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Synopsis : The changing times have a strong influence on the music that are produced reflecting the changes. We have come from the whining and tiring country music to boring love songs sung by old people of yesteryears to the current era of the great performing artist /singers like Madonna but that too is changing. The blog looks at the evolution of the singer/activists over the years who send strong messages through their songs they wrote and sang.
When Madonna appeared on a cross wearing a crown of thorns
,the audience was transfixed not knowing what was she going to do next but she
gave a clue. There was a digital counter over her head where the digits were
changing at a furious rate.
Then she started singing in her melodious voice while
slowly coming down from the cross and sang about millions of children in Africa
and elsewhere orphaned by the war and communal violence. She sang about famine
and devastation that left the land littered with bodies. She sang about the
misery brought upon the humanity by others who wanted to kill democracy and
freedom of people. In the background flashed the scenes of starving children
and burning villages on giant screens.
When she stopped singing, a message flashed on the screen.
It said that God looked at the humanity with pity and said “ What you have done to each other, you have
done it to me”. At this time the digital counter stopped and showed that a million men women
and even children died in the violence done to them by others in the name of
religion, tribal hatred, ethnic cleansing and genocide. She is adored worldwide
for her talent as a singer and her activism.
Madonna is not only a singer. She is an activist who spreads
her message like this through her songs and a graphic display and to tell the
whole world that she takes a stand on such issues. She has also adopted several
children from Malawi to raise them with her love and care.
In this hour long video, she sings about domestic violence
where a dancer behind her wriggles in moves to show the torture he suffers
while a girl in a cage tries to get free of her cage and flies away as a dove
in the end while Madonna sings and mesmerizes her audience. She lies down on
the stage in exhaustion and drinks some water but soon gets up again to
continue her show.
Next she has two men wearing Jewish and Arabic signs on
their bodies who seem to be tormented by their differences while Madonna sings
about love and understanding, about forgiving and embracing each other in order
to forget their religious animosities while a third man in Middle Eastern dress
sings in Arabic in a captivating voice about love and peace. Her message is
clear. There is no room for hate and animosity among people in the modern world
due to religion, faith and terrorism.
After watching the video of Madonna, I started to think
what tremendous power she has in her songs and how her message is seen or heard
worldwide. She acknowledges and thanks her team, her dancers, her band, her
people who work behind the scene controlling the lights, the electronic
displays, the sound and all the rest and her fans for the success of her shows.
They in return give her a standing ovation while the lights focus on their ecstatic
faces.
Madonna represents a new breed of performing artists who
not only sing and dance, encourage the vast audience to sing with them and
captivating them with their live performance on a massive stage where the huge
display boards flash computer generated imagery and sound to create a dreamlike
environment that literally engulfs the entire audience. Numerous cameras
capture her every move and every sound byte in digital details to make a video
CD later that brings them a lot of money.
When I was young, the singers were called playback singers
who sang for the movies but were not seen. The actors and actresses lip synced
the songs but no one cared. The singers who sang in public just sat in front of
a microphone while a band played in the background. They did not sing and dance
or interact with their audience. There were no digital displays and flashing
images to highlight their songs. The singers took no stand on the social issues
but sang about love and broken hearts so most of their songs had the same
theme. They also sang religious songs written by some people long ago that the
older audience liked.
Then came the era of performing artists/singers like
Michael Jackson, Madonna, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Shakira, Jenifer Lopez among
many others who took over the world of music in a storm because they like
Madonna took over the stage with their songs and dazzling displays of flashing
lights and imagery. They are popular with the younger generation because their
songs carry deep messages that makes them think or act.
But it was not Madonna or others who set this trend of
activism through music. The credit should go to earlier singers like Joan Baez,
Judy Collins, John Lennon, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and country singers like
Johnny Cash among many others who sang about social issues, gun violence,
racial hatred, alcoholism etc. but they rarely performed in front of vast
audience like Madonna or Shakira.
Some famous singers like the Beatles did not like to
perform in front of audience so they recorded their songs in a studio where
they could make mistakes and rerecord their songs many times before they got it
right. In a live performance there is no room for mistakes because the audience
watches and hears everything. John Lennon would be remembered forever just for
his song “Imagine”.
Sometimes some singers are known to cheat by lip-syncing
their songs because they may have sore throat or are not in top shape but that
is very risky. People can tell if an artist is lip syncing so they may not like
it. The singers know that lip synching is immoral and try to avoid it.
So the singers like Madonna have a lot rehearsals before
they appear in public to sing. All their songs and dances are meticulously
choreographed under the scrutiny of a professional director who oversees all
aspects of the show be it lights, make up, clothes, band, electronic display
etc. so it takes weeks of preparation and rehearsal before an artist like
Madonna or Shakira appears on the stage.
