Pinch No More – The Dangers of Waist Training

Cinching the waist by wearing a corset became popular during the 19^th century or the Victorian era. Women employed tightly-laced corsets to improve their silhouettes. Corset training or tight lacing, as the practice was referred to, helped to slim down the waist, raise and shape the breasts, flatten the stomach, and improve the posture – all leading to what was believed to be a more attractive, slimmer, and sexier figure.

Today, the waist-cinching corset has made a comeback. It has been made more popular by celebrities acknowledging that they use the corset to squeeze their waist tight so that it looks firm, small, and very shapely. Many women wear steel-boned corsets anywhere from a minimum of three hours to a full twelve hours or more if they can stand it — believing that by constricting their core through a tight corset worn for hours on end will help them attain a permanently smaller waist in due time

That you can achieve a significantly small waist – permanently – solely through waist training, however, seems far-fetched. That the skin and flesh in the area may become painful, bruised, and uncomfortable in the process may be more like it.

There is very little data to support the claim that you can acquire a lasting small waist through waist training. When you cinch your waist, it may really seem smaller; once you remove the waist-pincher, however, regardless of how long you may have worn it, your waist will go back to its natural shape.

Waist training is unnatural, painful, and restrictive. And there are strong indications that there are many health dangers associated with its prolonged and uninhibited practice.

When you wear a tight corset for a prolonged period of time, the skin is likely to become irritated — red, tough, and painful. Blisters may occur. Continued use may result in contact dermatitis, with the skin becoming chronically inflamed, itchy, or raw and tender to touch.

 

That you may find the practice of wearing a tight corset prickly and uncomfortable may be the least of your worries. Corsets are worn tight – they are intended to be. And because of this, you may be exposing yourself to certain serious risks to your health.

When you wear corsets extensively, you find it difficult to breathe properly. You become short of breath, inclined to feel like fainting. The lungs cannot expand properly to fill with oxygen. You block oxygen and constrict its flow to the lungs, the heart, and many other internal organs. Studies show that persistent waist training may lead to chronic lung problems.

Your metabolism tends to slow down and become sluggish. The cells do not get the oxygen that they need. You become strongly predisposed to develop metabolic disorders resulting in weight gain, and other more serious related medical conditions like hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes.

Waist training compresses the sensory nerve to the thigh and may result in meralgia paresthetica. When this happens, you will feel the thigh go numb or become painful with a burning or tingling sensation.

 

Abdominal problems may also be attributed to prolonged waist training. Wearing a restrictive tight corset may cause abdominal pains, as well as problems with digestion and constipation.

 

There are no quick fixes to a fit and shapely body. It all comes down to eating sensibly and exercising regularly. You can pinch all you want – and suffer health complications in the process – but you will not get the small waist that you want by wearing a corset.

 

Why Rock And Roll?

Rock and Roll is a mirror, a map of cultural development and reaction. From the early Blues to today’s Hip Hop and Hardcore, music has changed to keep stride with an ever evolving political and social climate. In many ways, the music helps to fuel this evolution, breaking down racial boundaries, and crossing lines of class. That is not to say that it is a creation without conflict, Rock and Roll is a powerful device. It draws its power from its controversial nature, one reason for its total rise to power. Today, music is ever present, however, like the society it is born from, it is a creation of oppositional forces. Today’s popular music is a mesh of styles and ideologies. No other art form is so readily accessible, accepted, and despised.

This paper will identify several major themes within the development of Rock And Roll as a cultural force. It will also provide historical context and background giving the reader insights into the climate that produced Rock and its later spin-offs. Rock and Roll is built on African-American roots, and with changes and advancements in society, the music changed. I will attempt to define Rock in economic, social, and racial terms in relation to the culture as a whole. As the civil rights struggle built momentum, Rock and Soul became more accessible to both black and white teens. An increasingly violent society, and images of Vietnam would also help to fuel the musical revolution of a post-World War II generation hungry to make a cultural statement. Finally, it will briefly touch on the music scene today, a scene with ever emerging genres and technology, a scene splintering more each day. The following pages are not a comprehensive account of the history of Rock and Roll, they are the turning points in the development process of a musical form, and in a larger sense a culture.

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Part OneChapter One: Origins And Movement Of The BluesBlues, Delta to Urban, Acoustic to Electric 

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In many ways, the Blues was the soundtrack for black life under white Southern oppression. Economic conditions in the south were horrible from the civil war well into the 1940’s. Daily life was a harsh economic struggle, the blues emerged as a reaction to the worsening of southern economy. From religion, to segregation, to unemployment, the blues evolved to reflect a changing social climate. Early blues songs told of extreme conditions in the fields, on the levees, in the work camps of the South. Prisons and prison life also played a very important defining role for the blues. Economic and social conditions in the South were definitely not favorable for the black population. Slavery was “over,” reconstruction was over, leaving a lasting segregation permeating all aspects of life. The exodus into the Northern industrial cities was a search for a better life. As the blues moved into the dense urban area of the North, subjects and styles changed to fit its environment. In essence the blues is a musical form based on alienation, depression, and suffering. It is based on universal constructs, touching on subjects that have touched all of us at one time or another. It is very accessible. Still, the reasons for the blues may run much deeper. The era in which the blues emerged was unique to American history. The field songs, and work songs conveyed the sentiments of an established time. Hundreds of years of slavery defined the situations about which these songs were written. After slavery was abolished, the freedmen needed a new form of musical expression to deal with this new situation.

Modern day rock and roll can be traced to numerous sources. For many, Rock and Roll began with the blues. Many of the bands that are my favorites today are directly related to the blues of the early 20’s and 30’s. It has been said that the blues grew out of the black field songs of the South. With its roots running heavily in gospel, and African rhythms the blues is a unique American musical tradition. It has filtered out, beyond our borders, but it originated in the States. Original bluesmen like Charlie Christian, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and T-Bone Walker are directly responsible for what is today termed as Rock and Roll. Christian and Jefferson were the first to be recognized for what is a very old process of musical evolution. The work songs of the late 1800’s played an important role in shaping the content and character of the Blues. These work songs, and field hollers were personal testimony set to distinct vocal styles and rhythms. They are songs that tell the tale of everyday life under “King Cotton.” (Benzon)

The 1920’s gave birth to what was to become the modern recording industry. For the first time, musicians on different sides of the country could listen to the same musical work. Ideas and styles quickly spread. The new recordings became a primary source of inspiration for the musicians of the 1920’s and 30’s. (Miller 7) 1920’s radio played a large part in American life. Many of the early blues singers got their start from early radio. Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith were among the first. Bessie Smith had a revolutionary voice, her songs were filled with liberating messages. These early recordings were called “race records.” They appealed to the urban blacks that had relocated from the south.”(Benzon) Race records and the tradition of racial marketing and exploitation have been an ever present component of the modern recording industry.

In 1936, twenty years before Rock’s full fledged emergence, delta bluesman Robert Johnson began recording songs that would be strikingly similar to what was to become Rock and Roll. Among these songs were “Me and The Devil Blues”, “Come On In My Kitchen”, and “Traveling Riverside Blues” Johnson died only one year after recording these revolutionary songs. The circumstances of his death are unclear and have only helped to fuel the rumor that he sold his soul to the devil for musical success. He was the king of the “delta” blues, so called because of its origins in the Mississippi delta. Many would later take Johnson’s style and move it to the cities of the north. Besides Johnson, Charley Patten is remembered as of of the great and pioneering Delta Blues icons. Charley Patten was established in the delta region by 1915. Many future greats of the blues would site both men as the primary sources of style and inspiration.

Eventually there would be two monumental influences on the blues that would help bring it to give birth to rock and roll. Rural bluesmen were moving to the cities. From the 1890’s through the 1950’s, millions migrated, in varying degrees, from the rural conditions of the south into the city. The white terrorization of the South, combined with Jim Crow segregation helped move millions out of Southern rural oppression. The promise of abundant jobs (or at least rumors of plentiful jobs) in the cities of the North helped pull the millions in. World Wars One and Two created a labor market for migrating southern blacks. The industrial production of the North offered an enticing alternative to the horrible Southern economic conditions that were created by various agricultural crisis. Economic and social conditions in the South were horrible, and showed no sign of improvement. After slavery, the share cropping system was developed, slavery was over, but the economic oppression of the South was just being born. Share cropping was a system of economic dependence that would ensure large debts and little personal mobility for the person in bondage. The introduction of mechanical cotton picking machines in 1944, collapsed the share cropping system forcing the migration to continue. People were being pulled into a tight Northern labor market en mass. The stylized environments of the North were transformed, through word of mouth, into mythical places. The safety, and availability that seemed to be so abundant in the cities created a “promised land.” The vehicle migrants rode into the promised land, the steam train, became magical. The images of the train have always been present in the American blues. The sound of the steamer has often been imitated by using guitar and harmonica. For people escaping the South, the train, with its black Pullman porters, seemed a far cry from the rural conditions that were so common. With the move to the cities, the music changed, tempos began to speed up with beats becoming harder, and steadier. The guitar stepped out in front and began to drive the music. With the move, there was a transformation in lyrical content. The blues writers of the city were writing about their environment. The delta blues had moved into the industrial cities of the North and “urban” blues was born.

The introduction of the electric guitar also changed the face of music forever. Charlie Christian and T-Bone Walker were among the first electric “ax slingers.” Today their musical decedents still play deeply in those early traditions. Guitar players like B.B. King and John Lee Hooker owe much of their style to these early pioneers.

The 1950’s provided the right climate for the emergence of a new, rebellious form of music. Rock would come to defined in the 1950’s. It found its launching pad and the people who would fuel it into a world musical revolution.

Racially, the emergence and reaction to Rock and Roll may be much more revealing. The Blues, from Gospel, and into Rock and Roll, may have been the beginning of an ongoing process or artistic renewal. William Benzon writes in his essay “Music Making History, African Meets Europe In The United States Of The Blues” that the American negro was thrown into an alien environment and the blues was a reaction to post slave society. It was the blues that came to be the foundation for all future forms of African American based music, from jazz, to funk, to rap. Benzon goes on to describe the progression of African American based music and its “appropriation” by the dominate white/european society. The progression from one form to another, blues to jazz, or funk to hip-hop, is a reaction by the African American musical tradition to reclaim the music, or to create new musical forms, in reaction to the appropriation, and often watering down of original African American musical movements. With this in mind, the progression through the spectrum, from Blues to modern Rock and Roll becomes a little clearer. (Benzon) On one level, the emergence of Rock and Roll is racial. It is the need to express, a need that is present in human nature. Being racially motivated, it was scorned and suppressed because it was a threat to the white society as a whole. Unsaid, it was accepted, by the youth. Stated clearly, by the emergence of such stars as Pat Boone and Elvis, Rock and Roll was somewhat more acceptable if performed by white musicians.

The the invention of the radio and later modern recording technology played a large role in the diffusion of musical ideas to many people over large geographical areas. Rock and Roll as a social form of rebellion was hard to suppress. As soon as the money making potential was discovered by the white music industry, Rock and Roll was born as a commercial form, and the revolution began to build momentum.

 

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Chapter Two: 1950’s: Cultural and Political ClimateAnd The Birth Of Rock And Roll50’s Society 

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The 1950’s provided the right cultural, social, and political conditions for the emergence of a new musical form. A form rooted in rebellion and based on race. In 1946, there was a huge increase in the American birth rate. World War II veterans were returning from the war to start families en mass. This emphasis on family was to become a major theme the 1950’s. The family was the nexus for most activities in the culture at the timeor at least it was supposed to be. In the public sense, life was oriented around the family. Any sign of “dysfunction” was kept in private. Any deviation from the norm was identified and rooted out.

The 50’s were a time of immense prosperity; almost everything was mass produced. From food to housing to culture, identical units of consumer products were being produced by the millions. Early tract housing projects like Levittown are one example of this mass production, later to become know as “conformity.” This mass conformity would later have a very important impact on the youth culture and the music of the sixties and beyond. The 1950’s taught its young “to be part of the group.” “To stand out” was bad, to be “weird” was not normal. 1950’s life focused on the children and socializing them in “right” way through various organizations and activities. These attempts at forced values ultimately produced a spoiled generation. It was labeled the “corporate mind” allowing the conformity to produce order. Money seemed plentiful, there was no need for “self-denial.” Materialism was a way of life. New advances in technology promised new and better lives and people bought into it heavily. A better life was in the making and science was responsible. The single minded pursuit of money created a gap between children and their parents. The flash of a new and better life also seemed to dissolve the gap between rich and poor. While the suburbs were aglow with the newest time saving technology, and entertainment advancements, the inner cities were economic prisons, providing no jobs, little municipal services, and little means of escape. This was a gap that would allow Rock and Roll to flourish.

The separation of the sexes was greatly emphasized during this time. Education was tailored for specific needs. Girls were bred to be just like mother. School taught domestic fulfillment through mastering the “domestic sciences.” Television also heavily enforced these roles, teaching girls that “you couldn’t get a man with your brain.”

