First Amendment Music

Strange Fruit   Billie Holiday. Or better yet, Abel Meeropol, the man who wrote the poem that turned into this song.   Abel Meeropol graduated from a New York high school in 1921 and then went on to become an English teacher and teach there for 17 years. In the late 1930s, after seeing a particularly disturbing image depicting lynching, Meeropol wrote “Strange Fruit”, initially as a poem. He turned the poem into a song that made it’s way the club owner who passed it along to Billie Holiday.   Abel Meeropol was also a communist and was called to testify for both the song and his communist ties. Eventually he left his position at the school and quit the Communist Party. But his story doesn’t end there. He was a brave and softhearted person. In 1953 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for espionage, leaving their two young sons orphaned. No relatives wanted to take in two boys who were so closely associated with communism. Meeropol and his wife Anne t...

The Man As mentioned in previous posts, Taylor Swift is my absolute favorite artist and her new album Lover  is full of new songs with great messages. I could list a million reasons why her music is so amazing; it resonates with so many fans. In this blog post I've decided to highlight some key quotations from various articles surrounding this song as well as my favorite lyrics. USA Today: "Dear Taylor Swift, you are not a victim so stop acting like one." Hayley Smith argues that the public perception of Taylor is not a negative one. She quotes various articles highlighting the positives that they had to say about Taylor: " In an article last month for Vogue, Michelle Ruiz applauded Swift’s decision to defy Big Machine Records and rerecord her old songs, calling it ' the ultimate power move .'" Smith acknowledges the argument for sexism and "gender-based oppression" but claims that this attempt at feminism isn't ...

Freedom is   Free Chicano Batman.   Gabriel Villa, Bardo Martínez, Carlos Arévalo, and Eduardo Arenas. 4 Latino men in a soul/psychedelic/latin/rock band. Trippy, right? While Chicano Batman might not be a household name, they’re definitely worth a listen.   Let’s take a look at “Freedom is Free” which also happens to be the title for their 2017 album.   Nobody likes you Nobody cares Nobody wants you Nobody cares I think Chicano Batman tries to capture the individualistic nature of society. We look out for us and that’s all.   To extend a greeting aid Connecting lands Life is just a jaded game to them They won't give it a chance But you know when I know That the galaxies are all around us And life will flow on as long as the grass grows and the water runs And while I'm here on earth I'll rejoice in this world Life is just a jaded game to the people in charge who care more about what’s going on somewhere el...

You Need to Calm Down  Taylor Swift is one of my all time favorite artists. And even though she has a large amount of people who don't like her, her fame is undeniable. While she has had a few controversial topics surrounding her (think Kim-Kanye drama and the sexual harassment lawsuit), she has usually been quiet about her personal life, excluding the boyfriends. Regardless, she only recently came out to talk about her personal views surrounding political policies including supporting the Equality Act which would amend the Civil Rights Act to include the prohibition of discrimination based on sex-stereotypes. With the release of her new album,  Lover,  Taylor tackles discrimination against the LQBTQ+ community in her song "You Need to Calm Down". While the majority of her latest album is love songs about her latest beau, Taylor speaks her mind about other societal issues like the current state of our political world in "Miss Americana and the Hea...

Revolution  How many hit songs can you name by The Beatles? How many songs by The Beatles could you name in general? How many songs by The Beatles could you sing by heart right now? Arguably one of the most influential and famous bands of all times, The Beatles have definitely made an impact on popular culture.  From movies to famous album covers, everyone knows The Beatles: John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney.  Their music tended to stay away from politics but with all the political turmoil in the 1960's and 70's that was a hard thing to do.  So what was going on in 1968? Cold War  The Vietnam War Civil Rights Movement  Martin Luther King Jr.'s Assisination University Students Protesting the Vietnam War (really everyone was protesting the Vietnam War) Robert F. Kennedy's Assasination Olympic Protests for the Black Power Movement Nixon's Presidential Election Victory Needless t...