Desire1twentynineteen: Week 10-12

Monday, February 25, 2019

Week 10-12

Modernism

What does The Wasteland mean (Lol)?

OK, well, let's unpack that:

1. How has it been interpreted? Use citations.

2. What are some of its key features?

3. In what ways has it been influential??

PoMo

1. What common qualities do the "Beats" share? Why were they so-named?

2. On what grounds was Ginsberg's HOWL accused of being obscene, and on what grounds was it defended?

3. In what ways are Beat poetry and rap linked?

4. How was Bob Dylan's song Master of War involved in controversy during the Bush administration?

5. What were the links between black protest music and revolutionary political movements, such as the Black Panthers, in the 1960s and how did things play out then and into the 1970s?

6. Identity some linked themes in rap of the 1980s from the period of the previous questions.

7. What kinda protest song/rap/other media have come out in the last decade? Is there a spirit of protest anymore?

9 comments:

Sam Watson-TaylerMay 28, 2019 at 4:27 AM
The obscenity trial regarding Howl and Other poems sure is a fascinating one.

Essentially a case of obscenity was brought against the book as a result of what is described in my sources as "certain four letter words" that caused the book to be banned in certain places in the united states. The fifties eh?

The argument in favour of censoring the work was mostly built around the fact the vast majority of literary and poetic work that dealt with sexual themes and vulgar language was censored and/or banned in the name of protecting children and "preventing perverse thoughts". Howl was in the unfortunate position of featuring both in abundance. As such it was forcibly removed from the shelves of bookstores and the employees and proprietors of those establishments arrested. It didn't help that it depicted homosexual sex alongside the heterosexual (Rehlaender, 2015).

By the standards of the late 1950s, Howl was a work that offended the eyes of many, both readers and law enforcement, that it was torn down. By today's standards, it really isn't that much, the most likely part to offend its reader by today's standards is its racial terms, which are very of their time, but not used intentionally demeaning contexts.

As much as I am against censorship of art, one can at least see the kind of thing that made them do it for example “with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, alcohol and cock and endless balls,” or “who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy, who blew and were blown by those human seraphim, the sailors, caresses of Atlantic and Caribbean love,”. I’m against the action, but I can see why if I put myself into a 50’s mindset (Ginsberg, 1959).

The court case was a landmark case in the history of media censorship in the united states. The defence argued that the use of the language within Howl was the only way that Allen Ginsberg's lived experiences could depict honestly and without violating his own artistic integrity. The defence would then argue that the work did contain sociopolitical and artistic merit and as such should not be censored under any circumstances. They also argued that most works declared obscene were often done so as a result of the personal sensibilities of the individual sensor rather than by anything objective or conceivably dangerous.

The defence ultimately won the day and put an end to the majority of artistic censorship in the United States. Even going so far as to lift the censorship of previously banned works. Thus bringing entire new fields of artistic expression to the people of the United States that had, up until now, been sheltered from them by a state that had decided it knew better what people wanted and needed than they did.

I would argue that this case went a long way towards solidifying the modern, well deserved, hatred of censorship. One could also make the argument that this case was instrumental in starting the movement of the cogs that would eventually lead to the LGBT+ liberation and rights movements of the late twentieth and, so far entire, twenty-first centuries. After all something like Brokeback Mountain, could not legally have been made in the '50s and had those censorship rulings not been undone, odds are LGBT+ civil rights would have been set back, god knows how long, without art to help push them forwards, as art often is instrumental and pushing a social discussion to the forefront in the minds and ultimately changing the minds of people.
Ginsberg, A. (1959). Howl and Other Poems.
Rehlaender, L. J. (2015). A Howl of Free Expression: the 1957 Howl Obscenity Trial and Sexual Liberation. Retrieved from https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1065&context=younghistorians
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nadinemortajaMay 31, 2019 at 7:24 AM
In what ways are Beat poetry and rap linked?

