Natasha+U’s+2016+OpEd+Article



If Music Could Talk, What Would it Say?

During lunch when ASB plays music on the stage, what music do you usually hear with actual substance? Are there any songs that make you stop and think about the band or artists motives and intended meaning of the song? For the most part, and I think most people will agree with me, the answer is no. The two top songs right now according to Billboar.com are Work by Rihanna and Love Yourself by Justing Bieber. Both of these songs are about relationships. Now I know that there are plenty of people with more sophisticated taste in music but when music is being played in a large institution, the songs are meaningless. In the 80s bands and artists put thought and intellect behind their work. The genre of punk specifically led the music industry, intellectually speaking. A famous British band The Clash frequently wrote songs expressing their opinion on current political issues. In their song Charlie Don't Surf they expressive their opinion of America during the Cold War, referencing how we will be a "napalm star" and how "so many armies can't free the Earth" from communist and other oppressive government. Another song by The Clash titled Spanish Bombs, the bands discusses the bombing of the Basque separatists that were at the time bombing the coast of Spain and related it to the Spanish Civil War that happened from 1936-1939. Other bands during the same time period expressed their opinion of the England's government. The Beat (or as they are known in America, The English Beat) begged the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to step down from her position beacause of their lives seeming "petty in [her] cold grey hands" in their song Stand Down Margaret. During Prime Minister Thatcher's rule, Englad's unemployment rate skyrocketed and there was fear of a nuclear war. One of the Sex Pistol's most popular song (although it was banned for a period of time in England) God Save the Queen, rebelled against the monarchy and they expressed their belief that the Queen was merely a figurehead to attract tourists. The era of punk is over, and with it ended the era of the thought provoking music. The beauty of music is that the artist or band can write about whatever they want and express whatever opinions they have. In America today there is plenty of thought provoking material that could be put into a song. Music now is the same theme over and over again, relationships/love. I'm sick of it.