Television hammered home the lessons that were deemed important in the 50’s. Happy kids, healthy families, standards for life were set by such shows as “Ozzie & Harriet” and “Leave It To Beaver.” Through these shows, society’s rules for living were taught. All of society’s “do’s” and “don’ts” that were so important in the 50’s would all come to be smashed in the 60’s. TV taught its lessons well. The molding of children was a high priority. Through concepts such as “obey authority”, “ask no questions”, “children should be seen and not heard”, and “control your emotions”, children were taught the conformity of their parents. The corporate mind was being thrust upon them.

The children of the 50’s were not considered people with valid ideas and emotions, but something less, something along the lines of a show piece. Outward appearances meant everything in this realm. Bad behavior was not normal. The television kids of the 50’s stressed “you must be normal!” Normal often ment a vegetative state, a repression of self that would eventually explode into the individualism and free love of the 60’s. Slogans of control like “control your emotions” would turn into banners such as “if it feels good, do it.” Not all television was a tool of social propaganda, shows like Sergeant Bilco satirized the American military, portraying the military are slick, back room hustlers. Viewed from a historical level, Sergeant Bilco was “subversive” in a time of conformity in the entertainment world. On one level, it was a simple comedy, on a deep level, it was a comment on the United States Military, and the establishment as a whole.

The post war years created an immense fear of Communism because of Soviet expansion. This would effect the development of American youth culture for some time. There was constant fear of Atomic war, and Atomic paranoia set itself on American society. For many, the struggle against Communism was a fight between good and evil. To Americans there was a holiness about their country. “Unacceptable” materials were banned, deemed as harmful matter. J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher In The Rye” was banned only to have its popularity soar because of its reputation. Questions of censorship were being raised by the older generation who believed that the new forms of artistic expression being introduced to the pop culture at the time would erode the values of the young. “Questionable” books could be censored, the printed word was far easier to suppress than Rock N Roll. Rock was a force that moved American youth into a totally new form of existence. This new form of music ran opposed to everything that the television had deemed acceptable. Weirdness was embraced through such people as Little Richard. Rock ‘N’ Roll and its black origins, its words, style and implications threatened white parental society. Through the Beats and Rock ‘N’ Roll, the rebellion against suburbia was started. Both of these cultural phenomenon punched a gaping hole in 50’s style conformity. Rock ‘N’ Roll was labeled subversive.

First Rock And Roll According to the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock And Roll, the first Rock and Roll record was titled “Rocket 88.” Credited to Jackie Brenston, it was actually recorded by the Ike Turner Band. (Miller 11) Rocket was recorded at the legendary Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. This song is heavy with sax, fuzzy guitar riffs and a strong beat. It was remarkably close to what early Rock & Roll was to become. “Rocket 88″ was to pave the way, in sound and style, for early rockers like Bill Haley to become successful. Haley started out as a country and western singer, as many early rock and rollers had. By 1952, Haley was recording songs very similar to “Rocket 88″ with national air play several years before Elvis’ first Sun recordings were released. Implications of financial success drew many to “cross-over” from country and western (C & W) into the new Rock market.

“Elvis Presley was bigger. Chuck Berry was better. But Bill Haley was first.” (Sumrall 126) By 1953, Haley had a single on the Billboard charts. “Crazy Man Crazy” was the first rock and roll single to enter Billboard magazine’s charts. By 1955, Haley had a number one hit with “Rock Around The Clock.” It was a huge single at the time, selling 20 million copies worldwide (Sumrall 126). This was an incredible feat for the 1950’s. More importantly, the sound and content of “Rock Around The Clock” helped to define what Rock was in the context of 1950’s society. For the point man of a musical revolution, Haley appeared extremely normal. There was nothing out of the ordinary about him. Haley enjoyed limited success after the release of “Rock Around The Clock,” but he never managed to escape the shadow of that song. That was partly due to the emergence of Elvis as a rock idol. There is a sexual energy contained within the structures of rock and roll. Bill Haley may have been first, but Elvis was bigger and had far more sex appeal. Haley could not hold down the image of a sex symbol in the way that the handsome, gyrating Elvis could.

Elvis hit the charts in 1956 with the immortal single “Heartbreak Hotel”, and quickly set the standard for what Rock was supposed to be. Elvis’ stage presence was highly sexual. He made love to the microphone, his whole image portrayed sex and rebellion mixing slight traces of androgyny and homo-erotic appeal. It was an image that would be imitated for some time to come. Many musical artists came of age in his shadow. Among them were “Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, Del Shannon, Rickey Nelson, and Eddie Cochran.” (Sumrall 210) Presely’s influence lived on into the 60’s and beyond.

 

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Chuck Berry’s “Duck Walk” Chuck Berry was one of the most important early artists of that era. He defined what rock was and is today. Many of today’s superstars credit Berry for his ground breaking sound. His double string guitar licks are what makes today’s music sound full and fat. His guitar style defined what rock guitar was, a definition that has yet to be rewritten. Also, Berry’s lyrics are works of story telling genius. He was John Lennon’s hero, and Eric Claptons guidance in the lessons of blues guitar. Berry’s songs have been used by many bands, often becoming disassociated with Berry. “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Rock And Roll Music” two of the Beatles classics are Chuck Berry originals. It has been said that the British invasion of the 1960’s was based on the work of the such black artists as Berry. Berry never achieved any great financial success. He served a two year prison sentence in 1962 for transporting a minor across state lines. The racial aspect of this can not be ignored, an “influential” black man, one of the early pioneers of Rock and Roll, and a threat to white society is jailed at a time when he was still popular and producing music. His arrest was a form of de facto suppression that his career and psyche never quite recovered from. After his release he enjoyed a minor resurgence in his popularity. That too soon faded. Today he is regarded as one of the elder statesmen of rock, and has supported himself by marketing his music as a nostalgia act. The 1988 tribute movie Hail Hail Rock And Roll is a testament to his influence on modern music. As a testament to his stature, he was the first person to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Another major icon of that time was Richard Penniman A.K.A. “Little Richard.” Richard was heavily influenced by gospel. Most of his early songs have an “almost evangelic enthusiasm.” (Sumrall 169) Growing up in a heavily religious family, Little Richard was raised on gospel singing. For Richard, the link between God and music would always be at odds. It was a calling that would eventually lead him to give up rock and roll and become an ordained minister of the Seventh Day Adventist church. He would move back and forth from the ministry to the recording studio several times during his career. He has recorded several critically acclaimed all gospel albums. It is a career that has stretched into the 90’s. Over the past several years he has appeared on several popular albums in a cameo mode. Like Chuck Berry, many of Little Richard’s 1950’s singles would later re-appear in the 1960’s during the British invasion. Two of Richard’s early hits were covered by Pat Boone. Boone’s music, as well as his politics were watered down. The difference between the two versions of “Tutti Frutti” is comical. This would not be the first time a white musician would appropriate the talent and artistic accomplishment of a black artist. But, there is a definite racist characteristic present in this instance. Most black artists at the time could not gain radio air-play. Rock and Roll is based on borrowed foundations. It is a mixture of many forms of music. There are relationships within rock that are based on the covering (one artist releasing another’s song) another artists song. Some are friendships, others are more hostile, others are racial exploitation, between Penniman and Boone, was definite hostility and appropriation for financial means.

Little Richard fed off of the conformity that was so prevalent in the 1950’s. He emerged in a decade that was bred on the homogeneity of life. Richard shook things up, embraced being weird and let it make him a success.

The whiter shades of early rock appeared in the form of Rockabilly. It is a musical form that has remained largely unchanged since its appeared in the 50’s. It was never a commercial success and was isolated to a small portion of the country. Rockabilly is white music from white origins, but it is influenced directly by the black popular music that was developing at the time. It is a form of country music with a rock and roll beat. Sun records was a major reason for its emergence. In the early days of Elvis, Rockabilly flourished. There has always been a direct link between country and western and rock since Rock . In fact, Rock’s first star, Bill Haley, was a former Country And Western singer. Many of Elvis’ first recordings were strictly country and western, his musical style helped to drive this minor movement.

From Sun, and out of this tradition came Jerry Lee Lewis, “the Killer.” When thoughts of the “devil’s music” come to mind, they quickly lead to Jerry Lee. Brought up in a heavily religious family, Lewis was raised on church music. He shied away from ballads because he didn’t want to mix the devil’s music with God. The shear intensity of the situation is obvious. For a man to believe he is giving up his soul to play rock and roll, and to continue doing it for decades, is nothing less than intense. Jerry Lee Lewis never enjoyed many successes on the charts, in fact he only had a few top songs, and was only commercially successful for a short time. Lewis definitely has one of the strongest personalities in Rock and Roll, and he is a presence that will influence music for decades to come. His live performances are legendary. He didn’t simply play his piano, he beat it. His style was so violent that he would often bloody his hands during concert appearances. He hit a decline in 1958 with the introduction of his new bride to the British press. Myra, his third bride was also his third cousin. The label of incest has dogged him ever since. He never quite recovered in rock and roll circles. He did, however revive his career by becoming a country and western singer. From the late 60’s through the 1970’s, Lewis charted more than 30 C & W songs. Although he never recovered from his blacklisting because of his marriage to his cousin, Lewis his remained one of the biggest talents in the Rock world. He was an original, a wild fire. Performers of the time were nothing in comparison to him. Elvis was scripted, Lewis was out front and burning. The Killer did indeed play the Devil’s brand of music. A white man with a black soul.

Sun Studios is Memphis, Tennessee was started by Sam Phillips. Today, there are many myths surrounding the still active studio. Hundreds of gold records were not cranked out at record speed. Only five, the most recent of which is U2’s, “Rattle And Hum.” Elvis did not appear on Sun’s doorstep looking to make a record for his mama’s birthday. He did make his first recordings there, but not for his mother, but to be discovered. Sun is responsible for recording such greats as Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presely, B.B. King, Johnny Cash, and Howlin’ Wolf. As the Sun Studios home page reads:

“If music was a religion then Memphis would be Jerusalem. In The same way that city is held sacred by three major world religions, the histories of Blues, Country, Gospel. Soul, And Rock N’ Roll could not be written without a long stay in Memphis.”

Sam Phillips, based in Memphis, became one of Rock’s pioneering producers. The recordings he worked on have a unique fullness about them. Stylistically, Sun’s music was considered strange at the time, but it eventually came to define Rock. Phillips achieved revolutionary status by blended the musical forms of country, blues, and gospel with an ingenuity that is unmatched in all of Rock and Roll.. Phillips was not the first to combine these two musical forms, but he proved to be the best, and most lasting. The Sun studio sound captured the attitude of rock and set the standard for decades to come.

All the musical forms contained in the chapter are oppositional in nature. The outrage in some sectors of the white society, as opposed to the acceptance by the young, and business savvy musicians in search of commercial success created a dynamic music that was in constant opposition and growth.

 

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Part TwoChapter Three: Origins Of FolkOrigins of Folk and the Folk Revival 

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The 1960’s placed Folk in the American mainstream. The acceptance of this sometimes sparse, and almost always politically potent music was a complete turnaround from the previous decade’s sound, style and content. 1950’s America labeled Folk as “subversive”, it was the music of worker’s rights, labor unions, and the working class. Folk music has a remarkable adaptability that can be used to educate the listener of various causes. American folk of the 1950’s and 60’s championed the causes of the left, or change, justice, and equality. Many of the day’s popular Folk artists, were “blacklisted” because of the “threat” they posed to national security. The threat was to the status quo, to the line of governmental information constantly being disseminated to the American public. Pete Seeger, one of the blacklisted artists, is largely responsible for the final version of “We Shall Overcome”, a song that will forever be associated with the civil rights movement. The first time the song appeared in print, it was in a 1945 published piece out of Martin and Morris Music studio operating out of Chicago. The original lyrics read “I’ll overcome some day.” A few months later in Charleston, South Carolina, black food and tobacco workers went on strike, they chose as their rally cry “I will overcome some day”, but changed it to the plural form. The song quickly spread through the labor unions and worker’s groups. Seeger is credited with adding the more forcefully “shall” to the lyrics. “We shall overcome” was born, and holding true to most folk music, it is easily applied to any cause. So easily in fact, that the song has almost become a cliché in certain respects. (Haskins/Bensen 85) Seeger, a monumental figure in the world of traditional folk music has been continually involved in the causes of the left, and for that he was blacklisted. In 1963, he charted a single labeled “Little Boxes.” It may be proof that America was becoming more and more disenchanted with the excessive Communist witch hunts of Joe McCarthy. Little Boxes is a reaction to a popular theme in the counterculture of that time. “Sameness”, conformity, and the mass production of culture:(Haskins/Bensen 85)

Little Boxes:

