In my last three recent posts, I made an implication on how powerful media can be in globally spreading messages to raise awareness of issues. Here I want to focus on the particular media of music, because I think it is quite a powerful tool, by bringing different minds altogether to the same page. I think it’s powerful because well, we all love music and music stimulates pleasure in the brain, however I do not want to go deep into the structure and science of music, but rather go into its vital use of spreading a message.
Black Eyed Peas’ album art, Where Is The Love?
I think I remember clearly the first song I heard that opened my eyes about the world was Black Eyed Peas’ song, launched in 2003, Where Is The Love? which became the “longest-serving British #1 in five years and the best selling record of 2003 in the UK“. It also won Record Of The Year in the 2004 Grammy Awards in the US. I think the main reason for the mass, global attention and praise towards the song lies within the lyrical messages of the song. To give you a brief background if you are not aware (or have not even heard of the song in the first place!), the song is inspired by the 2003 Iraq War, and the rappers take turns to express and vent about what they feel is “wrong about the world,” and questions when the good thing about humanity comes in (hence the title). The song emphasizes on the wrongness, then speaks the truth, such as saying that nations are making the wrong decisions but because they are in it for the money: “Makin’ wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends“…
Here is the chorus:
The artists bring attention to the madness in humanity and the desperate need for guidance to better the world. This message has touched many hearts, especially those who are suffering in different parts of the world who are unknown and whose attention may not have been brought up in the mass media. As well, the “?” symbol that appears in their album cover and their music video became incredibly universal, and is an extremely powerful tool in spreading awareness.
“Where Is The Love?” by a blogger, Dray (Blogspot)
Black Eyed Peas Where Is The Love live concert in Manila, Philippines (CheonsaDiana’s WordPress blog)
Speaking of music videos, they are a powerful tool themselves as well, able to create a film of art, conveying necessary messages of a song. I encourage you to watch the music video, it is indeed an emotional one, and is still one of my favourites because of how influential it is.
Overall, we should all be considering music as not just entertainment and that it brings the world together, but most importantly as a brilliantly effective vehicle to pass information of issues going on in the world. Imagine if we all realize this, especially the artists who have top power in the music industry (e.g. celebrities). Do you think we can change the world?
I think it is important to consider how much influence the music industry has over how we perceive the world. As proved with your example of the Black Eyed Peas’ Where is the Love? music has the power to greatly change our views and how we decide to act. I feel as if most popular music today lacks this type of messaging and instead contains largely meaningless lyrics ( e.g. drugs or driving fast cars). If we are aware of this or not, this messaging through music is shaping who we are. What adds to the influence of music is the celebrity status of the artists performing the music. As a society we tend to associate something that is trendy with what we see displayed by celebrities. I believe that if musicians conciously took the initiative to produce music about global issues we would be able to change the way many people perceive the world.
I recently came across your blog as I was researching my own paper regarding the Power of Music in Raising Awareness. Where you focused on music having the power to change our views and unite people, I looked at this from the perspective of does our music choice helps us outwardly convey our emotions, desires, and struggles where we may not always have the words. I have come to a similar conclusion that you have in the fact that Music is almost its own language whether an artist looking to cultivate change or your average person connecting with a song because the message to them is personal and meaningful, music has the power to tell a story both about artist and listener.