Social & Political Activism

435 Words2 Pages
Social & Political Activism Music has a very powerful role in today’s society. Since the 1980s, due to the expansion of mass media technologies, popular music has been a significant instrument of social and political activism. Music is very influential to people and should always be intertwined with politics. Due to music’s popularity, it is capable of spreading very rapidly. It has the ability to raise social awareness, promote intelligence instead of demoting it, and can bring society together in a positive way. Music is so worldwide today it can be heard by anyone. Factually, music has played a vital part in a wide range of causes. For example, popular music has helped political campaigns with many advertisements. As a result, attracts a lot of people to listen the message they are broadcasting. Popular music such as hip-hop is heavily concentrated around political and social messages. Hip-hop artist, Professor D of Dope Poets Society, is dedicated to making political music for social change. “Politics is not simply about politicians. It’s who's got the power to affect all conditions ”(Professor D, Everything’s Political). Basically Professor D is saying politics are not only dealt with politicians. We deal with politics everyday of our lives. There are many songs that are intended to raise our social awareness on poverty, racism, war etc. Most popular music nowadays does not promote anything important or resourceful. In a reference to ‘rap’ music, the song, ‘turn my swag on’, Soulja Boy, is a prime example of unimportant music. The song touches upon being ‘fly’ and having a lot of money. Rapper, Professor D, expresses shock at the number of rappers wasting exposure and talent by rapping about things that’s socially irrelevant. On a contrary, they can be doing the exact opposite, (Bottero, 2008,p8). The popular music artists of today were
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