Little boxes on the hill-side/ Little boxes made of ticky tacky /Little boxes on the hill-side /Little boxes all the same/ There’s a green one and a pink one/ And a blue one and a yellow one/ And they’re all made out of ticky tacky /And they all look just the same

And the people in the houses /All went to the university/ Where they were put in boxes/ And they came out all the same /And there’s doctors and lawyers /And business executives/ And they’re all made out of ticky tacky /And they all look the same

And the all play on the golf course /And drink their martinis dry/ And they all have pretty children/ And the children go to school /And the children go to summer camp/ And then to the university Where they are put in boxes/ And they all come out the same

And the boys go into business /And marry and raise a family /In boxes made of ticky tacky/ And they all look the same /There’s a green one and a pink one/ And a blue one and a yellow one/ And they’re all made out of ticky tacky/ And they all look just the same

This song was produced in 1962. It is one of the first “contemporary” folk songs. In the folk tradition, songs are a product of oral history, they evolve from real life experiences passed from person to person. This song was written, it did not evolve, but it did help in the evolution process of the new Folk that would become the music America’s social conscience. Folk songs were now being produced about contemporary social problems, the tradition was being changed, the subject matter was becoming more immediate.(Haskins/Bensen 89) The Folk songs of the 1960’s would put the establishment on trial, and articulate the feelings of millions. Many of the people who helped to elevate Folk in the 60’s have become giants in the history of music. Bob Dylan (born Robert Zimmerman) became the single figure that embodied the 60’s folk music. His fans did not simply listen to him, they depended on him and his lyrics. (Miller219) He is probably one of the most prolific writes in all of music history. His songs hold up today as epics in and of themselves. Each line has the ability to stand by itself and take on a whole new path, but that is not the over all effect. Dylan’s writing is a direct line from point A to point B. He successfully articulated the feelings of a generation and for that he was held as a mystical figure, an honest man in an age of dishonesty. (Miller 219) Dylan would eventually create huge controversies within the music world, and in a larger scene the counter culture when he stared to “plug-in” or play electric Rock music. By 1965, Dylan’s music was resembling the loud Rock and Roll that was being produced at the time. This may have been because of traditional Folk’s decline, and a need for commercial acceptance. As always, so many times through out contemporary music history, shouts of “selling out” were directed at Dylan for abandoning his purist stance. In a larger sense, this may have been a smart move on Dylan’s behalf for the continuation of Folk as a musical and social force. With his new, sometimes psychedelic sound, many more people were turned on to his sound and his messages. (Miller219) This is a common theme, the “selling out” complex. Often it is caused by the growing pains of a popular artist from one form of music to a more progressive and “less pure” form. For the Folk musical form, Dylan’s change may have the best thing that could have happened, while musically altering his style, lyrically, he was as fierce as ever. The straight form of folk required thought, it drew the listener into the subject matter and created a desire to form an opinion. It is a sparse, utilitarian musical form that at times could be quite beautiful. For a culture looking for some disposable fun, folk fell short. Guitar driven electric rock provided a respite from thoughts of the world’s ills. It was music that allowed, promoted, and produced dancing. It was a different form of energy and it appealed to the young looking to move.

 

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Chapter Four: Into Protest Music & PoliticsInto Protest 

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Protest became a part of the culture on the 1960’s. New forms of entertainment that were rooted in rebellion were becoming increasingly popular. These new forms of music mirrored the climate of the counter culture. The norm in American at that time was big, flash, Las Vegas style. New Performers like Bob Dylan came to change that by using music as a form of protest. The coffee house culture was born. White students began to mingle with black students, new ideas were disseminated, new values were created, and prejudices were dissembled.(Miller219)

The black protests of the early 60’s would later become the blueprint for white student activism. Freedom summer was organized and whites began to take an increased role in the Movement. The long standing policy of academic “in loco parentis”, which treated students like children, was now being challenged. The freedom of speech movement in Berkeley, California is motivated by three factors: the Kennedy assassination, the Cuba missile crisis/revolution and the black sit in’s of the south. This was the start of the youth rebellion in earnest. Any and all institutions were now being questioned. Any entity with control over the lives of real people was questioned.

The Hippys and student radicals of the 1960’s broke with the 1950’s notion of life. Student protesters tried to change everything from class scheduling to campus politics. At this time appearances became misleading. A total reversal of the public conservatism of the 50’s was in the making. Long hair came into fashion. For people within the counterculture, it was a flag of rebellion, an act of defiance. Short hair meant conformity, the establishment, and everything the 50’s stood for. Long hair also had strong erotic overtones. Largely, the counterculture was based on eroticism. Free love was the total destruction of the 1950’s conventions concerning sex. 1950’s American, apart from a small cultural arena, stifled sex. At the height of the sexual revolution, the birth control pill was released, this fueled the free love movement even further.

Drugs were becoming an increasingly public phenomenon. Pot created a “us-and-them” atmosphere. The propaganda of the state was proving itself to be false. The establishment was selling pot as bad, evil, and a gateway to harder and more destructive drugs. For those in the counter culture, and in the larger society, this appeared to be a lie. Millions were “sparking up” without the dangerous side effects that flooded the media reports of the day. “Them v. Us” eventually created a generation gap that increased to allow more social freedom than ever before. Many started questioning themselves, parents, and society as a whole. In essence a value revolution created a backlash against the 50’s. A counterculture was emerging in the midst of changing values. In many cases aspects of the counter culture were total reversal of 1950’s dogma. There was a growing suspicion of the “system” and its poisons, in particular, money. To certain portions of the counter culture, money was considered evil, and was avoided at all costs. Living free was a literal concept. Under this mantra, life should be free in order to throw off traditional values. Many times, being “free” turned into begging, food stamps, theft, or welfare. While many other’s were free at their parents expense. In essence living free was costing someone else. This was a time of many value changes. Living free meant dropping out, rejecting American values. Living poor and/or close to nature was entered into voluntarily.

Value changes of the time greatly effected the lives of students, drugs and the emerging counterculture caused many to re-evaluate their career goals and orientation. Many changes were enacted in the universities of America to deal with these changing values. It was a time of unlimited alternative business enterprise, religion, and social welfare. Out of this time, many of the modern social movements were born.

Deep questions began to form in American society and institutions of any form of control were questioned. There was a feeling that there was something radically wrong with the country. Vietnam was beginning to divide the nation, combined with the civil rights struggle, counter cultural revolution was in effect. Folk and the messages that it conveyed were tied to all of society’s ills. It was a voice, but it alienated many within the country and on a smaller scale the counter culture. The 1960’s were an emotionally draining time. There were very real problems, and folk remined its listeners of everyday evils could only move so far forward. An infusion of disposable culture was badly needed.

 

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Chapter Five British Invasion 

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Music mirrors a society’s concerns, but for many, it is an important escape. In that form, Folk did not operate as effectively. Enter the British bands that would help to create a disposable culture and that much needed escape. (MIller 169) As Lester Bangs wrote in his Rolling Stone essay “The British Invasion”:

“Consider a time, early 1964 . America-perhaps young America in particular- had just lost a president who had seemed a godlike embodiment of national ideals, who had been a youth cult superstar himself. We were down, we needed a shot of cultural speed, something fast, loud and superficial to fill the gap; we needed a fling after the wake. It was no accident that the Beatles had their overwhelmingly successful Ed Sullivan (February 9, 1964) show debut shortly after JFK was shot. (Miller 169)”

 

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The British InvasionThe Beatles 

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The British Invasion happened at a very important time in musical history. It pushed American music into new directions. The young British musicians making their escape to the American music scene had a very definite formula to follow, however, success within the boundaries of the first British invasion was on the whole short lived. Only a few bands from the era have lasted, even fewer are still actively producing and touring. As the Beatles made their American debut, aspiring musicians back in mother England were planning their attack. White kids from the class dominated English society reworked American rock and roll of the 1950’s with a new sound, and nasal vocal pattern. This style of loud and brash music was just what American young people were looking for, its origins were from a country where class structure was rigid and there was an overwhelming emphasis on the “higher” arts. A form of expression such as Rock and Roll was an outlaw creation, and in a way, forced to jump the Atlantic. 1960’s America accepted it with a fanatical fervor. Out of the initial wave of bands from the “British Invasion” few really produced anything of worth, or survived past the initial fad for that matter. The Rolling Stones, Beatles, Kinks, Yardbirds, and the Who are all that really remains. (Miller 169) However, there is no doubt that the first British invasion has had a long lasting impact on popular music on both sides of the Atlantic.

 

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Chapter Six The Beatles, A Pop Explosion, and Unity 

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The Beatles transcended fad status to become a corner stone of modern Rock and Roll. Music needed an infusion of a loud movement, they helped, if only for a few moments, to bring together a generation. As a testament to popular music and its power, they created a sub-culture of their own, from their sound, to their hair, to their comments, everything they said and did was co-opted by the larger culture. At the time, for young people, their words, and style seemed unbelievably right. (Miller 180) En mass, people imitated their hair, accents, and music.

As Greil Marcus writes in his essay “The Beatles” published in Rolling Stone:

“The event was a pop explosion; the second pop explosion, (the first occurred between 1955-56 with Rock’s initial coming out) and thus far, the last, that rock and roll produced. A pop explosion is an irresistible cultural upheaval that cuts across lines of class and race (in terms of sources, if not allegiance), and, most crucially, divides society itself by its age. The surface of daily life (walk, talk, dress, symbolism, heroes, family affairs) is affected with such force that deep and substantive changes in the way large numbers of people think and act take place. Pop explosions must link-up with, and accelerate, broad shifts for sexual behavior, economic aspirations, and political beliefs.”(Miller 181)

Social problems, deep conflict within society, such as the Kennedy assassination and the escalation of the Vietnam war helped to push this explosion into a cultural revolution. At its core, the pop explosion is a source of identity. (Many minor, “secondary explosions” are occurring all the time, but none with the intensity and long lasting impact of the Beatles.) The explosion allows an individual to become part of something larger, a fan base, a social and cultural movement, a loyalty that creates a sense of unity. (Miller 182) This explosion came to a head with the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club, and in many ways it release created a situation perfect for the demise of the very movement that spawned its experimental sound. Rumors and hype surrounded its release for months, it was billed as the most experimental and transcendent album to be recorded to date. It was supposed to sum up the explosion, and the hype turned to hysteria and public euphoria.

“The closest Western Civilization has come to unity since the congress of Vienna in 1815 was the week the Sgt. Pepper album was released.”

-Langdon Winner 1968 (Miller 182)

From a historical perspective, the power and popularity of Pepper marked the pinnacle and the decline of Beatles’ rise. Its popularity, like so many movements before, led to an absorption into the larger, mainstream society. The Beatles would break up shortly after, their musical styles were fragmenting more and more, each going in their own direction, musically, their fan base was divided. They were eventually surpassed by the musical revolution they created. In recent years, with the release of their Anthologies, and movies such as “Backbeat” the musical styles of the Beatles has come under fire as being inferior to the bands their sound created. These comparisons are impossible to hold seriously. To the more “extreme” bands that the British invasion produces, there would have been no extreme if the Beatles did not first created the standard. (Miller 184)

That extreme, at the time, was embodied by units like the Rolling Stones. The Stones turned the Rhythm and Blues of the 50’s in straight-on Rock and Roll. To listen to Mick Jagger’s voice, that transition is easy to see. There is no way that he could ever pull off singing in the styles he loved, the styles that had originally sucked him in. The entire British Invasion movement was based on the previous work of Afro-American blues singers. In a way, that was its guarantee. (Miller 184) The Stones have proved to be one of the longest lasting, and most popular acts in musical history. As the sixties moved closer toward their demise, the trend in popular music began to lean toward musical acts such as Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix.. Both provided a musical escape, their work was rich with heavy atmospheric noise.

Jimi Hendrix was a guitar virtuoso that both frightened and motivated. After his coming out at the 1967 Monterey Pop festival, he was labeled, deservedly, a guitar genesis. His early performances, both live, and recorded material, produced a mile wide shadow that was impossible to escape. His first record, “Are You Experienced?”, was so revolutionary, and dense, it left many in the industry wondering how he could top it. He did, with his next album, “Axis Bold As Love”, but the trend could only last so long. Musically, and emotionally, he began to fall apart. He was always very non-political, but increasingly, he was receiving more and more criticism from the black power movement to get involved, and motivate the Afro-American population into movement and self-respect. He never really became involved politically, but he did disband his original band, “The Experience”, because it had a white rhythm section, and created his all black “Band of Gypsies.” Politically, this may have seemed necessary, but musically it was a mistake, the Gypsies were never as solid as the Experience. Increasingly, the effects of the music being produced, both by Jimi, and other acts relied heavily on the use of volume as a musical component. Most bands of the 70’s would hold true to the mantra and turn their amplifiers to the symbolic ten.

