Oh Bondage! Up Yours!

It's no secret that foreclosure rates are high, unemployment is soaring, the gap between rich and poor is beyond absurd, and political unrest is disrupting the lives of so many around the world. That's what the global Occupy movement is all about. People have taken to the streets in more than 70 cities and 600 communities to speak out against the abuse and misuse of power. This is a rallying cry for political and economic liberation. As Poly Styrene screamed in 1977, Oh, Bondage! Up Yours!

Poly Styrene's punk band, X-Ray Spex, joins a long list of musicians who blend their artistic vision with politics to put good into the world. Music fuels our anger and buoys our spirit. Lyrics break down the political problems we face. Songs offer solutions and give us hope. That is the foundation for the emerging soundtrack of our era.

The Dixie Chicks famously took flack for opposing U.S. war in Iraq. There's Reggae, Riot Grrrl, activist rappers, and Rafael Casal. Protest music gives us something to sing about long after we've put down our signs and returned home.

Fifty years ago folk singer Pete Seeger inspired a generation with his songs promoting international peace. On October 21, 2011 Seeger inspired countless more by marching with Occupy Wall Street through New York City's affluent Upper West Side. The emotion was palpable even watching from Los Angeles through live stream. As Michael Moore reported via Twitter, "Holy S***! Now Arlo Guthrie is here! 92-yr old Pete Seeger just marched 36 blocks w/2 canes 2 b here. Crowd growing--NYPD is like, 'WTF?'"

The composed dignity on Seeger's face brought tears as the crowd began singing "This Land Is Your Land" and "We Shall Overcome," the slave spiritual that Seeger popularized as a protest anthem during the 1960s civil rights movement.

That is the power of the people to come together by the millions -- and it is the power of political music to move those millions. Michael Franti and Spearhead know this when they sing "Power to the Peaceful" or "Give the Corporations Some Complications." But it doesn't matter whether artists are as famous-as-Woodstock or up-and-coming talent. Today, technology makes it easier to document street action and blend it with a beat. With passion, vision, and a YouTube account, Do-It-Yourself activism has wider reach than ever before. Take Ubyk, a Los Angeles-based indy band, who explain in their music video "Speak (Nothing to Lose)":

I've been a pawn and I've been a rook
I've sat silent as the medicine took
I've been excused I've been overlooked...

Now we've got something to prove
And we haven't got a thing to lose
We've got something to show you
And we haven't got a thing to lose

Their compelling video of the global Occupy movement attests to the power of the people to confront the status quo:

Music sustains our everyday resistance to politics large and small. The personal is political, and music can speak to our worries about putting food on the table while also confronting large-scale issues such as corporate manipulation. From the overt messages of Kathleen Hanna and The Coup, to the sly politics of bands like Radiohead, so many musicians have so much to say. There's Henry Rollins' righteous anger, the socially conscious rap of Immortal Technique, Gil Scott Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," and Sarah Jones sharp remix, "Your Revolution Will Not Happen Between These Thighs."

The misuse of power and public trust is antithetical to democracy. Author Rinku Sen points out, there's much work yet to be done to connect our political movements and throw off social and economic control. In that spirit of optimism and anger, people are coming together worldwide, doing their best to fight the abuse of power and create a better future.

So the question is: What music moves you to fight unjust power and create a vision for a better world? What are you singing and what do you have to say? Help create our collective mixtape, the soundtrack to our era. Share with us here and let the world know what moves you.

(Full disclosure: The author participated in creating Ubyk's "Speak" video.)

 

 

 

 

Follow Shira Tarrant on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ShiraTarrant

Comments

[Amanda Rueda]

06:04 PM on 11/02/2011

As an avid user of music as therapy, Muse has always been an inspirational band to me. On the topic of the Occupy movement, I feel that the song "Uprising" is a particularly strong call to action. My favorite lyrics from the song are:

"Rise up and take the power back
It's time the fat cats had a heart attack
You know that their time is coming to an end
We have to unify and watch our flag ascend"

[Anna Duong]

04:26 PM on 11/02/2011

This article gave me more light and depth to the Occupy Movement; something that I had little knowledge about. It's a movement that represents all my views of the corporate world. I feel that we work so hard for our money and a large portion of it goes back to those corporate heads who drive around in their Bentleys, take luxury vacations, and have multi-million dollar mansions that WE paid for. There's corporate greed around the world and we feel it. This movement lets us unite together for liberation against those corporations.

