Comm 450 4/30/21 Music as a Tool The Cultural artifact I will be exploring in this final project is music. I will be explaining why and how it plays a major role in society when it comes to change. Throughout this essay I will be talking about many artists such as Michael Jackson, Lil baby, Jermaine Cole, Billie Holiday, Jay Z, Sam Cook, and John Legend. I selected these artists because they have all played a role in the musical family in trying to make a change in the world through their music. Not a lot of people use their platform to attack social injustice issues and when people do it brings awareness and turns the conversation up a little more for society about the issues that people of color are facing. There are other people outside of music that are using their platform for this movement such as athletes and it started with Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the National Anthem as a call out to the problems that are within our country. Within every artist there is a unique fashion in how they write their music. This topic is still relevant and being preached about through music for many years because history constantly repeats itself in some form. These songs of change started when slavery was occurring. Slaves would use music as a form of communication to connect with others, relay messages, instill hope, and even plant a seed for people so they know that change is on the way. After doing research about the history of music being made to make a change, I have found a couple of sources. I will explain the message in the song the artist created, what time period It occurred and what made the artist want to send this message out to the community. Michael Jackson The first artist I will be exploring is an artist that is from Indiana and was born in 1958. This specific musical artist was known as the king of pop and had a major influence on my childhood as a kid. His platform was unlike any other African American male in the music industry around the time he was alive. This artist is Michael Jackson. I was introduced to Michael Jackson around 8 years old when a game called Michael Jackson experience was released and he became a figure that I looked up to. One particular song that stands out to me is a song he released in 1996 called ‘They don’t care about us’ referring to the African American community. In my opinion this is a very powerful song because he addresses the violence that African Americans receive and follows by saying ‘you could never break me’ which exemplifies strength. This song is a powerful message directed towards our country. In the beginning of the song Michael is talking about the violence poured onto the people of color and stating what he titled the song ‘They don’t care about us’. He says ‘beat me, hate me, You can never break me’. When I think about those lyrics and the audience he was speaking to in that period of time I can see how it give people strength to endure everything that was going on whether it was physical violence or inequality which both have an effect on people of color. This song speaks not only for African Americans but for anybody who suffers from discrimination. His lyrics were short and direct but allowed people to think about what he is saying and how it could relate to them. There are a lot of people who are not politically conscious and using music as a tool to break things down for people is very smart of musical artists. The music video in relation to this song speaks volume as well. In the video you see Michael Jackson in the streets of Brazil because the issues were not only in the U.S but they were all around the world. According to the Michael Jackson World Network, shooting that video in the streets of Brazil was so powerful that it was ‘credited as now being partially responsible for the improvement and wealth in the local area.’ The music video made for this song was viewed by 813 million people. Michael Jackson spoke about the issues people were facing, the violence that was occurring, and the discrimination that was going on to 813 million people… This goes to show how powerful someone’s platform can be if they want to spread awareness and make change in the world. Another song that was created by this brilliant artist is called ‘black or white’. This song is more of an upbeat friendly song that was released in 1991 which is 5 years before ‘they don’t care about us’ that touches on equality and how the color of someone’s skin does not make them any different in the world. In the music video you see a few different transitions from one culture to another. One specific transition that occurred at the end of the video was a scene where different people and races were morphing from one to another while all of them were doing the same dance at the same rhythm. This part of the video is very powerful to me because it puts on display to the world that we are no different from each other and that every race is beautiful and should be looked at and treated equally. There is strength in the music we listen too. According to Gene Beresin in the article he wrote about healthy living he states ‘The fact that music evokes emotion is obvious. And not only does it make us feel happy, sad, or want to get up and dance, but certain melodies are embedded in our memories.’ After reading this it made me think about how emotions are attached to a lot of things. Hate, love, happiness, and sadness all depends on what is going on in your life. Music can lift you up, keep you down and even fill you up with knowledge about something. Bringing race and music together has played a major role in the changes that have been accomplished today. Listening to someone sing about equality can spark a feeling in someone and be the reason for that someone changing their opinion on how they feel about racism. Lil Baby The next artist I will explore and the impact he had on the community is Dominique Jones also known in the music world as Lil Baby. Lil Baby is from Atlanta and is twenty six years old which is only five years older than I am. I say that because he is an artist in todays time that is speaking on issues that occurred in 2020 which is 30 years past Michael Jacksons song ‘black or white’. You don’t have to be a certain age or a certain color to speak about what is right and what is wrong. You can speak about it in many different ways too whether your bringing attention the issues through your music, athletics, work space, and many other professions. The song that Lil Baby wrote is called the bigger picture. This song was released after the murder of George Floyd. Instead of Lil Baby making a tweet that would be relevant for a few days he chose the option to make a song about it which is ten times more impactful because he was speaking for his community, race, and he was fed up with police brutality. According to Charles Holmes in the article he wrote about Lil Baby’s song, he states that ‘In verse, he’s both angry and confused — ‘I find it crazy the police will shoot you and know that you dead but still tell you to freeze’ — trying to make sense of what millions of Americans are struggling to come to grips with. But of all the feelings Lil Baby exorcises on the track, it’s trepidation and fear that colors ‘The Bigger Picture.’ I agree with the statement that Holmes speaks on about how Lil Baby exorcises trepidation which is a feeling of agitation and fear. Music has been an outlet for many things but has made the most impact on the topic of racism. The lyrics that Lil Baby put out show a sense of aggression or impatience because enough is enough and through his words you can tell that he is tired of the inequality, police brutality and people being blind to what is really occurring in our nation. The song begins with a news reporter stating how protestors want to see a step for justice being taken by arresting the officers who are accountable for George Floyds death. Later in the song Lil Baby says ‘t’s bigger than black and white, It’s a problem with the whole way of life, It can’t change overnight, But we gotta start somewhere, Might as well gon’ ‘head start here’. When I hear these lyrics I think about the people who are not fighting for a change and how they are part of the problem as well because with numbers there are power and things can evolve and change. As an African American I feel for the people that are just like me. I have never been harmed physically by the law but there are issues that occur between the physicality part. I have been profiled a few times in my life. I have witnessed my mother get treated poorly by the law. I went to a predominantly white elementary school and have been called names and I grew up living in fear my whole life and still do, I say this because I am appreciative of the artists that make music about real issues that go on in the world. Music is an outlet for everyone but people have managed to use this as a tool or a microphone to be heard. J Cole The next musical artist that is very influential in many ways that has used his platform as a tool to spread awareness and share how he feels about problems in society is Jermaine Cole also known as J Cole. In the music industry J Cole is known as a true lyricist because he can break down things in the form of music unlike any other artists. He has written many songs in regards to racial injustice. One that stands out and is most intriguing to me is the song called ‘Snow on the bluff’. This one stands out to me because it was pivotal at a time in our life where a lot of things were happening in the world. The song talks about how as the artist being a black man himself he felt like he was not doing enough for the stance against racism which motivates more black or white people to take a stance and do more than what they have done. In the middle of the song J Cole says, ‘feel like a slave that somehow done saved enough coins to buy his way up out of slavery’. When I heard this part of the song I had to go back and think about what he was really saying because often times in songs we hear lyrics but don’t process what the person is actually saying. After sitting and reading between the lines of what J Cole said, I got the perspective that the only way for somewhat of an escape of poverty and the chains that hold many African Americans down such as the poor education being distributed into small communities and the slim amount of opportunities that arise is to be talented in any category that people love to spectate such as sports or being a musician. From personal experience, I have been pulled over in high school and was questioned by the officer for a few minutes. I gave the officer my name and he then asked me what high school I go to. I responded saying Rockledge high school and my name was familiar to him because I played a sport and his whole outlook on me had changed because I was highly recruited. I say this because had the officer not known who I was or if I did not have a status he would not have been as friendly or lenient after the fact. To bring this full circle, J Cole said that because he sees his community and the way they get treated but he is glorified because he has a platform and is talented in music and that is what he means when he says ‘feel like a slave that somehow done saved enough coins to buy his way out of slavery’ because he has been on both sides and seen how it is to be mistreated by the law as well. The Message Work Cited ‘They don’t care About Us’ 2020. (2020, November 11). Retrieved April 27, 2021, from https://www.mjworld.net/news/2020/08/29/they-dont-care-about-us-2020/ Kennedy, G. W. (2003). Human feel. Oxford Music Online. