Music as Social Commnetary

The end of the Reagan Administration is not generally known for political activism and yet during the highly conservative Reagan divisions, some of the boastfullygest efforts of music to combat the problems of the populace began. deception Cougar Mellankamp wrote the album, Rain on the Scarecrow and began the Farm Aid concerts to draw attention to the disappearing American family far. Michael Jackson and the musical elite of the day wrote and per formed, We be the World and Sir Bob Geldof drew attention to the African famines with his multi-star performance and recording of Do They Know Its Christmas? Into that political climate, singer/ var.writer Jackson smiler wrote and released the shout, How ample? on his World in Motion album released in 1989 (Ontario Coalition Against Poverty 1). Speculation runs high that physiognomy may have been today addressing the issues of international poverty or may have been discussing the issue of Apartheid in South Africa, avery democrati c cause of the slow 1980s. Browne, the German-born son of an American military photographer, had exit well-known for his political activism.After writing for some of the biggest names in the music industry including The Byrds and The Eagles (Paris 1), Browne recorded his own music beginning in the mid-1970s and culminating with his hits travel rapidly on Empty and The Load Out (Stay). Then, his formerly easy-going music turned into political statement after political statement. He organized a confederacy of musicians against nuclear energy after the Three Mile Island accident and often wrote about politics, saying, nothing is more personal than your political beliefs. (Paris 1) But America of the late 1980s was in feel-good mode. The wall was coming down in Berlin, the Cold War at an end and the Soviet Union was crumbling. The album which featured How great was the worst performance of Brownes career, other than his debut album when nobody knew his name (Wade 1). The famine in Ethiopia and other parts of the world were big news, though largely ignored except for during feel-good relief efforts and homelessness in America was a huge issue as the Reagan era drove the divide surrounded by the haves and have nots even farther apart.Browne, who was critical of liberals and conservatives alike (Ward 1), wrote the song to chit-chat everyone out for their blithe acceptance of the arms race and huge military budgets. Others chew over that the song relates to the Anti-Apartheid efforts. The South African crisis was big news during the Reasgan administration with Congress enacting strict restriction on South African trade, beginning in 1986, and popular culture canonizing Nelson and Winnie Mandela.And that anti-Apartheid movement was important in popular culture. Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) highlighted the problems involving the race-based discrimination in South Africa the same year the song was released and the compound system instituted by the Dutch did not end un til years later. Sadly, however, the song seems largely misplaced in measure, coming out in the first year of the presidency of George H. W. Bush when the world accepted that the arms race was over and social consciousness was beginning to take hold.It almost appears as though Browne missed the boat with How tenacious as he was critical of the military industrial complex which was already in the process of dismantling after the reunion of Germany and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Furthermore, the song deals specifically with the issue of children and starvation, but did not serve to draw particular attention to the problem worldwide, possible due to the vagaries of the song. The vagaries of the song make it difficult to identify what social injustice in particular Browne hoped to address and that may have been his point.While conducting in general How Long? people were willing to tolerate social injustice around the world, Browne may have helped to draw attention to b oth the emergency for nuclear disarming and the need to end Apartheid. We do know that it asks the listener to consider the children and their future. How Long begins with a verse describing the possibilities evident in a childs formulation and asks the listener, presumably Americans and other citizens of the world, how farsighted the child would survive if it were up to them (How Long Lines 1-8).The problem is that the children of the 1980s were not the flower-power generation of the 1960s and the subtly was lost. Asking How great would the child survive/How long if it was up to you was not the call to action needed in the late 1980s. The self-absorbed generation could easily just resolution the question and ignore the call to action underneath the words. Indeed, on that point is no evidence that the song had any impact other than as a insidious reminder of what they saw daily on the news. In the second verse, Browne gets a little more direct with his indictment of the li stener but sedate fails to call them to action.When you think about the money spent On defense by a government And the weapons of destruction weve built Were so sure that we need And you think of the millions and millions That money could feed How long can you happen upon someone crying How long can you hear someone dying Before you ask yourself why? (Browne, How Long Lines 9-16) Ultimately, Browne does a good job of pointing out the political and social issues of the time, but fails to take a stance on what should be done about it.There is a vague notion that the government should stop spending money on missile defense systems and nuclear weapons in upgrade of spending on social issues, but he never implores his audience to take action. Instead, the audience can simply agree that yes, it is a problem and whence go back to their own lives without interruption or any change in action. Perhaps the one place where Brownes work talent be considered effective is in his final vers e, when he discusses the need to think of the globe differently than the blue and white and green image seen from space (Browne, How Long).Finally, he asks how long until we have something to offer where the planets concerned? (Browne, How Long Lines 38-39) Though the song is generally accepted as an anti-military, pro-social reform ballad, these lead lines may have been influenced by his relationship with environmental activist and actress Darryl Hannah and may allude to the idea that people need to take action with regard to the worlds environmental situation. In that way, it may have had some limited effect on public awareness about environmental issues.Realistically though, it appears that the only satisfying effect of Brownes work may have been on his career. Reviewer David Marsh, well-known for his commentary on rock music, put it this way. This is one time Jackson Browne did his words profound justice as a singer its simply a great piece of singing, stark, angry, pained a nd yet aching more than anything else with a love thats proven yet again to be insufficient to hold a life together.The question while this music and the boloney unfold is not how the singer will survive hes already told us that but how the listener will keep his composure long enough to hear it through. (Ward 1) The song may well have been a sign of the times and completely appropriate for the long view of history, but in the culture of the times, it was excessively passe, with not enough call for direct action.Still, just a few years later, Browne got his wish during the Clinton administration when the military industrial complex was largely dismantled, Americas standing army minimized and world concerns brought to the forefront of American consciousness. Apartheid also fell in the intervening years, coming to an end in 1994. By the time the song had its desired impact on spending priorities, the drought had shifted and the starving was in Rwanda and Darfur and Americans had moved on to another music form and again forgot the starving children.Just as Brownes cry for justice came very late in the era of Apartheid, it came very early in the call for environmental activism and people missed its call to do the right thing and care for the children of the world. Works Cited Browne, Clyde Jackson. How Long? World in Motion, Elektra Records, 1989. Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, Activism and protest song lyrics page http//www. ocap. ca/songs/howlong. html December 5, 2007. Paris, Russ. Jackson Browne Biography. , December 5, 2007. Ward, Michael.Jackson Browne the Artist behind the Words http//media. www. versusmag. org/media/storage/paper584/news/2003/10/22/Music/Jackson. Browne-547215. shtml, December 5, 2007. How Long by Jackson Browne When you look into a childs face And youre seeing the human race And the endless possibilities there Where so much can come true And you think of the beautiful things A child can do How long would the child survive How long if it was up to you When you think about the money spent On defense by a government And the weapons of destruction weve built