Lyrical messages were also changing. The main themes of sixties music were peace and unity, the 70’s brought a loud cynicism, songs became darker, and more atmospheric in nature. Early heavy metal was produced as a direct descendent of the musical experimentations in sheer volume of the 60’s psychedelic guitar “noise.” In the same way the Stones turned R & B into Rock and Roll, Led Zeppelin turned traditional blues into an entirely new form of musical expression, a form that has come to mean many things, both good and bad. Heavy metal was defined by the guitar and vocals of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. The term “heavy metal” in a line of the William S. Burroughs’ novel “Naked Lunch.” Quotes from “Lunch” appear frequently to this day. It remains an important and impacting influence on the artistic creation and lyrical content. It has been attached to many things throughout the history of contemporary music. Mostly it has come to mean cliche musical composition, sexism, and decadence. In many ways it has not strayed far from its origins. But to compare what is termed heavy metal today, and what it was when the mighty Led Zeppelin was still producing is very unfair. Their loud, raw style never progressed much past the bounds of their own music. There was no revolution created by their music, and in a way, their image and style alienated many older music fans that had come of age listening to the musical stylings on Dylan and the Beatles. For many, their music was just all out noise, and the critical reviews of their music at the time illustrate that. But, no matter what the critics reported, Zeppelin had the power of a fan base behind them. Their musical style was based on total and absolute sensory overload. In many respects, that is what the origins of rock and roll were about. They were the last stop on the way to the 70’s, the final calling of the 1960’s Rock and Roll machine. And, they were the first step in the progression of heavy, distorted guitar music that produced some of the most important music of the past thirty years. Heavy Metal has never been a hit with the music critics, being labeled noise, “sonic junk” and at various times has been associated with violence, sexism, satanism, and suicide. It is for these exact reasons that the rise of this largely white-bred musical form has been so controversial, and its demise so complete. It is an outlaw music that has produced a strong, negative, parental reaction. Seen from the outside as evil, its hardcore listeners came to regard “metal” as a religion in and of itself.

Led Zeppelin 

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Part ThreeChapter Seven Origins of GospelGospel Tradition 

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Out of the Gospel tradition, many forms of American music were born. R & B, “Blue Eyed Soul”, Funk, and Heavy Metal all owe portions of their style to the early Gospel styles of the southern church.

Gospel, a form of music derived from the church sermons, boomed in the depression years. (Shaw 210) Gospel’s messages of redemption and healing allowed people to escape the realities of everyday life. It was and is a lively music that has a power of motivation that is unmatched in all of music. Its messages were positive, its images were of a brighter future and people believed. The musical forms that would later evolve from Gospel would draw heavily from the vocal styles of such early artists as Mahalia Jackson and her protege Thomas Dorsey. Jackson was the “Queen of Gospel”, and her vocal style would develop as the standard in the R & B and Soul that evolved in the 50’s and 60’s. Soulful but lively, Jackson would convey great messages of redemption by her tone and inflection. The spiritual singers of the post-war period relied the interplay of voices to convey great emotion. The voice was deliberately coarsened to relay the emotional conviction of the singer. (Gillett 154) Out of this early Gospel tradition of lively delivery and vocal style evolved Little Richard. He is truly a monumental figure in modern music. From his gospel upbringing, he created some of the most revolutionary music of this century. Many early artists, both black and white, Rock and Soul, owe much of their style to him. From Elvis’ early covers of Little Richard’s work, to Jerry Lee Lewis’ style of piano playing and stage mannerisms, Richard’s influence if far reaching. (Shaw 211) Richard was the inspiration and musical guidance for many of the artists that would appear in the decades to come. From Otis Redding to James Brown, Richard ‘s dynamic style filled with “spiritual fervor” would be the basis for much of what is now R & B (Rhythm And Blues) and Soul. The Gospel was rooted in Christian religious theology, a subject considered “untouchable” by many artists, fans, record producers and executives. To move a music that was considered “God’s music” into a more secular realm, and to attach to it messages of ecstacy, and sex was considered taboo if not blasphemy. Many early Soul songs replaced the word “Jesus” for “her.” This would make instant love songs out of long standing hymns. Many of the songs that came out of this genre were a mixture of spirituals with a style of vocalization that was derived directly from the Blues. Among the first to attempt this was Ray Charles. For Ray, the change was simply musical, and not a reaction to the changes in the black experience would come to later define this strain of American music. (Shaw 212) From Charles’ musical progressions, the modern Soul style was born. To listen to Charles’ early recordings, the Gospel influences are evident. His voice is strong, and coarse. Many of his early songs relied on the call and response of the church service. “What’d I say” is one of the best examples. The back-up singers answer Ray when he poses his musical questions in much the same way a congregation answered a pastor.

 

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Two Major Vocal Styles 

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Sam Cooke was definitely one of the founding fathers of modern soul. He too was raised as a church singer, first making the national music scene with his gospel group the “Soul Stirrers.” Cooke would eventually make the jump to soul, a move that would alienate a large portion of his fan base. But unlike Charles, his main form of song was the ballad. Charles had a more shouted delivery, where as Cooke sang with tremendous tenderness and feeling. I have mentioned these two particular artists out a list of possible hundreds because they had an early and lasting effect on the modern soul movement, and they represent the two major forms of musical style that would impact the Soul/R&B scene for years to come. The screamer/shouter and the soulful singer respectively. The screamer/shouter was more raw and seemingly less “refined” because of the sheer energy the vocal style demanded. The soulful ballad singer was no less energetic, but smoother in vocalization styles. Each style would take off in separate but parallel directions eventually reuniting in may of the firms of Funk that would appear in the 70’s.

 

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Chapter Eight-Evolution of Soul

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As Charlie Gillett describes in his book on the rise of Rock and Roll “Sound Of The City”, there were four distinct periods in the evolution of Soul:

1955 through 1960 was a time when Gospel styles were being randomly inserted into contemporary songs. There was yet to be a developed formula. Lyrical content touched on one basic concept, the lover. These songs described a lover in somewhat religious terms, and the relationship as a lasting bond. The characters of these songs had charm and warmth. They were a far cry from the cynicism and realism of the Blues. (Gillett 226)

1961-1963 This was a time when the content changed but the structure of the music stayed basically the same, As Gillet writes: it was a period when “the sources of excitement and intense emotions were tapped more systematically and consistently, but the records still used some conventions of popular music.” (Gillett 227)

 

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Chapter Nine: Modern Soul And Its Message :James Brown, Say It Loud! 

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1964-1966 was the time Soul’s greatest evolution. Modern Soul was born and defined during this time, its formula and structure were fully realized. This was a period that produced some of music’s best know Soul performers. (Gillett232) James Brown was pivotal in the development of Soul as a separate and unique musical form. He is responsible for many of the changes in style that came to define the Soul of this period. He was a performer that embodied both lyrical forms, soulful ballads and screaming praise. He charted songs using both forms, eventually taking them far beyond their point of origin. The lyrical work that was produced by Brown in the early days of his career was nothing less than unrestrained feeling. (Shaw 212) Brown’s delivery was pure energy and his live stage shows are legendary. He is definitely the “hardest working man in show business.” A term that has come to be identified with Brown, along with countless other tags giving him what may be the longest nickname collection in all of Rock and Roll. From “Soul Brother No. 1″ to “Mr Please Please Please”, he is a man with many identities. A man and music based on diversity. One track could be unrestrained energy, while the next could be a soulful ballad. He would eventually fall into a particular style of high energy, raw, soul, later progressing into funk. He drew fire from music critics of the time because many of his post-1965 recordings fell into one style, and were sometimes labeled “monotonous.” (Miller 141) Like so many in the early Soul movement, he would eventually turn more socially aware in his music. Many of the artists of the 50’s and 60’s, both black and white, would eventually be drawn into commenting, if not combatting the social injustices of the country at that time. As Brown gained more acceptance, his power to motivate people, especially black youth, was evident. Between 1956 and 1971 he enjoyed enormous success. The hardest man in show business placed 59 records on the charts, of the 59, 19 were either number 1 or number 2 His power was so great, that during the rioting of the 60’s, his appearance on television shows would help draw youth off the street. One of his most remarkable teachings/songs was “Say It Loud, I’m Black And I’m Proud.” (Shaw 213) He was conveying the lessons of the black power movement, but what was more, he was teaching black youth to love themselves. His music allowed black youth to walk with head held a little higher, wi th more confidence and pride. Say it loud was a song that allowed black youth to be proud of their race at a time when school integration was at its most violent and racial tensions were worsening. The 60’s allowed Brown to express his political views, he was an advocate of black capitalism, by the late sixties he was the owner of several radio stations, a fleet of cars, planes, and some businesses. His messages were positive and reaffirming to the youth of America’s inner cities. (Miller 140) At a time when America was being torn apart by rioting, Brown urged to youth to “build not burn.”

 

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Chapter Ten:Funk and Black Power 

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The style and content of soul was never much after Brown’s heyday. As the 60’s moved toward the 70’s, both form and content became a stereotype. The music was becoming more producer oriented and it had lost much of what it was founded on.

For both R&B and Soul, the 50’s and 60’s were the ideal time for their emergence. The civil rights struggle and its progression into black power was giving rise to a sense of black pride. The new forms of music that were bring produced and becoming more and more popular were drawn from the deep roots the African American experience in this country. (Miller 205) It was feel good music, but it was expressly black. Soul was black, maybe “blacker” than Rock And Roll, it was a move away from assimilation into the white mainstream. Its images were that of struggle and survival, of just feeling good, and would become an inspiration for civil rights activism. It seemed that the soul of the 50’s and 60’s and the civil rights movements complimented each other. Soul contained a “richly expressive language of its own” as Peter Guralnick states in this Rolling Stone essay “Soul.” (Miller 205) This language would prove to have a lasting effect of white music for decades to come. But, Soul was alive in a capsule intense of black awareness, and a movement away from producing cross over hits for the pop charts. It was an expression of something more, rooted in the church, but branched out into the secular problems facing America’s black community. For all of these reasons, Soul flourished in the the period of civil rights. “Organized political protest cannot be fueled by anger and outrage alone; it requires cohesion guided by a sense of dignity and real possibility.” (Brenzon) The soul music of the 60’s provided the “cohesion guided by a sense of dignity” that William Brenzon discusses in his essay. He goes on to write “That cultural achievement catalyzed a self-assurance without which the civil rights movement would have been difficult, if not impossible.” As the 60’s cooled and turned into the 70’s, soul dropped out of sight. It turned into something else. Soul would provide the genesis for the evolution into Funk in the 70’s and into early rap, and hip hop of the 80’s and 90’s. All of these musical forms, often thought of as African American in origin, rely heavily on the foundations built by the R&B and soul of the post war period.

Many define “Soul” (in the broad sense) as the period from 1955-1970. From a historical perspective, it was the most volatile time of the 20th century. Many changes were taking place, the fabric of American society was being ripped in many ways. From the peace movement to free love, to black power, social and political change was being demanded. Control and authority were being questioned. It is important to remember that art is a reaction, and the artist is a real person living within the parameters of history. For the Rock and Soul artists of this time, the images of America were a huge influence. In particular, the Civil rights struggle, provided the inspiration and pain for a great portion of this work to be produced. It may be some of the best work in American musical history, and the fact that it parallels if not mirrors the civil rights struggle is not merely coincidence. You can let “them” destroy you, or propel you into greatness, the music produced during this time is proof.

From the earliest beginnings of both Soul and Rock and Roll, there has been social commentary woven into the music. Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” is a statement of his awareness of the political and racial turbulence of the 60’s. The lyrics and the music are a statement of healing. At a time when police dogs and fire hoses were being unleashed on southern black citizens, Cooke told of a healing that was gonna come. The mysterious way in which he died is strangely connected to the climate of violence that has come to define much of the 60’s. He was shot and clubbed to death in a Los Angeles motel. His death was a giant loss to the black community. Cooke was on progression into his blackness, his songs were becoming increasingly gospel oriented and his politics more radical.(Miller 116) As early as 1956, Chuck Berry was singing “Brown Eyed Handsome Man.” It is a re-affirmation of his black manhood. Barry Gordy and Motown records mirrored the ideals of the civil rights movement, but stayed largely non-political. Civil rights and early soul impacted on each other in much the same way that funk and black power did in the 70’s. It is a connection that is commonly made for many reasons. The music of this time did more than entertain, it was a motivation for a race, and a country in the larger sense, that was in conflict with itself. It has been said that during the civil rights era that music did not create a mood, but the mood created the music. That gives rise to the notion that music is more a important creation than mere entertainment. Music is nothing more than a reflection of the present environment. The music provided a sense of environment, something that may have been clouded in the 70’s, and lost more and more through the 80’s and 90’s.

In the 1970’s, the message of the music changed as did the message of the “Movement.” “Power to the people” became the message of the new power movement. Power and pride became the dominating ideologies of the movement. From non-violent beginnings, the movement was just that, movement. It moved with the events of the country and the larger sense the world. Televised images of death and violence, both from the South and Vietnam helped to push the movement into more violent and militant modes. It expanded and reacted with the times. In a sense, as the times became more violent, the movement followed. The assassinations of the 1960’s proved that the times were indeed becoming more violent. Perhaps the Black Panthers and more militant aspects of the movement, and the way popular music mirrored these changes were a direct result of this new violence. In a sense, it was the hate that hate made.