[Gisele Trucios]

12:58 PM on 11/02/2011

The type of music I hear does not speak about injustice nor anything related to poor and wealthy, power and non power people, unemployment, government, abuse, frauds and all those matters that this movement relates too. Unfourtanely the music I hear is music that is naturalized to my ears and I only listen to the beat and not the lyrics. In a class im currently taking I have learn how lyrics are not being pay attention too. How some lyrics in music videos send wrong messages and inappropriate to a certain gender or race. On the other side, there is music that is not giving the right attention because it doesnt sell nor people want to hear. Is this type of music where we learn most of the problems that we have but do not do anything about them. Or atleast I thought there was nothing been done. I didnt know much about the occupy movement, what it meant or that it even existed. I was surprise to see, or as I should say also to hear, what this song is saying. The video holds many people asking for opportunities either for jobs, less frauds from the government and my favorite the little girl holding a sign saying, "Mr. President lend me a future". This really touch my heart because during this times it is very hard to find a job or get a career. In the future children like this, if things dont change, there will be less opportunities.

[Navneet]

04:43 AM on 11/02/2011

The case of political, socioeconomic and cultural corruption has taken over the world and it is being manifested in various forms of mistreatment to the society. The main reason as to why such behavior do exist is because of power; the need to sustain power and apply such power for the benefit of an individual. Many leaders are failing to live-up to the standards of being in leadership positions as a way of providing good governance over critical issues; such as addressing the unemployment issue. This has been left to the public to handle, which consists of individuals who have shown mistrust in such governments. With many demonstrations emerging, these are just but many form of expressions that people have opted to use in addressing the existing problems that the government have decided to give a deaf ear to them. music that has been found to be effective in fighting unjust power and probably create a vision for a better world is the one that addresses current issues concerning human rights abuses, unemployment, extra-judicial killings, and the general mismanagement of public resources and office power. The video with music audios at the back has a huge significance in communicating the mind of the singer towards the issues that are being addressed. The video portrays a number of demonstrations going on all over the world and the posters and message provided by the artist also gives a better touch to current issues happening that are annoying people all over.

[Jeanamarie Pirio]

03:41 AM on 11/02/2011

Unity!!! This was the first thing that I thought to myself when I watched this video... unity. Unity not in the national or racial sense but in the sense of the human race. This ideal is portrayed simply, but yet so elegantly, in the song Everybody's Free to Feel Good. This song, by Quindon Tarver (and re-imagined by many other artists) is only a few lines long. Although short, in those few lines it makes me feel like the human race needs to come together. "Brothers and sisters, TOGETHER we will make it through," and it IS together that we will succeed. Unfortunately together is the farthest thing from what the human race has accomplished. We are constantly at war with each other; from with in the White House, to the streets of Oakland and New York, to overseas. This video demonstrates how much of an impact can be made if we just unite as brothers and sisters should.

[yesenia 3]

03:33 AM on 11/02/2011

There has been a song that has motivated me into fighting for our a better world and a better way to speak my mind. The rap artist is Immortal Technique has a song called, " Freedom of speech', where he talks about cooperation, media and the censorship of one's freedom of speech. This song reminds me of the power of word. It speaks about having the freedom taken away by the media and big corporations where they control everyone like puppets; directing them the way they want the flow to go. This rap song inspired everyone to be their own person and stand for they believe in.

[Nitzan Harel]

12:56 AM on 11/02/2011

Although i haven't yet gone out to the wall street protest in LA, i did participate in a huge demonstration in Tel Aviv in August. the premises of occupy wall-street is very similar to the one in Israel - the "tent protest" as it was called and the it was an empowering feeling to be in a demonstration with a quarter of a million people that Saturday night in Tel Aviv- being surrounded with people who are just as sick an tired of the economy and social injustices as i am and listening to some of the most famous Israeli artist singing and supporting the demonstration . Seeing the pictures in the music video and the protests around the world and listening to the lyrics of the songs gave me a bit of that feeling again, and i think its now time to actually go and join this movement.
I would also like to here more artists join the ranks and use their music to foreword the message to more audiences.

[Pdz]

12:25 AM on 11/02/2011

The song "God Save The Queen" by the Sex Pistols reminds me a lot about the current Occupy protests. The song speaks about the inequality between working class and the rich that control the people. This song is a little dated to be considered a song for our era it quite clearly outlines the huge division between the few that have power and those that don't.

[Haley Flood]

12:49 PM on 11/01/2011

I am only 20 years old so there are current songs like Pink's "Dear Mr. President" and Dixie Chicks "I'm not Ready to Make Nice" that really motivated me to get involved in politics and what is going on in the world. These female artists that have always inspired me showed me that I do have a voice and they made me feel powerful and in control of the destiny of my country. There are also many Tupac songs like "Keep Ya Head Up" and "Changes" that make me feel empowerment. I am not a young, black male in the ghetto, but I am a women which is a minority so these songs make me feel that I need to have a voice and speak up about things I want to change in my current situation. Lastly, many songs from the 60's by the Beatles, the Doors, Janice Joplin, etc showed that music can have many powers in society and current events, you just must use the power of music to do so and not get caught up in useless lyrics and pointless themes.

