride participant, recalled one night when a voice called from the cell block below to the freedom riders: “‘Sing your freedom song.’ … We sang old folk songs and gospel songs to which new words had been written, telling of the Freedom Ride and its purpose” (Wexler, 134). The female freedom riders in another wing of the jail joined in, “and for the first time in history, the Hinds County jail rocked with unrestrained singing of songs about Freedom and Brotherhood” (Wexler, 134).“ (1)

These songs reached people, created allies, and became weapons, as Jamila Jones explains during an interview: 

“Highlander was raided by the police, who shut off all the lights in the building. She found the strength to sing out into the darkness, adding a new verse, “We are not afraid,” to the song, “We Shall Overcome.” Jones explains, “And we got louder and louder with singing that verse, until one of the policemen came and he said to me, “If you have to sing,” and he was actually shaking, “do you have to sing so loud?”  And I could not believe it.  Here these people had all the guns, the billy clubs, the power, we thought. And he was asking me, with a shake, if I would not sing so loud.  And it was that time that I really understood the power of our music.”“ (2)

Music has never been a mean of entertainment only, it has always been more than this. It’s a tool, a weapon, an enhancer of the people’s voice. Which is why my subject is going to be something along the lines of: Music and its importance as a political weapon today. 

Sources:

(1) Songs and the Civil Rights Movement, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/songs-and-civil-rights-movement

(2) https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/music-in-the-civil-rights-movement/

(3) Jerry Rodnitzky, ‘Protest song’, October 2013. https://doi-org.scd-rproxy.u-strasbg.fr/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2252188

[courtneyslullabye]

Lyrics and Fan Theories.

Today’s post is going to be more lighthearted than the previous posts, mainly due to the facts that we are going through a rough time and that my inspiration is severely lacking. 

(I know I said ‘more lighthearted’ but these triggers still apply, safety comes first)

TW// mentions of death, sex

With the new importance of TikTok in our daily entertainment, some of us have been introduced to new songs (’New’ as in ‘never heard of before’, not as in ‘newly released’). 

Artists have seen their listeners stats go up with their songs on the trending page, for example the band Mother Mother. They are a Canadian indie rock band that independently debuted in 2005 before joining the label Last Gang Records. The band is known for having very niche vibes. 

Now, the link between the band and TikTok? Well, some of the songs from their 2008’s album O My Heart have started trending this summer (majorly used by alternative people), one of them being ‘Arms Tonite’. 

What makes this song so peculiar is the lack of a decent explanation for the lyrics. The meaning is up for grabs, nothing is quite settled, and the band members like to tease wondering fans about the indecipherable meaning (see: this tiktok). 

Listeners have made a game out of finding new theories for this song, but one seemed to please the audience more than any other. It has recently been deemed a ‘nut song’ (the Internet’s words, not mine). Most listeners have agreed on the theory that the lyrics are simply a big metaphor for sexual intercourse, with a little bit of ‘la petite mort’ and self-satisfaction as a cherry on top. Let’s not forget the saucier bunch who also added the notion of premature ejaculation into the fan theories. 

Imagination really is an unpredictable thing. 

Of course, it was also interpreted in a more literal way, as a narrative about death, more precisely about a person dying in their lover’s arms and their ghost coming back to taunt the living. 

It is really funny to see that, 1) social media brought back songs from more than ten years ago and made them relevant to a bigger audience, and 2) that after a dozen of years, mystery still hangs over their songs (multiple songs of the band have had their meaning willingly kept in the dark) and said concept led the Internet to fraternise and bond over theories (see: this subreddit.) 

If you guys know of songs like this one, please do drop their titles, I’d love to listen to them. 

[courtneyslullabye]

LGBTQ+ representation in the music industry.

Representation has been a controversial issue for quite a while, be it for POC and/or the LGBTQ+ community. This week’s post is going to cover the representation of the latter in mainstream music, and why it is important. 

Representation can be direct and indirect. By that I mean: done by allies of the community, non-queer artists, OR done by queer artists. 

Singers such as Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Harry Styles, Hozier, Macklemore, Cher, Madonna… have not hesitated to reach out to their queer fans via their music, to donate to organisations, and even to speak out against the government and its anti-LGBTQ+ stance. 

Allies protesting to defend the rights of the community have helped queer artists feeling more confident about being visible to the GP. 

A big difference between now and then is the shift in visibility of queer artists; more and more artists are feeling comfortable with publicly coming out, even without the certainty of being accepted by their audience. For example, in June 2019 (Pride Month), Lil Nas X stated in a tweet:

“some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm no more. but before this month ends i want y’all to listen closely to c7osure.“ (His coming-out song). 

Queer artists in the music industry have always been here, but the percentage of representation between then and now has gone up drastically. Why is that? Because culture and minds are moving forwards (although it can be questioned for some people), and things are slowly being more accepted by the GP (that is mainly constituted of cis-straight people). 