The Funk produced in the 1970’s was a mixture of most of the forms of popular music produced in the 20th century. Funk was both a musical and political reaction to the developments of the previous decades. A mixture of Blues, Soul, Jazz, and Rock, many other forms of world music can also be heard, from reggae to latin, to japanese song. There were many aspects to what was to become the most eclectic form of American music produced in the 20th century. The funk artists of the 70’s were labeled “black hippies”, this term gives a false impression of a connection to white, suburban culture. Funk was a product of the need to, as George Clinton stated it: “rescue dance music from the blacks.” As Funk progressed out of the late 60’s through the work of such ground breaking artists and Jimi Hendrix, and the “Atomic Dog” George Clinton, it was labeled ” low and dirty.” It was not heavily favored on popular radio, most DJ’s would not even say the word “funk.” (MIller 374) That came to an end when a host of records from 1967-1971 came to popularity all having the word “Funk” in their title. This legitimized the word and may have created a wave of copy cat artists trying to cash in on this semi-new musical form. The progression had started with James Brown in the mid to late 60’s with such hits as “Say It Loud”, “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” and ground breaking album “James Brown’s Hell.” Brown started the progression toward the horn & guitar driven, rhythmically deep music that would be the Funk of the 70’s. As the Funk movement was taking a new direction in the 70’s, Brown’s music was losing its impact. Groups like Kool and the Gang, Earth, Wind and Fire and George Clinton’s multiple band project Parliament/Funkadelic all elevated “funkiness” to a new level. (Rs Ill 374-75) Funk was a progression out of a truly black musical form of soul and into an even more eclectic and “blacker” form. There has always been a stigma attached to Funk, from its beginnings through to today, its images have always seemed dirty, and at times disagreeable. This is evident in the Kool and the Gang single “Raw Hamburger”, it is the story of a man who eats raw hamburger and chocolate buttermilk for lunch. (Miller 374) Many of Funk’s images fall along the same lines. Many of these early songs have produced a lasting effect on the verbiage used in the Funk tradition. The very origin of the word suggests dirtiness. As Arnold Shaw writes in his book Black Popular Music In America: “The work Funk goes back into the murky recesses of black ghetto slang. In that context, it referred to unmentionable, earthly sights, sounds, and smells, but especially to a body odor produced during sexual excitement or intercourse.” (Shaw 257) It was an image that funk could never quite shake.

 

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Chapter Eleven:“Me” Decade- 1970’s Extravagance and its Musical Reaction 

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The 1970’s proved to be the end of the momentum for the “movement.” The post-70’s musical forms have evolved quickly. That may be due to changing social and technological conditions. Many of the social ills that propelled the left were either not important any longer, or decreased in size and scope. By 1973, there was “peace” in Vietnam. The Draft had ended and there was a withdrawal of American troops from Vietnamese soil. It was a time when college radicals seemed satisfied. (Szatmary 232) The motivations of the 60’s now seemed passé. Students now expected some kind of monetary return on their educational investment. The 70’s brought a move away from the more “spiritual” educational pursuits of the 60’s. Education was now being looked upon with dollars in mind. Finding oneself through the humanities that were so popular in the sixties was becoming less popular. The drugs of 60’s spiritual awakening became a fad, and somewhat accepted in the 70’s. (Szatmary 232) The drugs that made up a large part of the sixties counter culture came out into the 70’s main stream. Cocaine became the “drug of choice.” Reference to it’s power appears in many of the popular songs of the 70’s. “Snowblind” by Black Sabbath was written and recorded in a cocaine induced stupor.

The seventies were definitely about extravagance. To look further into the extravagance of the 70’s, the musical rebellion at decade’s end becomes more defined as a class rebellion as well as a cultural rebellion.

The singles scene erupted creating a multi-billion dollar industry. Swinging sex clubs became big business for people who wanted to shed the “possessiveness of a sexual relationship.” (Szatmary 232) The spiritual pursuits of the 60’s turned into pay-to-play excursions in the 1970’s. The wild, self-absorbed sex scene of the 70’s would come to bear some of the ills that would effect the music and culture of the 90’s. The notions of sex opened up even more in the 70’s. Swinging was sex clubs would entice many to leave the confines of monogamous family life. The divorces and splits of the 70’s produced the millions of single parent families that have come to characterize the 90’s and the hopeless character of a many of today’s genres.

The seventies were defined as the “me” decade in part because the idealism and action of the 60’s had turned inward. The music followed suit in many ways. One of the best examples of 70’s extravagance is Elton John. (Szatmary 234) Through his use of extravagant costumes, stage shows, and energetic performances, the scope of the music product became more complex. John was in many ways part of the gay pride movement that came to maturity in the 70’s. John was a transitional figure between the stripped down song writers of the early seventies and the bloated super bands of the mid to late seventies. In an indirect way, Elton John helped to pave the way for the “heavy metal theater” of the seventies. (Szatmary 234″235) The androgenous nature of seventies metal was embodied early on by David Bowie. Bowie’s character, Ziggy Stardust was a strange mixture of space being, bisexual, and performance artist. Bowie’s hip alien moved millions of units and helped to fuel the birth of similar acts. From the Ziggy craze sprang, Iggy Pop and the NY Dolls, The Stooges, and postVelvet Underground Lou Reed. Adding to the decade’s extravagance was Kiss, Queen, and Alice Cooper. Make-up and pyrotechnics were defining characteristics of the stage shows of the 70’s. The product was getting glossier and more complex. The trend of popular music was heading toward cartoon characters with sexually explicit lyrics and heavily layered pyrotechnic stage shows. In many ways, popular music, in particular, heavy metal sacrificed content for appearance.

 

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DISCO 

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Much of the music of the 1970’s is based in opposition to other musical forms. Disco messages helped to fuel the punk revolution. Disco simplified the heavy rhythms of funk. In the process, it came to optimize seventies excess. Disco’s origins were the black, latin, and gay clubs of New York city. To a certain extent, it gave the self absorbed baby boomers of the 70’s a platform to take center stage. (Szatmary 244) The disco culture involved more than music. It would eventually grow into a multi million dollar industry encompassing everything from fashion to home furnishings. The Discos, or “Discotequés”, were in themselves multi-million dollar investments. They were designed to give a space age appearance, giving disco patrons an other worldly experience. To add to their travels out of the realities of everyday life, cocaine was used as a standard in the Disco culture. Fashion was also a heavy component, there were disco specific clothing lines, dresses were designed to allow the hips to be bare. Many in the music industry would come to denounce disco because of its lack of human creation. The musical form of disco was very much sterile and precise. Clean beats made from computerized sources were common, and purists would never come to accept disco because of its mechanical component.

 

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PUNK 

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Punk was born out of reaction to the seventies excess, disco, and the electronics being used in music at the time. The structure of the punk scene was DIY (do it yourself.) Musically unique, it is socially akin to the rap forms of the 90’s. Punk’s raw and unstructured sound allowed unskilled musicians to get their music and message across without any classical training. This creative freedom produced some incredible chronicles of class, race, and cultural oppression. However, it also created many self absorbed, musically crude recordings that were accepted because of the very nature of punk. Punk was the music of social and class rebellion, an attempt to end the bloated musical and political forms that came to define the 70’s. It came to rebel against the electronic music that was being played on commercial radio and in discos. The very nature of punk has created purists. The term “punk as fuck” has come to signify a state of “extreme punk.” There was always a struggle to be more punk, punker than anything. Of course, this has created problems and elitism within the punk community since the very beginning.

Also, Punk was rebelling against electronic music. The guitar, bass, and drums would become the prototype for what a punk band should be, stripped down and raw. On the outside looking in, there was nothing refined about the musical compositions of punk. The DIY spirit ended there. In essence, electronic music is a truly DIY form of music. With little or no training, elaborate songs and musical elements can be strung together to produce a very emotional product. Still, the punk community stuck to the three piece definition. Punk is based on class oppression, the working class youth rebelling against the promise of a dark future. Many of the statements of punk reflect a working class background, and one of the most famous and defining is the safety pin. Whether through the cheek, ear, or to hold together ripped jeans, the safety pin has always been a part of the punk rock scene. Pins were used to hold together ripped jeans in place of sewing or patches. Patches were viewed as an attempt to to transcend class and required some degree of manual skill and polish. The pin would eventually be absorbed, like the punk music, by the larger mainstream. As punk was losing momentum, NY department stores began to carry $100 gold safety pins for the fashionable, upper class punker. Punk had become accepted by the class that it rebelled against. The second British invasion, punk, would eventually eat itself, but not before leaving an impacting influence on all music produced after 1980.

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Punk Genisis 

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The beginnings of punk are focused on New York city and the now world famous club CBGB’s. At its origins, CB’s was a bar created in the New York bowery for the locals to enjoy cheap liqueur. By the early seventies, musical icons like Coltrane, and The Velvet Underground were all playing there on a regular basis. A new avant garde scene was being created. The “second British invasion” came with the introduction of the British punk outfit the Sex Pistols into American pop culture, whose purpose was to end rock and roll. Their mantra was Rock and Roll was history, and history did not matter. In recent years, a debate has been raised about the true origins of Punk. The NY based punk band The Ramones may have been the inspiration for bands like the Sex Pistols and the Clash in both musical style and content. (Szatmary 252)The Ramones first album was introduced into the British market months before the Sex Pistols invaded America. The Sex Pistols have come to be accepted as the point men for the punk revolution, but it is this writer’s opinion that punk actually originated at CBGB’s in New York City. (Szatmary 252)

There have always been close ties between the Punk movement and Reggae culture, and this bond is based in class oppression. The oppression of working class youth known as “Punkers” has always been akin with the plight of the Rasta, Both being labeled as social outlaws in their respective societies. Both are repressed by a ruling class, and seek to educate the larger society through music and art. Both cultures are built around distinctive musical foundations, and many cross over bands have fused the two forms, Reggae and Punk, to create a unique musical message. Bad Brains, a Washing D.C. hardcore/Reggae fusion band had been an a major landmark of the Punk rock scene since the late 70’s. By blending Reggae bass sections with hard driving, hardcore style guitar, they have created a niche all their own. Later progression of this formula have taken different forms, but are definitely influenced by the Bad Brains. From Fishbone, to Living Colour, the “black” rock band has been a rare find in the past few decades. The music of the punk movement has always been a close companion to the music of Reggae and later, Rap. The class and social messages that are present in all are very similar with the only differing factor, to some degree, being race. In many ways, punk has progressed farther because it is a music that has come from white origins. It might be rude, harsh, and abrasive, but it is not as threatening as the violent images that have been present in Rap for the past seven years. From the their beginnings, there has always been an alliance between punk and reggae. Similar class struggles, present in both musical forms, have created an understanding, and often, a musical fusion that has created some wonderful work. Both are the music of social outlaws, of oppressed people looking at the power structure from an outside vantage point.

 

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Chapter Twelve-Reggae And Rastaman VibrationsRobert Nesta Marley 

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Through his music, Bob Marley brought the world the teachings of the Rastafarian faith and educated millions of people throughout the world in the issues of the third world. Marley’s songs are multi-layered insights into the social and political conflicts of, in particular Jamaica, and in general the struggle of oppressed peoples everywhere. With Reggae’s increasing acceptance in the 70’s, the western world came to realize that there is popular music everywhere. The lower half of the hemisphere was creating very important, and musically amazing music. In many ways, reggae was a refreshing change from the big, bloated, heavy acts of the 70’s. Bob was pure, his words were true, and in a world of hypocrites, he was a man who stayed true to the program.

The origins of Reggae can be traced to many sources. The Calypso of Trinidad in the 1920’s and the steel pan music of the Trinidad/Tobago after World War II were both forerunners of modern reggae. (White 17) American R&B was wildly popular with the youth of Jamaica. Many Jamaican vocal groups of late 50’s/early 60’s copied every aspect of their American counterparts. From R&B, Ska was born. Ska progressed into “rock-steady” and finally reggae. Ska and rock-steady became an enormous industry in both Jamaica and Europe, and this set the stage for Bob Marley’s incredible success. The Wailers had enjoyed limited success in the early phases of the developing Jamaican music scene.

Marley’s song are very complex and multi-dimensional. They are sonically dense, revealing new sounds each time they are listened to. Beneath the first impressions one has of Marley’s music as simplistic, there is layer upon layer of African folklore, Jamaican folklore, and political commentary.