[nguyen cong]

12:18 AM on 11/01/2011

I think “Heal the World" of Michael Jackson delivers peaceful images of our world. The song reflects a desire and passion to change our society, and “to make a better place”, and I think people around the world have to be a part of this wish. Occupy movement can be a starting point of the revolution where people’s voice will be heard and become real.

[Edna Rodriguez]

09:44 PM on 10/31/2011

I listen to all types of music, but there are some songs that speak to me more. These songs tell stories and describe their dream for new tomorrow.

Simple- Crazy:"Tell me what's wrong with society, when everywhere I look I see, Young girls dying to be on TV, They wont stop 'til they've reached their dreams, Diet pills, surgery, Photoshop pictures in magazines, Telling them how they should be, It doesn't make sense to me, Is everybody going crazy?"
2Pac- Changes: "We gotta make a change...It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live and let's change the way we treat each other."
Pink -Dear Mr. President: "What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?, Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep?, What do you feel when you look in the mirror? Are you proud?"
Mana- Dónde jugarán niños?:"The sky has broken, a grey crying has broken out, the sea is vomiting rivers of oil incessantly, and today, after so much destruction I wonder, where the hell will those poor kids play?"
Juanes- Sueños: "I dream of freedom for all of those who remain, In captivity today in the middle of the jungle, And I dream of peace for my town where blood has been shed, And of the end of this unjust war."

[Brittany Demers]

06:41 PM on 10/31/2011

There is a great deal of music that really helps me feel and want to make change, such as the beatles, lady gaga, and many more. I know those aren't the best examples, but they still relate to political musicians who feel the need for change and advocate it as well. This music video really shows how we are starting to make changes regarding the global occupy movement and doing it together as a whole. Those of us who know about the occupy movement but aren't doing anything about it to help bring about change, are just unheard voices who won't make change. Just as the music video stated, "silence is consent", and we DONT want silence. We need to keep working together to show just how we feel and to bump those people out of power who are not bringing about equality in many ways. I am surprised as to how many cities and communities are participating, I just hope this lasts and doesn't die out because of brutality done by the police to stop our voices. Music is one of the key factors to getting many people to think and feel what is right, and act upon it. As long as we stay together and fight for what is right, we have a chance to produce change.

[Robyn Land]

06:30 PM on 10/31/2011

For my political mixtape I like listening to the beatles. The beatles spoke up against the wars of their time and problems they faced. Songs like revolution and strawberry fields talk about what everyone was thinking, the war needed to end. I enjoy them because they give off a feel good tone, and were trying to make a difference and speak out against what they believed to be wrong. Today it seems like music is entirely censored and songs fighting against "the man" rarely seep through the mainstream cracks and make it onto the radio for large audiences to hear in a matter of minutes. Instead political music today only reaches as large of audiences (or at least my ears) if people spread the word. We need to embrace our freedom of speech and speak out against what we believe is wrong.

[simondehooks]

04:21 PM on 10/31/2011

I would have to say that the music that makes sense of many of my struggles as an activist would be Calle 13, Los Tigeres del Norte and Bebe, though the music they play is not always political their ability to portray down the earth politics, the political as personal, makes a great connection. Calle 13 plays LatinoAmerica, a song in Latino America stuggles to exist yet fights because there are certain things that cannot be purchased. Los Tigeres del Norte play various songs about the immigrant experience and just recently created La Granja, with lyrics making connections between Jorge Orwell’s 1984 and the Mexican’s corrupt government. Bebe sings domestic violence from a first person’s perspective as a victum of the abuse. All these issues are different but in the end they are all one, cause and supported by the same.

[Jen Insley]

03:13 PM on 10/31/2011

Sometimes I turn to artists like Rage Against the Machine or Leftover Crack to free up my own anger, as I often feel there is so much apathy and complacency required in the daily shuffle of life that I tend to lose touch with the way I feel about our current political system. In this sense, music is an important reminder that can bring me back to my senses. I think there is a line in one of Ani DiFranco's songs that mentions something about participating in the consumerism of capitalism is as easy as breathing, and it is. Music provides the wake up call we all sometimes need. In terms of style, I am a fan of PJ Harvey. She incorporates politics, feminism, and a beautiful artistic aesthetic in her work that makes her work powerful on a deeper and more meaningful level. She can discuss the futility of war, the United Nations, and the need for more feminine politics almost in one breath, highlighting the interconnectedness of things. There is so much to be said about the power of music!!