LGBTQ+ artists such as Frank Ocean, Lady Gaga, Troye Sivan, Hayley Kiyoko contribute daily to representing the community by being successful in their fields, and at spreading their messages through their music. 

Basically, representation is very much needed to open the way for discussions about social issues that touch individuals from the LGBTQ+ community. 

Seeing people that love the same way you do, artists that are unapologetic in their pride is uplifting and validating. Visibility and representation might seem abstract as a way to support the community, but it is actually one of the most effective ways, for it normalises something marginalised.

Links for you curious cats:

Tan, Joey (2018) "LGBTQ+ Representation and Activism in the Music Industry," Backstage Pass: Vol. 1 : Iss. 1 , Article 13.

Allen, Richard (2016) Nielsen, GLAAD unveil new data on music artists' impact on anti-LGBT policy fights. 

Daw, Stephen (2019) “Queering the Mainstream: How Acceptance for LGBTQ Pop Stars Evolved In the 2010s“. 

[courtneyslullabye]

“Masculinity crisis“, or the excuse behind the misogynistic lyricism of men in emo music.

DE BOISE, SAM. “Cheer up Emo Kid: Rethinking the 'Crisis of Masculinity' in Emo.” Popular Music, vol. 33, no. 2, 2014, pp. 225–242., www.jstor.org/stable/24736806. 

What was being advocated as a new-found open-mindedness from this male-dominated genre, from the early 80s to the early 2000s, is actually not that at all. 

“Emo“ comes from “Emotional hardcore punk“, and has been considered a pejorative term for quite some time now, due to the fact that using “emo“ to describe a man goes against the patriarchal ideal of the dominant and superior male. 

It is, as the author said, a sort of indication of a shift in the gendered power dynamics. To put it simply, men take on the role of the emotional party in the relationship — or lack thereof — , and women are antagonised for acting freely and pushing aside sentimental bounds to focus on one-timed enjoyment (see here: like men). 

One would think this shift in dynamics would serve as a way to criticise the patriarchy and its institutionalised gender roles that created emotionally unavailable men, and forced women to fall into submission. However, looking deeper into the movement, we can see none of this, and more of a movement that resolves around bashing women for acting like men and not returning the feelings of the artists that expressed their love freely. 

This should come off as surprising, seeing as the Emo Hardcore Punk scene is actually a subculture of the Punk scene, and that said movement is all for gender equality. 

This is where the misogyny comes in. 

At a time when women were getting economically and socially independent, and therefore did not need to rely on men as much as society had dictated it, they had started detaching themselves from the submissive women stereotype. And thus, came the situation of women being bashed for acting like men, instead of the patriarchy.

(Male) Artists whose relational status seemed to be threatened by this new-found liberty did not think twice before blaming women instead of their inability to introspect. It is not hard to find descriptions of imminent physical threats, if not death threats, towards the targets of their “affection“ (more of an obsession if we are being honest). 

This way, male emo artists went from the “alpha male“ to the “beta male“ narrative. Their power thus resided in their abilities to shift the blame by showing themselves as non-conforming, against society, weaker, etc. in a way that will serve their misogynistic and manipulative agenda. And while they liked to put themselves away from the narrative of the dominant and gender-conforming male, the way they pushed puritan ideals on women to judge their values was not so different from conforming to gendered stereotypes. 

To conclude this, Emo does not mean nice, or open-minded. The focus on emotional turmoil and pain came from a place of manipulation, and seeing this shift in gender dynamics as a good thing is highly dangerous for women and problematic of the industry. 

Emo comes from, for a lack of better words to express this, an industry where cis-het white middle-class men use their privilege to be seen as progressive and attract a bigger audience of emotionally unavailable men with unrequited love who feel like women owe them, and, I daresay although I hate the term, pick-me girls. 

It makes me wonder if the industry has ever been favorable to women, or even sincerely TRIED to be, seeing as nobody has ever moved a toe to defend them, us. We can still find misogynist microaggressions in today’s music, even if it is not emocore, and it is disheartening. 

[courtneyslullabye]

RIOT GRRRL

Today’s post is going to be about Riot Grrrl (or Grrl). 

To those of you who do not have the slightest idea of what this is, allow me to introduce it to you. 

To make it simple, Riot Grrrl was a subcultural movement of punk that emerged during the Nineties, in the United States, at the same time as what was considered the third-wave of feminism. 

The aim of this women-exclusive sub-culture was to express the members’ individuality as women, and oppose the ideas transmitted by the media about womanhood, sexuality, gender identity and beauty standards. 

Being a sub-branch of the punk movement meant that Riot Grrrl shared the same values: anti-racist, anti-fascist, anti-capitalist (craft and DIY culture), and for a vast majority, they were part of the queercore side of punk (“social deviant“ as they were called). 