Political issues ranged from the “sulfureous denunciation of police harassment of Rastas in ‘Rebel Music (3 O’Clock Road Block)’ to ‘Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)’ in which the Democratic Socialist regime of Prime Minister Michael Manley was advised that the disenfranchised ghetto population was a volatile and potent political force.” (White 21)

“Burnin’ & Lootin” evokes images of secret police raids, and seizures of both people and property. The story of a man who wakes up in the custody of unknown government officials creates many of the emotions that are produced by “The Trial” by Franz Kafka.

Marley was on all sides, politically active, but in the middle of everyone. He was a motivator, and that frightened an establishment based on falsehoods and oppression. “You can fool some people some time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”..that line appeared in the smash “Get Up, Stand Up.” His music has held up remarkably better than most of the music produced during that time period. It still sounds as if it could have been produced today, but, in actuality, his music is approaching 25 years old, still it remains fresh and powerful.

 

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Chapter Thirteen-American Hardcore 

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The music of the American Hardcore movement is in many ways distinctly American in origin, but international in its messages of class and race oppression. Many of the bands of the early 80’s would fuse heavy metal with punk, and the the political rebellion of Reggae, to produce a style that would come to be the soundtrack of personal suffering and alienation. These American hardcore (sometimes labeled Punk) bands took many forms. Based around three major centers: San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C., this movement was based on the the same DIY attitude as earlier British punk. From the left-based politics to the San Francisco-based Dead Kennedy’s to the straight-edge (no drugs or drinking) message of the D.C.- based Teen Idols/Minor Threat, the punk rock of the early eighties covered many areas with little air play, commercial support or national press. Los Angeles produced seminal punk-gods X and Black Flag.(Szatmary 320)

The Dead Kennedy’s emerged from the San Francisco punk scene. Their left politics were inspired by the rantings of Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols. Kennedy’s early work resembles the style and sound of the Sex Pistols, however, it quickly became apparent that the politics the fueled the Kennedy’s were precise and informed. The band had a clear message and was using the DIY aspect of punk to disseminate it to the music scene. The Pistols never seemed to have a clearly defined political stance. The Dead Kennedy’s have become a symbol of small, independent music with a message. The band broke up in 1986 in the midst of a lawsuit that charged the band, distributors, and record pressing facility with “distributing harmful matter to minors.” The harmful matter came in the form the of the Frankenchrist album. The liner notes of the album contained a copy of a painting by Swiss surrealist master H.R. Giger, and to some, the painting resembled rows of copulating penises. The PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center), headed by Tipper Gore targeted the Dead Kennedy’s because of the size and independent status. The band members chose to fight, but payed the price, finally, legal debts forced the band to split.

Labeled “harmful matter,” this insert included in the Frankenchrist album, a painting by SwissSurrealist master H.R. Giger ,would eventually lead to the Kennedy’s demise. 

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Black Flag is probably one of the most important bands in American music in the past 25 years. The style and content of Flag have been an enormous influence on the bands of the 90’s. The entire grunge fad was based on the earlier works of Black Flag. Stylistically, the Flag was a cross between Black Sabbath and British punk. Not as fast as the most of American Hardcore, Black Flag slowed down the music while making it heavier and fatter. Flag’s main messages chronicled the helplessness and despair of a future under the American dream. (Szatmary 320)

While based on class oppression, the messages focused more on a certain age group and their life outlook. Most of the bands that comprised the American hardcore/punk movement came out of the suburbs and moved into the urban centers. Much of American hardcore followed the same format as the DIY British invasion. In this small, close knit community, the independent or “indie” labels were born and flourished. These small labels provided the fuel for the American punk/hardcore movement. Labels like Dischord (started by Minor Threat frontman Ian MyKaye), SST (founded by Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski of Black Flag), Epitaph, as well as the label that was single handedly responsible for the “grunge” fad, Sub-Pop (Subterrainian-Pop) were all started to disseminate indie music to an small, established fan base. Through the use of “Zines” and college radio (now called Alternative), news of small local punk and hardcore bands spread through word of mouth. Today, xeroxed fanzines are rare, the internet has brought new forms of music to a wider, more diverse audience than ever before. Much of the American punk experience is about self-motivation, success through unconventional means. Many of the bands that have come to be associated as “pivital” within the American hardcore movement did so buy providing an opportunity for themselves. Success was achieved in the absence of glossy layouts, commercial supported radio air play, or any rotation on MTV. Within the punk world, success is viewed strangely, to starve “creatively” is success. Commercial success is labeled with the all too common “sell out.” The more recognition a band receives, the more integrity is lost in punker purist circles. In the punk world, the label of sell out is hard to shake. The musical form known as punk/hardcore has matured in a truly DIY fashion, it has stayed true, at least in part, to its original program of fighting class oppression and the ruling elite. To reduce the size and scope of this image, the oppression might come from parents, police, educational institutions, limited employment, and single minded record executives and producers. Outside “industry” developments have little or no effect on the hardcore movement. In recent years, many of the smaller record labels have been absorbed by huge media giants like Warner Communications. The small label theme, and look is used as a marketing tool. Names and rosters are kept in tack, producton remains much the same, the only difference is the financial backing and legal rights of a large corporate backer. Today, smaller labels are a testing ground for new, progressive bands. Major labels can test market new acts with little financial risk. After a band has proved itself as a money making prospect, it is moved onto the bigger label, and enjoys commercial success and MTV air play. The coordination of the music advertising machine to push a new, heavily funded act is incredibly precise. The buying and selling of labels and bands has further splintered an already extremely fragmented musical community.

Still, the hardcore community remains largely a DIY creation. In many ways, hardcore and rap musically similar and politically akin. Both are the artistic expressions of oppressed and often feared segments of society. Both musical forms inhabit, or at least try to inhabit, the urban landscape. Dealing with similar social and environmental issues, the fusion between the two forms was an almost natural progression. I once read a quote about the origins of Jazz. To roughly paraphrase, it referred to the power of jazz, not because of its musical form, but because of its creators and followers, the working class, black male.To a large extent, that theory can be applied to both the hardcore community, substitute “black’ for white, disenfranchised, disillusioned youth. A youth movement that can operate without the oppression of racist sentiment. The messages of hardcore songs might not seem so innocuous if they were coming from black artists. The hard, aggressive nature of the shows, records, and lyrics might receive more public scrutiny if thhey were not coming from white kids from the suburbs.

The Hip-Hop culture heavily influences the culture and musical style of Hardcore music. Many of the fashions that have come to be associated with Rap are now filtering into the Hardcore scene. In recent years there have been many wonderful collaborations between the rap and hardcore communities. The ground breaking work in this genre came four years ago with the fusion of polit”rap giants Public Enemy and the NYC hardcore sound of Anthrax. Bring the noise, an early Public Enemy hit, was re-released with hardcore music and hip-hop beats. The fusion sounded incredibly comfortable and established. The years after the re-issue of “Bring The Noise” brought the collaborations of Helmet and House of Pain, Ice-T and Slayer, and Boo-Yaa Tribe and Faith No More. All combined the hard driving guitar of hardcore with the heavy, bass driven beats of rap. These and many more hardcore-rap fusion pieces can be found on the ground breaking “Judgement Night” soundtrack. These early rap-hardcore works created a market and sound for such bands as Rage Against The Machine, and L.A. based polit-hardcore players Downset.

 

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Chapter Fourteen-Rap-Music/Hip-Hop-Culture 

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Rap as a musical form, and a source of social commentary has progressed to reflect the experience of the African-American community. Rap emerged out of Disco, by pioneering DJ’s who would break down popular disco tracks to allow a more percussive sound. The essence of early Rap was reaction, a need to reclaim the music, and make it “blacker,” Disco was a mainstream darling, and Funk was all but dead, Rap developed at a much needed time. (Szatmary 330) Disco tracks would be cut down to a looped rhythm track, the part that allowed maximum dancing. The block parties and clubs of New York City of the early 70’s are where Rap first appeared. Through word of mouth, Rap became increasingly popular, eventually moving into a sub-culture status. By the late seventies, the music was becoming more complex, lyrics (or toasts) and sound effects were added. These new complexities created a musical form, not just sampled music and beats, messages were being disseminated about life in the inner cites. Early rap was responsible for a minor re-emergence of funk, the complex rhythms and beats of funk provided better material to sample than the mechanical beat tracks of Disco. Early DJ’s like Kool DJ Herc and Afrika Bambaataa became underground heros. Tapes were dubbed and passed along, Rap’s early days were DIY, it progressed freely, outside the record industry and commercial support. (Szatmary 332) Eventually early artists Sugar Hill Gang would chart with “Rapper’s Delight.” Fellow Sugar Hill label members Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five would bring a social aspect to Rap with the “The Message,” a song about the harsh conditions of the inner city and the realities of being black in America. From the tradition of Gil Scott-Heron (The Revolution Will Not Be Televised) and the Last Poets, Grandmaster Flash infused social and political commentary into his music. (Szatmary 334) It was an infusion that was sorely needed considering Disco’s watered down content of fun and extravagance. It was these early works that inspired such polit-rap revolutionaries Public Enemy and the Disposable Heros or Hiphoprisy.

White America took notice with the Release of RUN-DMC’s “King Of Rock,” a work that placed rap vocal tracks over heavy metal guitar tracks. Eventually the crossover hit, “Walk This Way,” a joint project with the 70’s hard-rock giants Aerosmith, would place them on white play-lists. The heavy metal component of their music helped bring their message to the suburbs. As the economic conditions on the cities worsened, and the gang violence body count increased, the messages of the music changed. The late bleakness of the eighties produced “Gangsta Rap,” a reaction to the violence on drugs of the inner city. At this point, as a musical form, “Gangsta Rap” is slowing down, it has been taken as far as possible. Blamed for worsening the conditions on the cities, it is a powerful “news source” (although the information may be questionable, and sometimes profit driven) for the young, both black and white. With the discovery that rap was a commercial success, and wildly popular with white, suburban kids, the record industry has pushed the stereotypical “Gangsta” image to the limit. With the introduction of RUN-DMC, Public Enemy, and in particular, Body Count (ICE-T), the messages of the black struggle have been delivered to the white suburbs. As in information source, it reaches millions. The messages may be questionable, politics may be altered by profit, but Rap’s power is undeniable. What’s been termed as a “home invasion” (a gang term for an assault on an enemy’s house) has taken place. As Ice-t, one of Gangsta’s pioneers, reports in the title track to his album “Home Invasion:’

Home Invasion: “All I want is the motherfucking kids…this is a rap jack I’m taking your kids brains and you ain’t getting them back…My perfection, my dissection, some call it lethal injection. I’m gonna fill them with hard drum big guns…bitches, ho’s, and death, come on and get some. I’m not the nigger that you wanna leave your kid alone with because I got my own opening dome kit, and once their up under my fucking spell, they might start giving you fucking hell. They start changing the way the walk, they talk, they act, now who’s fault is that? It might start manifesting, asking questions, give your brain indigestion. Now they are mentally intoxicated with truth.”

Another Ice-T track, “Race war” gives some insight into the power or rap and race. The title is somewhat misleading, (knowing Ice’s style, the verbiage is probably on purpose to create maximum controversy) The title may be incendiary, but, the main theme conveys a sense of cross-acial unity based on oppression.

Race War: “Race war, people getting killed in the streets, blood on their feet, the ends don’t meet, and who they gonna blame it on me? Try the media, try the P.D, try your TV, try your quest for wealth, anybody but yourself, and once the bullets start flying, people start dying, its all about lying. History books that teach hate, a kid has no escape, a racist fate. And when the shit hits, there’s gonna be a lot of white kids rollin’ with the Africans, you can’t sweat skin, cause there will be a lot of blacks down with the republicans. The shit don’t have to happen, that’s why a bother like me is still rapping.”

The excerpts of these two songs illustrate the power of Rap as an source of cultural influence. It is out there, in the suburbs, bringing the messages of the inner city, providing “information,” and maybe some kind of racial understanding. Various forms of Rap, like Gangsta, are not without fault, enforcing their own brand of stereotypes and hatred, from misogyny and homophobia to racist sentiment toward Jews and Koreans, the true political component and commentary is often obscured. It is a male dominated genre, the references to “bitches and ho’s (whores)” are all too common. But for all its downfalls, it is still a remarkable musical form, a sense of pride, source of information, and an extremely lucrative business. Based in race, and class, it is an expression of frustration, a fact that is often lost in the culture today because of its so”called “incendiary’ messages. Today’s Rap community has many of the same aspects as early Rock and Roll. It is revolutionary, reactionary, and controversial.

 

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In Conclusion 

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Music is very important to people. There are certain songs and artists that invoke for many individuals a certain emotion, memory, or period of time. For some, music is an escape, for some an expression of experience, for some it is something that is always there. Strangely un-definable, but tangible enough to own, it is thought and emotion captured for the listener. In many ways it is sacred, at least for some. For me, music is a combination of these things and much more. From the first time I heard the Rock songs of the late 70’s and early 80’s on FM radio, I was hooked. I still have the first cassette album I ever purchased, the liner notes, the cover art, and the price all remain with me to this day. Out of embarrassment, I will not state its title of this album, but it was the first piece in what was to come a library that has spanned many years, many dollars, and many fads.