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.j745400 King, N., & Pearson, V. (2020, October 21). Lil baby on taking music apart to see ‘the bigger picture’. Retrieved March 06, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/923944010/lil-babymy-turn-bigger-picture-criminal-justice Owoseje, T. (2020, June 17). J. Cole releases new SINGLE ‘Snow on Tha Bluff’. Retrieved March 06, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/entertainment/j-cole-single-snow-ontha-bluff-black-lives-matt er-intl-scli/index.html Antoine Green 3/5/21 Comm 450 Thesis This paper will examine racism, in a unique fashion, music by Lil Baby, J Cole, Billie Holiday, Sam Cook, and Jay Z. These artist songs will be examined to show how they used music as a tool to spread awareness or share the opinion or experiences of racism and discrimination of the community that is not heard. . Hess, J. (2019). Singing our own song: Navigating identity politics through activism in music. Research Studies in Music Education, 41(1), 61-80. ? This is a valid article because the researcher conducted many interviews of musician activists to study how they view their role in music. This applies to my topic because it shows how the musicians he selected to study found their way to activism as musicians. Holmes, C. (2020, June 12). Lil baby always had a lot to say — you just weren’t paying attention. Retrieved March 06, 2021, from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/lil-baby-thebigger-picture-1014126/ ? This article is important because it highlights the timing of when the song was released. The song was released after the murder of George Floyd and other African Americans. It relates to my topic because it shows how music can be used in moments of tragedy and bring a community together to call out systematic racism. King, N., & Pearson, V. (2020, October 21). Lil baby on taking music apart to see ‘the bigger picture’. Retrieved March 06, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/923944010/lil-babymy-turn-bigger-picture-criminal-justice ? This article stands out to me because it explains the background of the young artist who is a young African American and how he wants people to look at ‘the bigger picture’. This relates to my topic because it breaks down the song and shows how music can be used to break down racism and fight for social justice. Leaven, K. L. (2020). OJ like,‘I’m Not Black, I’m OJ’… Okay’: Collective Memory and the Narrative of America in Jay-Z’s ‘the Story of OJ. Howard Journal of Communications, 31(5), 449-463. ? This article gives an overview and a background about racism in America. It specifically examines Jay Z’s song by looking at the video and the lyrics to show how it is a narrative of race in America. This applies to my topic because each of these songs are a piece of the story of what people go through or deal with when it comes down to racism and disrimination. Margolick, D. (1999). Performance as a Force for Change: The case of Billie Holiday and ‘Strange Fruit’. Law & Literature, 11(1), 91-109. ? This article speaks about the power in the lyrics that artists like Billie Holiday have used. This applies to my topic because it allows you to break down the lyrics in these songs and give you a clear vision on how musical artists in popular culture are able to use music and lyrics to talk about important topics like racism in a meaningful way. Owoseje, T. (2020, June 17). J. Cole releases new SINGLE ‘Snow on Tha Bluff’. Retrieved March 06, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/entertainment/j-cole-single-snow-ontha-bluff-black-lives-matt er-intl-scli/index.html ? This article is interesting because it was pivotal at a time in our life where a lot of things were happening in the world. The song talks about how as the artist being a black man himself he felt like he was not doing enough for the stance against racism which motivates more black or white people to take a stance and do more than what they have done. This reflects my topic because it is spreading awareness of the things that are happening through a form of rhythm. Sullivan, R. E. (2003). Rap and race: It’s got a nice beat, but what about the message?. Journal of Black Studies, 33(5), 605-622. ? Something that is interesting from this article is how they were able to study perceptions of rap music across white and black people to see how they view it differently. This is helpful with my topic because it allows me to see how rap music cannot only reach the black community but also the white community so rap can be used as a tool to create change across racial groups. Purchase answer to see full attachment Tags: cultural artifact Michael Jackson John legend significant role Lil baby User generated content is uploaded by users for the purposes of learning and should be used following Studypool’s honor code & terms of service.