But it went beyond that: it aimed to be a safe place for unheard women in society, AND in the punk subculture itself that — even if it valued gender equality — was still mainly dominated by white working-class men. 

To introduce their movement, they decided to publish an official manifesto in a magazine. Here is a short pictorial version:

This way, they refused all existing materials to directly go against society. A bold move that proved itself to be quite impressive and efficient, but again and not so surprisingly, it was quickly overrun by the same capitalist music industry that they were fighting against. The pop band “Spice Girls“ completely appropriated the slogan “girl power“. Thus, the original meaning lost its anarchist and anti-capitalistic undertones, only to be transformed into a mild slogan that totally discarded the “riot“ quality of the movement. By the end of the Nineties, original members, and creators, considered this to be the end of the original Riot Grrrl. 

The same thing that happened to these women is still happening to this day; Feminism, safe places, inclusive slogans, women and their ideas never stopped being stolen by the capitalist system. 

[courtneyslullabye]

Integrity VS. Money?

If you’ve read the second chapter of “Popular Music in Theory“, you should know that there is a distinction between commercial and creative music to some. The way artists are being forced to perform ‘commercial’ songs, and to leave out the roots and essence of their music to appeal to the GP is quite appalling when you think about it, right?

Well, based on this, let me introduce you to Remington Leith (on the left), the lead singer of Palaye Royale, whose music won’t be influenced by anyone but himself. 

During an interview for the British magazine “Rock Sound“, he says, I quote:

"I don’t give a fuck if it’s what the label wants to hear, or what our managers want to hear or whether it will work on radio. I don’t give a fuck about any of that. If I’ve made a song that sounds like something I want to listen to, then I’ve done my job. Even if this thing only sold two copies, I wouldn’t really care, because I’m already so proud of it and proud of what this band has done. 

I was told a long time ago that I should never write a song for anybody else but me, but if you put what you’re actually feeling into your music then there’s a big chance it will be able to help somebody else. If you write about your emotions and all the things you’ve gone through, and create lyrics that are almost so truthful to yourself that you’re vulnerable and scared to put them out, those are the songs that really help people.“

Some of us, if not most, use music as a mean to escape the world, our problems, etc. And it is understandable, especially when it has such therapeutic and cathartic qualities. This is why I find it reassuring to hear that some artists really write and sing songs for the sake of it, for our enjoyment and theirs. We know how hard it can be to find truthful and work-loving artists, especially in such a capitalist society were everything, even the smallest and most inoffensive hobbies, has to be useful and bring money to be considered worth something. 

I am quite fond of the way Remington so casually curses his label out to affirm that his art is not something to be tampered with for the sake of profits and fame.

Of course, money is important, and it is an artist’s dream to live off their passion. But I wonder, is it worth losing yourself in the aftermath of succumbing to society’s standard? 

Here is the link to Palaye Royale’s latest music video ‘Anxiety‘. Warnings! There are a lot of flashes and clashing colours, if you are easily triggered by this, or suffer from a condition, please be careful. 

[courtneyslullabye]

While he is mainly known for his song “Take Me To Church“ released in 2014, Hozier proved himself to be quite the writer and singer. His first album entitled “Hozier“ is composed of multiple songs, each telling a different story.

As an inspiration behind my username stands his song “Arsonist’s Lullabye“. Being one of my favourite songs ever, I felt much obliged to talk about it.

Without knowing the personal history of the artist, or even looking into interviews talking about his songs, it is quite easy to imagine a narrative simply based on his words.

At first, one would think that the song tells the fictive story of a young mentally-ill boy. It sounds like he suffers from compulsive and obsessive behaviours (“Staring into open flame […] Could barely tear my eyes away“), along with mild schizophrenia (auditory hallucinations: “When I was a child, I heard voices […] I learned the voices died with me“). This indeed sounds like the boy is a compulsive arsonist.

Once the first chorus comes in, the listener is led to understand that the boy has managed to learn how to live with his condition while growing up. This was proven to be ultimately false the moment his voice murmured: “But my peace has always depended / On all the ashes in my wake“.

Now, what we thought to be a fictive story is actually a retelling of Hozier’s childhood. As a young boy, he actually suffered from phantosmia. This condition causes olfactory hallucinations that can result from a nasal defect, or can be a symptom of a psychiatric illness (mainly depression, anxiety and/or dissociative disorders). After listening to some interviews where he talked about himself, we know that Hozier suffers from mild anxiety, and had a rather difficult childhood after seeing his father bound to a wheelchair after a failed spinal surgery.

One can’t begin to imagine the stress the random smells of rot, gas and burning fire had put a six-year-old Hozier under.

Anyways, the point of this billet is to show that, without some background knowledge, we might never know the hidden meanings and stories behind some songs, and what they really stand for.