Mary J. Blige, "Just Fine," R&B, 2008
Mary J. Blige, "No More Drama," R&B, 2001
Bob Marley, "Don't Worry, Be Happy," Reggae, 1988n (sung by Bobby McFerrin)
Fantasia Barrino, "I'm Doin' Me," R&B, 2010
Jennifer Hudson, "I'm Changing," R&B, 2008
For the aims of liberation and worldy success I found it easier to find songs about wordly success. As I mentioned in my previous blog, America is an individualistic society and people tend to be more focused on their own pleasures and success more than coming together as a whole to free each other from whatever may be holding us back from succeeding as a group. What is not surprising to me but something I did notice is that most of the songs I found about liberation have something to do about one person being liberated from personal issues that may cause stress. It was hard for me to find a song where an artist encouraged everyone else to liberate themselves as they may have done. Eventually, I found Bob Marley’s song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” in which he encourages people to be happy no matter their situations. In other words, free yourself from the daily situations that may bring you down and make you feel depressed and restrained. By the way, the song is awesome.
The Hindu and American belief in wordly success are almost the same except for one thing, Hindus acknowledge the fact that achievements are temporary. I have noticed that in the songs I have found, most of the rappers talk about their achievements as if it makes them untouchable or as if they cannot ever lose all that they have achieved. This is one of the reasons I selected Biggie Smalls song. He acknowledged where he came from and tough times he had to endure which gave me the impression that he knows fame and wealth can come and go. I also noticed within the American culture pleasure and wordly success is parallel. Because a lot of Americans are materialistic, they spend their money on things that show a degree of their [wordly] success. Moving on to liberation, there is not a difference between it within the American culture and Hindu religion. They are pretty much the same. Everyone wants to feel free from sorrow and pain. Just about everyone wants joy and happiness and to feel peaceful.
It really is much easier to find songs about the liberation of one person from their own personal troubles than the liberation of groups of people. However i suppose we don't really have anything to be liberated from in America since we have so many freedoms already and what one person calls oppressive socialism another calls their right as a citizen. But maybe some American artists will start to write about Egypt and the protests there in a "liberation" light.
ReplyDeleteoh and, fyi, bob marley didnt have anything to do with dont worry be happy. he died in 1981 and that song came out in 1988 and if you listen that song and an actual bob marley song youll see that marley's song writing is pretty different.
Kiara,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your interesting point regarding the liberation in many songs, and how it is individualistic. I also noticed that many of the ideas expressed in these types of liberation types of songs are not exactly paralleling the liberation in the Hindu, Moksha mindset.
It's very interesting how you explain that the liberation that is revealed is a personal and individualistic one from a stressful situation. I too found that the liberation themes from the music is not directly paralleled with the Hindu one, but came to the conclusion that it was more of an escapism theme, rather than a transcendental one. In either case, it is very intriguing that we came to different, yet somewhat similar, conclusions regarding the songs related to liberation.
Cheers,
Kunal
Arjun, I was reading about that song and noticed that there was some debate about whether he had anything to do with that song or not. Eventually I got tired of reading and was like whatever lol. I appreciate the info though :-)
ReplyDeleteKunal, thank for your feedback also. i also agree that these songs are not of the Moksha mindset and more of an escapism theme. Thanks!
Kiara, please add your last name to your blog! good work otherwise!
ReplyDelete