Today, Rock is many things to many people, making a standard, universal definition impossible. The labels placed on today’s music are nothing more than a marketing tool. Snappy words are used to create a false identification, for example are the over used labels “alternative,” “grunge,” “electronica” and “industrial,” These tidy labels were created to target a certain demographic category, to sell products and give false impressions of group identity. The combination of all these labels paints a highly defined and rather boring picture of 90’s youth culture. As this paper will display, Rock and Roll is a living entity, almost impossible to label because of historical base it is built upon. Equally impossible to define is the culture that produces it. As times change and music progresses, it becomes more splintered. There are forms of music today that were not in existence five years ago, constantly “mutating” into new forms as technology and computers enable musicians with more creative freedom. New sounds are always being created making combinations of musical forms more common and marketable. The new strain of hip-hop/hardcore/funk (Rage Against The Machine, Downset, 24-7 Spyz, Fishbone) that is so popular today was barely in existence five years ago.

However, as the cliche reads, there is nothing new under the sun, and Rock And Roll is living proof. The new forms of today are built on foundations that have been standing for generations. To a trained ear, the Blues licks of the delta, the funk of the 70’s, the sound of the British invasion, the structures of the punk movement, all scream from the new work being produced and marketed. Rap and hip”hop actually use samples of the earlier work to construct the beat, bass track, and sometimes vocal of a entirely new work. Technology is allowing new forms of music to be produced and at a much lower cost. Today, music can be altered on a computer screen. Through the use of software, most instruments can be sampled, played and manipulated without much formal musical training. The musical genius’ of the past still exist today, however, computers have bridged the creative gap. Small record companies are producing recordings that are identical in quality to the major labels. The recording monopoly is loosening ever so slightly. However, Music is still big business and that is obvious from the hundreds of national chain record stores, numerous cable music video stations, and million dollar stage shows. Often the hype becomes more important than the music. Tickets to shows now cost on the average of $20-$30. Major artists are now business entities with lawyers, business managers, graphic designers, tour photographers, press agents, personal trainers etc etc etc. Still, a few in today’s market hold true to the notion that music should be accessible to all, that it is art, and not business. An example is Fugazi from Washington D.C. Made up of veterans of the Washington, D.C. punk scene they are the standard for artistic integrity for today’s independent bands. They own their own record company, Dischord Records, charge only a certain amount for their products, and will not charge over $10 for a show. Bands like Fugazi are the exception and enjoy little financial success because of it. So often, today’s Rock music is dominated by the “icon.” The Metallica’s, Michael Jackson’s, U2’s, and REM’s are all so removed by reality by their millions of dollars, the true intent of their art is obscured. Their point of origin is lost in a marketing blitz, and eventually, they are disassembled by those who elevated them to a devine status. There is a loss of identity that comes with extreme financial success often has a permanent and negative effect the “Rock superstars” of today. So often in today’s music industry, pop stars turn into soda pop stars. The endorsement game had become big business. In its beginnings, Rock was termed the “Devil’s” music. It was shunned. Today, it is the accepted mode of music. The messages in Rock music are everywhere, from President Clinton’s use of Fleetwood Mac at his inauguration, to Catholic church groups using rock and rap groups to covey their message of “salvation” to white supremacist factions using hardcore music to motivate disenfranchised white youth onto a path of fascism. It is a musical form that has come light years from its origin. It can be found in elevators, dentist’s offices, shopping malls and department stores. It is a world musical revolution and it is certainly not dead. Rock as a force, an expression, and a cultural mirror has come lightyears since its outlaw status just a few decades ago. While viewing the overall history and progression of Rock (inclusive of all its spin-offs) the progression from one form to another becomes more clear. It is a progression the stems from the need to re-invent oneself, a need present in all of us. It is a music of escape, and motivation, of poltical messages, and class oppresion.

WHOEVER CONTROLS WHAT YOU SEE AND HEAR,CONTROLS WHAT YOU THINK.FIGHT THE CENSORSHIP OF THE ARTS IN ALL FORMS. 

“Pornography benefits women, both personally and politically.” This sentence opens my book XXX: A Woman’s Right to Pornography, and it constitutes a more extreme defense of pornography than most feminists are comfortable with. I arrived at this position after years of interviewing hundreds of sex workers.

Feminist Positions

Feminist positions on pornography currently break down into three rough categories. The most common one – at least, in academia – is that pornography is an expression of male culture through which women are commodified and exploited. A second view, the liberal position, combines a respect for free speech with the principle “a woman’s body, a woman’s right” and thus produces a defense of pornography along the lines of, “I don’t approve of it, but everyone has the right to consume or produce words and images.” A third view – a true defense of pornography – arises from feminists who have been labeled “pro-sex” and who argue that porn has benefits for women.

Little dialogue occurs between the three positions. Anti-pornography feminists treat women who disagree as either brainwashed dupes of patriarchy or as apologists for pornographers. In the anthology Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism (1990), editor Dorchen Leidholdt claims that feminists who believe women make their own choices about pornography are spreading “a felicitous lie” (p. 131). In the same work, Sheila Jeffreys argues that “pro-sex” feminists are “eroticizing dominance and subordination.” Wendy Stock accuses free speech feminists of identifying with their oppressors “much like … concentration camp prisoners with their jailors” (p. 150). Andrea Dworkin accuses them of running a “sex protection racket” (p. 136) and maintains that no one who defends pornography can be a feminist.

The liberal feminists who are personally uncomfortable with pornography tend to be intimidated into silence. Those who continue to speak out, like American Civil Liberties Union President Nadine Strossen (Defending Pornography) are ignored. For example, Catharine MacKinnon has repeatedly refused to share a stage with Strossen or any woman who defends porn. “Pro-sex” feminists – many of whom are current or former sex-workers – often respond with anger, rather than arguments.

Peeling back the emotions, what are the substantive questions raised by each feminist perspective?

Anti-porn feminism

Page Mellish of Feminists Fighting Pornography has declared, “There’s no feminist issue that isn’t rooted in the porn problem.” In her book Only Words, MacKinnon denies that pornography consists of words and images, both of which would be protected by the First Amendment. She considers pornography – in and of itself – to be an act of sexual violence. Why is pornography viewed as both the core issue of modern feminism and an inherent act of violence? The answer lies in radical feminist ideology, which Christina Hoff Sommers calls “gender feminism.”

Gender feminism looks at history and sees an uninterrupted oppression of women by men that spans cultural barriers. To them, the only feasible explanation is that men and women are separate and antagonistic classes whose interests necessarily conflict. Male interests are expressed through and maintained by a capitalistic structure known as “patriarchy.”

The root of the antagonism is so deep that it lies in male biology itself. For example, in the watershed book Against Our Will, Susan Brownmiller traces the inevitability of rape back to Neanderthal times when men began to use their penises as weapons. Brownmiller writes: “From prehistoric times to the present, I believe, rape has played a critical function. It is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear.” How Brownmiller acquired this knowledge of prehistoric sex is not known.

Another tenet of gender oppression is that sex is a social construct. Radical feminists reject what they call “sexual essentialism” – the notion that sex is a natural force based on biology that inclines women toward natural tendencies, such as motherhood. Even deeply felt sexual preferences, such as heterosexuality, are not biological. They spring from ideology.

Men construct women’s sexuality through the words and images of society, which the French philosopher Foucault called the “texts” of society. After such construction, men commercialize women’s sexuality and market it back in the form of pornography. In other words, through porn man defines woman sexually – a definition that determines every aspect of her role in society. To end the oppression, patriarchy and its texts must be destroyed.

Liberal feminism

Liberal feminism is a continuation of 1960s feminism that called for equality with men, who were not inherent oppressors so much as recalcitrant partners to be enlightened. Equality did not mean destroying the current system, but reforming it through such measures as affirmative action. The liberal principle “a woman’s body, a woman’s right” underlay arguments ranging from abortion rights to lifestyle freedoms like lesbianism. The stress was upon the act of choosing, rather than upon the content of any choice.

Liberal feminists share the general liberal bias toward free speech, but they are in flux on pornography. Some liberal organizations like Feminists for Free Expression (FFE) have consistently opposed censorship in any form. Some liberal feminists like Sallie Tisdale (Talk Dirty to Me) have staunchly defended sexual freedom. But many liberal feminists commonly reason as follows: “As a woman I am appalled by Playboy … but as a writer I understand the need for free expression.”

Such arguments are not pro-pornography. They are anticensorship ones based on several grounds, including: great works of art and literature would be banned; the First Amendment would be breached; political expression would be suppressed; and a creative culture requires freedom of speech.

Other liberal feminists, who have accepted many of the ideological assumptions of the anti-porn position, seem willing to sacrifice free speech for the greater good of protecting women. For example, they also condemn the free market for commercializing women as “body parts,” which demeans women. In “A Capital Idea,” an essay defending pornography, which sometimes seems to be an attack, Lisa Steel comments:

Sexist representation of women … is all part of the same system that, in the service of profits, reduces society to “consumer groups.” And marketing is every bit as conservative as the military … we pay dearly for the “rights” of a few to make profits from the rest of us.

Such muddled and ambivalent “defenses” often offend the sex workers they are intended to protect.

Pro-sex feminism

Over the past decade, a growing number of feminists – labeled “pro sex” – have defended a woman’s choice to participate in and to consume pornography. Some of these women, such as Nina Hartley, are current or ex-sex-workers who know firsthand that posing for pornography is an uncoerced choice that can be enriching. Pro-sex feminists retain a consistent interpretation of the principle “a woman’s body, a woman’s right” and insist that every peaceful choice a woman makes with her own body must be accorded full legal protection, if not respect.

Pro-sex arguments sometimes seem to overlap with liberal feminist ones. For example, both express concern over who will act as censor because subjective words, such as “degrading,” will be interpreted to mean whatever the censor wishes.

The statute that banned Margaret Sanger because she used the words syphilis and gonorrhea is no different, in principle, than the one that interprets obscenity today. There will be no protection even for the classics of feminism, such as Our Bodies, Ourselves, which provided a generation of women with the first explicit view of their own biology. Inevitably, censorship will be used against the least popular views, against the weakest members of society … including feminists and lesbians. When the Canadian Supreme Court decided in 1992 to protect women by restricting the importation of pornography, one of the first victims was the lesbian/gay Glad Day Bookstore, which had been on a police hit list. Among the books seized by Canadian customs were two books by Andrea Dworkin, Pornography: Men Possessing Women and Women Hating. Such an event should not have surprised Dworkin who declared in Take Back the Night, “There is not a feminist alive who could possibly look to the male legal system for real protection from the systematized sadism of men” (p. 257).

On the dangers of censoring pornography, pro-sex and liberal feminists often agree. On the possible benefits of pornography to women, they part company.

Dissecting Anti-Porn

Do the specific accusations hurled at pornography stand up under examination?

Pornography is degrading to women.

Degrading is a subjective term. I find commercials in which women become orgasmic over soapsuds to be tremendously degrading. The bottom line is that every woman has the right to define what is degrading and liberating for herself.

The assumed degradation is often linked to the “objectification” of women: that is, porn converts them into sexual objects. What does this mean? If taken literally, it means nothing because objects don’t have sexuality; only beings do. But to say that porn portrays women as “sexual beings” makes for poor rhetoric. Usually, the term sex objects means showing women as body parts, reducing them to physical objects. What is wrong with this? Women are as much their bodies as they are their minds or souls. No one gets upset if you present women as “brains” or as spiritual beings. If I concentrated on a woman’s sense of humor to the exclusion of her other characteristics, is this degrading? Why is it degrading to focus on her sexuality?

Pornography leads to violence against women.

A cause-and-effect relationship is drawn between men viewing pornography and men attacking women, especially in the form of rape. But studies and experts disagree as to whether any relationship exists between pornography and violence, between images and behavior. Even the pro-censorship Meese Commission Report admitted that the data connecting pornography to violence was unreliable.

Other studies, such as the one prepared by feminist Thelma McCormick in 1983 for the Metropolitan Toronto Task Force on Violence Against Women, find no pattern to connect porn and sex crimes. Incredibly, the Task Force suppressed the study and reassigned the project to a pro-censorship male, who returned the “correct” results. His study was published.

What of real-world feedback? In Japan, where pornography depicting graphic and brutal violence is widely available, rape is much lower per capita than in the United States, where violence in porn is severely restricted.

Pornography is violence because women are coerced into pornography.

Not one of the dozens of women depicted in pornographic materials with whom I spoke reported being coerced. Not one knew of a woman who had been. Nevertheless, I do not dismiss reports of violence: every industry has its abuses. And anyone who uses force or threats to make a woman perform should be charged with kidnapping, assault, and/or rape. Any such pictures or films should be confiscated and burned because no one has the right to benefit from the proceeds of a crime.