But all the preparation for a show counts for nothing if
the singer does not have the magnetic charm, voice and personality so some
artists like Madonna and Shakira have become very successful and popular while
others fail to hold candle to them and fade away into oblivion. Some have died
in their bathtubs overdosed with drugs and alcohol while others have ended
their career by becoming anorexic although initially they were successful in
selling their records.
The activist singers like Joan Baez, Don Mc Lean and Bob Dylan gained popularity among the college students who were protesting the endless war in Vietnam so they liked what message Joan Baez and Bob Dylan spread through their songs. They were the original singers/ activists who did not fear the hard core warmongers who hated them and their songs the educated population liked so much and took to the streets in very large numbers nationwide to protest.
Judy Collins and Linda Ronstadt, Jean Ferrat ( in France ) and Khanh Ly ( Vietnam ) were great activists who sang freely against oppression, war, religious hatred and injustice that made them liked and famous. Jean Ferrat’s song called Air de Liberte and the song on Pablo Neruda should be heard again and again. I have published blogs on Jean Ferrat and Khanh Ly called Legend of Jean Ferrat and Songbird Khanh Ly that you may read here (Jean Ferrat is a legend and The world of music ).
I have an LP record of Joan Baez where she sings “When the
Sun sets in the West, die a million people in Bangladesh “ highlighting the
atrocities committed in Bangladesh during the war of 1971. I believe she was
the first such singer who recorded the song on Bangladesh at that time.
Source : Google photo of Michael Jackson
Among the performing artists/singers, no one came near
Michael Jackson in terms of popularity who attracted vast crowd no matter where
he put up his shows. People went crazy when he appeared on stage and started to
sing, Women cried and fainted because they were so excited just to see Michael
.There is a video of Michael performing in Bucharest, Romania that is worth
watching and worth listening to his songs. His Moonwalk and his dancing drove
his audience crazy. They got so excited that the security people got very
anxious. Several woman who fainted had to be taken away in stretchers.
Just like a war produces heroes who come forward to save
the country, the antiwar heroes are also born who lend their strong voice in
support of peace that influences a lot of people. No one can undervalue the
effect Joan Baez and Dylan had on young people everywhere who were deeply
troubled by the war in Vietnam and sought ways to escape the draft.
I stood with a lot of people one night in Santa Barbara,
California in 1969 who sang “We shall overcome “ that was I think sung by Joan
Baez and inspired a lot of people to sing along including myself.
Many of these famous performing artists like Taylor Swift,
Michael Jackson or Madonna came from poverty and struggled very hard to reach
superstardom. Taylor Swift sang at first in small clubs just to earn a few
dollars. Her mother gave her support and encouragement. What I know is that one
has to struggle for a long time before people start paying attention so what
makes people notice them?
Is it just their melodious voice or something else? I think
when they sing about the pressing social issues to send a strong message, it
touches the hearts of millions of people worldwide. Now a days such message
spreads faster than the speed of light due to the era of technology so a song
can be heard anywhere in the world through the social media, Spotify and many
such platforms.
A little girl in Holland named Amira Willighagen who
learned to sing watching U. Tube Videos became an International star when she
appeared in a talent show in Europe. She was only a child of 8 years but people
could not believe she had such commanding voice. ( Read my blog here called
Amira Willighagen –
I feel tired of old singers of 1940 and 1950 who were
famous during that period but their audience was very different from today.
They were less educated and more diehard nationalists. They grew up during the
great depression of the dust bowl years of Steinbeck and suffered poverty and
deprivation of all sorts. They actively supported the World War II and the atom
bomb.
The song writers of that period wrote songs reflecting the
conditions in which most people lived then. Such people who only a generation
ago had known poverty and hard struggle of life became the ardent supporters of
the war mongers in Washington and even applauded when My Lai massacre happened
in Vietnam. But their children who were dying in the war in Vietnam had a very
different perspective. They listened to Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.
The Vietnamese today who were young in 1967 but old now
remember the songs of Khanh Ly who was then a teenager singing in some night
clubs about war and peace. I still get shivers listening to her songs in my
stereo because her message in her songs are still valid after so many years.
The music industry is constantly changing reflecting the
mood of the nation and the likes and dislikes of the present generation. Some
records and CDs that they produce cannot be seriously called music that should
inspire people but the record companies produce them because they sell. People
will sell garbage if there is a market for it.
What I miss now is the beautiful lyrics written by great
song writers like Lennon , Dylan and others like Elton John who wrote and sang "The candle in the wind” when Diana died. Who can write songs like that today?
Note : My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links as well as my biography. My blogs can be shared by anyone anytime in any social media.
La biografía de anil en español.
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