(PDF) The Potential of Music to Effect Social Change
Added on 2021-04-17
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Running head: MUSIC AND SOCIAL CHANGE
Music and Social change
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Music and Social change
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:
1MUSIC AND SOCIAL CHANGE
“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.”
The above quoted lines of Victor Hugo, the French poet clearly indicate the important
of music on the framework of our modern society (Weber, 2017). It is to be noted that since
the traditional times music has been used by the various artists to give voice to the themes
which cannot be expressed simply in words. Music has been used since the traditional times
as a medium through which social change can be brought about (Weber, 2017). Two such
artists whose works can be examined in this particular context are Joan Baez and Fela Kuti. It
is to be noted that both the artists used the medium of music to give voice to the disturbing
facts of modern society and at the same time to ring in social change.
Fela Kuti aka Fela Anikulapo Kuti (1938- 1997), was a renowned musical composer
of Nigerian origin (Jaboro, 2012). He has often been hailed as the "challenging and
charismatic music performers” of the “Afrobeat music genre” (Weber, 2017). In his musical
works, he emphasizes on spirituality and uses music as a vessel to ring in social change. He
provides the entire gamut of his musical compositions in the words, “To think how many
Africans suffer in oblivion. That makes me sad....So really I am using my music as a
weapon” (Eesuola, 2015). His emphasis on the vessel of spirituality as the medium through
which people can come out of the ugly muddle in which they were back in the 1960s and
1980s in lines like “To be spiritual is not by praying and going to church. Spiritualism is the
understanding of the universe so that it can be a better place to live in” (Jaboro, 2012). His
songs like “Coffin for head of state” (1981), “Yellow Fever” (1971), “Authority Stealing”
(1980), “Shuffering and Shmiling” (1977) and various others try to portray the actual
condition of the African people and bring about a change in their condition (Eesuola, 2015).
Joan Baez aka Joan Chandos Baez (1941-present), on the other hand, is an American
folk singer whose musical compositions sought to achieve the same goal what Fela Kuti was
“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.”
The above quoted lines of Victor Hugo, the French poet clearly indicate the important
of music on the framework of our modern society (Weber, 2017). It is to be noted that since
the traditional times music has been used by the various artists to give voice to the themes
which cannot be expressed simply in words. Music has been used since the traditional times
as a medium through which social change can be brought about (Weber, 2017). Two such
artists whose works can be examined in this particular context are Joan Baez and Fela Kuti. It
is to be noted that both the artists used the medium of music to give voice to the disturbing
facts of modern society and at the same time to ring in social change.
Fela Kuti aka Fela Anikulapo Kuti (1938- 1997), was a renowned musical composer
of Nigerian origin (Jaboro, 2012). He has often been hailed as the "challenging and
charismatic music performers” of the “Afrobeat music genre” (Weber, 2017). In his musical
works, he emphasizes on spirituality and uses music as a vessel to ring in social change. He
provides the entire gamut of his musical compositions in the words, “To think how many
Africans suffer in oblivion. That makes me sad....So really I am using my music as a
weapon” (Eesuola, 2015). His emphasis on the vessel of spirituality as the medium through
which people can come out of the ugly muddle in which they were back in the 1960s and
1980s in lines like “To be spiritual is not by praying and going to church. Spiritualism is the
understanding of the universe so that it can be a better place to live in” (Jaboro, 2012). His
songs like “Coffin for head of state” (1981), “Yellow Fever” (1971), “Authority Stealing”
(1980), “Shuffering and Shmiling” (1977) and various others try to portray the actual
condition of the African people and bring about a change in their condition (Eesuola, 2015).
Joan Baez aka Joan Chandos Baez (1941-present), on the other hand, is an American
folk singer whose musical compositions sought to achieve the same goal what Fela Kuti was
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