Pornography is violence because women who pose for porn are so traumatized by patriarchy they cannot give real consent.

Although women in pornography appear to be willing, anti-porn feminists know that no psychologically healthy woman would agree to the degradation of pornography. Therefore, if agreement seems to be present, it is because the women have “fallen in love with their own oppression” and must be rescued from themselves. A common characteristic of the porn actresses I have interviewed is a love of exhibitionism. Yet if such a woman declares her enjoyment in flaunting her body, anti-porn feminists claim she is not merely a unique human being who reacts from a different background or personality. She is psychologically damaged and no longer responsible for her actions. In essence, this is a denial of a woman’s right to choose anything outside the narrow corridor of choices offered by political/sexual correctness. The right to choose hinges on the right to make a “wrong” choice, just as freedom of religion entails the right to be an atheist. After all, no one will prevent a woman from doing what he thinks she should do.

A Pro-Sex Defense

As a “pro-sex” feminist, I contend: Pornography benefits women, both personally and politically. It provides sexual information on at least three levels:

• It gives a panoramic view of the world’s sexual possibilities. This is true even of basic sexual information such as masturbation. It is not uncommon for women to reach adulthood without knowing how to give themselves pleasure.
• It allows women to “safely” experience sexual alternatives and satisfy a healthy sexual curiosity. The world is a dangerous place. By contrast, pornography can be a source of solitary enlightenment.
• It offers the emotional information that comes only from experiencing something either directly or vicariously. It provides us with a sense how it would “feel” to do something.

Pornography allows women to enjoy scenes and situations that would be anathema to them in real life. Take, for example, one of the most common fantasies reported by women – the fantasy of “being taken.” The first thing to understand is that a rape fantasy does not represent a desire for the real thing. Why would a healthy woman daydream about being raped? Perhaps by losing control, she also sheds all sense of responsibility for and guilt over sex. Perhaps it is the exact opposite of the polite, gentle sex she has now. Perhaps it is flattering to imagine a particular man being so overwhelmed by her that he must have her. Perhaps she is curious. Perhaps she has some masochistic feelings that are vented through the fantasy. Is it better to bottle them up?

Pornography breaks cultural and political stereotypes, so that each woman can interpret sex for herself. Anti-feminists tell women to be ashamed of their appetites and urges. Pornography tells them to accept and enjoy them. Pornography can be good therapy. Pornography provides a sexual outlet for those who – for whatever reason – have no sexual partner. Perhaps they are away from home, recently widowed, isolated because of infirmity. Perhaps they simply choose to be alone. Couples also use pornography to enhance their relationship. Sometimes they do so on their own, watching videos and exploring their reactions together. Sometimes, the couples go to a sex therapist who advises them to use pornography as a way of opening up communication on sex. By sharing pornography, the couples are able to experience variety in their sex lives without having to commit adultery.

Pornography benefits women politically in many ways. Historically, pornography and feminism have been fellow travelers and natural allies. Although it is not possible to draw a cause-and-effect relationship between the rise of pornography and that of feminism, they both demand the same social conditions – namely, sexual freedom.

Pornography is free speech applied to the sexual realm. Freedom of speech is the ally of those who seek change: it is the enemy of those who seek to maintain control. Pornography, along with all other forms of sexual heresy, such as homosexuality, should have the same legal protection as political heresy. This protection is especially important to women, whose sexuality has been controlled by censorship through the centuries.

Viewing pornography may well have a cathartic effect on men who have violent urges toward women. If this is true, restricting pornography removes a protective barrier between women and abuse.

Legitimizing pornography would protect female sex-workers, who are stigmatized by our society. Anti-pornography feminists are actually undermining the safety of sex workers when they treat them as “indoctrinated women.” Dr. Leonore Tiefer, a professor of psychology, observed in her essay “On Censorship and Women”: “These women have appealed to feminists for support, not rejection. … Sex industry workers, like all women, are striving for economic survival and a decent life, and if feminism means anything it means sisterhood and solidarity with these women.”

The Purpose of Law

The porn debate is underscored by two fundamentally antagonistic views of the purpose of law in society.

The first view, to which pro-sex feminists subscribe, is that law should protect choice. “A woman’s body, a woman’s right” applies to every peaceful activity a woman chooses to engage in. The law should come into play only when a woman initiates force or has force initiated against her. The second view, to which both conservatives and anti-porn feminists subscribe, is that law should protect virtue. It should come into play whenever there has been a breach of public morality, or a breach of “women’s class interests.”

This is old whine in new battles. The issue at stake in the pornography debate is nothing less than the age-old conflict between individual freedom and social control.

Once again, research has shown that babies sleeping on second hand cot mattresses are more likely to die of Cot Death Syndrome. A team from the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow studied 131 infants who died of sudden infant death syndrome and 278 healthy infants of the same age.

Each family completed a questionnaire on how they cared for their children. The researchers found a link between having a second-hand mattress and a risk of cot death.

In fact, according to middle-class researchers, most babies that die have low birthweight (ie what they mean is, they have unfit mothers), younger mothers (ie irresponsible), more siblings (ie irresponsible parents), less support from their partner (ie irresponsible dads), and social deprivation. In other words, they are working class.

Working-class mothers don’t have all the healthcare benefits that middle-class mothers have, including proper health education, and doctors that take them seriously. No surprise then, that most babies that die are working class.

A review of “Letter To A Teacher” by The School of Barbiana.

“School is war against the poor” say eight young Italian boys in this angry account of the way education favours the rich – in Italy and everywhere.”

In the late 1960s a book entitled “Letter To A Teachers” was written by a group of Italian peasant children from the School of Barbiana. The School was not an Italian state school, nor was it a public school for the wealthy middle-class. It was founded by Don Lorenzo Milani and was named after a community of about twenty farmhouses that lie in the Mugello region of Tuscany. Originally intended as a night school for working people it soon became evident that the children of the region were being let down by the state schools, they often failed exams and were discouraged by the nature of authoritarian education.

Don Milani gathered together a small group of children and, over a many long hours, they formed a system that was more relevant to the needs of the poor. The older children actually began teaching the younger children and many state “failures” were turned around. Don Lorenzo Milani died in 1967 and the school died with him. But the book that the children wrote became a world wide best seller. It is presently out of print in Britain, which is a shame because it warns against the league tables (Italy had them in the 60s) that succesive governments are forcing on our education system. Openly Classist would like to produce a pamphlet based on the book, but until them we have chosen to write an extensive review of the work.The copy we found was published by Penguin in 1970. It is worth quoting their own introduction before we start.

This book is not written for teachers, but for parents. It is a call for them to organise.

The author’s begin the book by considering how they always felt “shy” in front of their teacher.

At first I thought it was some kind of sickness of mine or maybe of my family… Later on I thought shyness was a disease of the mountain people… Now I have observed that the workers let “daddy’s boys” grab all the jobs with responsibility in the political machines, and all the seats in parliament.

So they too are like us. And the shyness of the poor is an older mystery. I myself, in the midst of it, can’t explain it. Perhaps it is neither a form of cowardice nor of heroism. It may just be a lack of arrogance.

Then they describe their walk to school, it could take up to two hours.

I would pass only two houses along the way. Windows broken, recently abandoned. At times I would start running because of a viper or because a crazy man, who lived alone at the Rock, would scream at me from a distance.

I was eleven years old. You would have been scarred to death.

You see we each have our different kind of timidity. So, in that, we are even.

But we’re even only if both of us stay at home. Or if you have to come and give us the exams at our place. But you don’t have to do that.

The importance of this statement is instantly recognised by anyone who has had direct experience of the two tier state education system in our own country. Each and every one of us who ever felt an injustice, one that they could not easily explain, will immediately understand the meaning behind the words of these Italian peasant children written over thirty years ago. The first problem with our schools is that they are built on a value system alien to our own. The working-class children that have to face middle-class teachers may as well be taught by a time travelling Russian Tsar (who doesn’t speak English) for all the things that they have in common. This barrier to communication also means that the teachers will often misread situations, aggressive sounding expression is not always violent just as polite smiles are not always friendly.

A lot of the problems that working-class kids are accused of are disciplinary. Of course we must recognise the need for discipline in school, but we must also remember that there is a fine line between discipline and subservience. The kind of discipline emphasised in schools has more to do with authoritarian control than self respect and respect toward others. The pseudo military regimentation is there to get us used to the hierarchical crap that we can expect to face in the workplace, it has nothing to do with becoming “good” citizens. The discipline dealt out in schools is the kind of thing that keeps a Henry Ford production line running smoothly, taken to it’s limits it is the kind of thing that can lead to the creation of places like Auchwitz. Schools are run with business in mind, their idea of preparing you for life is to make sure you jump on demand.

The league table mentality of the modern education establishment betrays the real purpose of state schools. They exist only to sort the wheat from the chaff. Those who don’t fit in are dropped like a hot ember. The school of Barbiana was full of children who did not “fit in”.

This was our first contact with you. Through the boys you don’t want.

We, too, soon found out how much harder it is to run a school with them around. at times the temptation to get rid of them is strong. But if we lose them, school is no longer school. it is a hospital which tends to the healthy and rejects the sick. It becomes just a device to strengthen the existing differences to a point of no return.

As schools compete for higher league table places children that don’t fit the mould will be rejected, denied schooling for the heinous crime of “not handling authority”.The book describes how children are taught in order to pass exams. They learnt enough to be able to put on a good show, but nothing had any real depth (sounds like a typical middle-class dinner party conversation). They ask “for whom are you doing it?” They answer…

You do it for the inspector. He does it for the school superintendant. And he does it for the minister of exams.

That is the most upsetting aspect of your school: it lives as an end in itself.

But your student’s own goal is is also a mystery. Maybe it is nonexistent; maybe it’s just shoddy.

Day in and day out they study for marks, for reports and diplomas. Meanwhile they lose interest in all the fine things they have been studying. Languages, science, history – everything becomes purely pass marks. Behind those sheets of paper there is only a desire for personal gain. The diploma means money. Nobody mentions this but give the bag a good squeeze and that’s what comes out.

To be a happy student in your schools you have to be a social climber at the age of twelve.

Letter To A Teacher is full of beautiful, well written, observations. Each page is still relevant to the working-class. When I read it I was reminded of my own school days, I was also appalled to realise that my own children are in the same situation. When you consider that this was once a set book for the Open University then you have to question the integrity of every sociologist who has ever read it. The issues raised by the book have been ignored to the extent that modern comprehensives are regressing toward a system of league tables and careerism. The only real change since I ran the guantlet is that a modern headmaster wears Armani rather than a tweed jacket.

One last quote from this wonderful book befor summing up…

The English don’t fail students in their schools. They divert them towards schools of lower quality. In school, then, the poor perfect an art of speaking badly, while the rich keep polishing their language. They can tell from the way a man speaks whether he is rich and what kind of work his father does. Come the revolution they can disembowel each other with ease.

Little has changed for working-class kids since the writing of Letter To A Teacher. But we cannot expect anything else from an economic system that must have a class devided society in order to function. A healthy, freethinking mind will question everything it is confronted with. I’ll quote a few lines from a piece of writing that sums up the need for free thought beautifully…

Nothing in our time is so dangerous and disheartening as the tyranny of custom… No despot, no pope, no conqueror, now bids us to think in one way; but society as a whole frowns on original thinking, and we all tend more and more to think what our newspapers tell us to think… We make ourselves traitors to our valiant forefathers in thus surrendering our right to free thought… It is our duty to fling off the restraints of fashion and convention… and to rouse our souls to the work of forming judgements of our own. Liberty is essential to the mind… We are slaves without knowing it. Our minds are locked in a vast prison house. The ideas we think our own are fastened on us like chains by the tyranny of custom.

These words are so important that the foundations of any education system should be built upon them. Unbelievably they were taken from a 1930s Children’s Encyclopaedia (talk about dumbing down! could you imagine seeing them on an Encarta CD Rom), they were quoted in “Revolutionary Self~Theory” a pamphlet by Larry Law produced in the 80s that should be regarded as essential reading for anybody seeking real political alternatives. Homo sapiens are an amazing species, an adaptable, plastic mind has led them to become such a powerful force that they are a potential threat to their own planet’s existence. Independency of thought means that it takes years of discipline to domesticate them, a decade of pidgin holing to to turn them into sheep fit for work-fodder.

Instead of focusing on a child’s innate qualities, passionate craving for knowledge and boundless imagination, schools work against the grain. New legislation will see parents imprisoned if their children continuously play truant. The same government is seeking to adopt an incentive system for teachers so that they receive financial bonuses if their school does well. Why don’t they just offer the kids the financial bonus to stay in class, either that or invent a school that the kids actually want to be a part of!

Working class kids have all the pressures, middle class kids get all the breaks.

And then the shit really hits the fan. For the next forty+ years your expected to skivy away for some pillock that, in an ideal world, you wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire. If you liked school, you’ll love work…