Beat poetry began in the late 1940s after the Second World War. It was almost a distraction for the people to focus on something good rather than bad. Beat poetry was very much so influenced by jazz music. It began in New York and San Francisco. Many of the famous poets saw the Second World War almost as an eye opener to express themselves however they pleased. They wanted to live the moment and take every chance to as it comes. Beat poetry did not have much rhyming, it was almost a bunch of run on sentences that barely gave you a second to breathe. The poets just wanted to express their feelings and emotions. They did not want to worry if the words rhymed or the sentences were punctuated properly. They wanted to change the meaning of what traditional poem was. In 1948 Kerouac introduced the name “Beat Generation” it was perceived as an underground youth movement in New York. The African American community believe that beat means you're tired or beaten down. Hence why Kerouac associated beat to being upbeat and on the beat from the Beat Generation poem. Beat poets were all about accepting one another no one felt ashamed to express themselves the way they wanted to. Even though being gay or bisexual was not very common at the time some Beat writers were open about their sexuality, such as Ginsberg and Burroughs.

Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac all attended Columbia University. They decided to form their own little trio. The trio were known for their boisterous behaviour and they also decided to experiment on drugs. In 1965 Ginsberg caught the attention of the public in San Francisco. He released Howl and Other Poems. Kevin O’Sullivan described the Howl and Other Poems as “an angry, sexually explicit poem. considered by many to be a revolutionary event in American poetry.” (O’Sullivan, 1965). The poem included vulgar and sexual language which was a massive shock to the public. Which brings us to the connection between Beat and Rap. Beat and Rap are similar in many ways. The first being they both usually talk about the author or the singers on life experiences. In Eminem's famous Till I Collapse song a lyric that caught my attention was “But in this industry I'm the cause of a lot of envy, so when I'm not put on this list the shit does not offend me.” In the music industry there is always rankings on who is the best of the best, but he does not care for it because he knows he creates great music. The second reason on why they are similar is a lot of them talk about their drug experiences or have experimented in the drugs category. Rappers talk very openly about drugs, especially Snoop Dogg. He is very open about his marijuana use and even smokes it during his concerts. Poets were open about drug use as well such as alcohol, marijuana, LSD and more. Moreover they are both similar because they both talk about sex often. We always hear it in rap songs how the rappers talk about sleeping with multiple women or getting with several women. The final point is they talk about rejection of social norms. They are all different in their special and unique way, whether they are rappers or poets. None of them fit into one specific category and they always wanna challenge themselves on being unique.

References:

Poetry Foundation. (n.d.). Allen Ginsberg. [online] Available at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/allen-ginsberg

Poetry Foundation. (n.d.). An Introduction to the Beat Poets. [online] Available at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/147552/an-introduction-to-the-beat-poets

Wikipedia contributors. (2019, May 18). Beat Generation. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beat_Generation&oldid=897717958
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Mycenae WatanaJune 1, 2019 at 8:36 PM
7. What kinda protest song/rap/other media have come out in the last decade? Is there a spirit of protest anymore?

I do believe that the “spirit of protest” still exists but possibly in a manner that people don’t always want to hear or are appreciative of. In particular, not everybody is a fan of rap - or the messages within rap - but protest has found a home in that specific genre in recent years. Last year, Greenberg (2018) of Forbes Magazine told readers to “look to Hip Hop” for this era’s protest music - and I couldn’t agree more. The article he states this in goes on to mention how the origins of political hip-hop knew no better zenith than NWA’s 1988 release of “Fuck The Police” which protested “police harassment and violence” (Edgar, 2016, pp. 223). Thematically, the protest of police brutality continued throughout the nineties and early 2000s and even into the modern-day rap scene - specifically, with Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” and it’s accompanying music video. It’s important to note that the song isn’t intended to explicitly “protest” police brutality - but it does mention the lines “And we hate po-po / Wanna kill us dead in the street fo sho’” wherein Lamar expresses his antagonistic stance against police who he believes aim to kill African Americans. This statement, though jarring to some, is pretty unsurprising considering its 2015 release which came in the wake of a resurgence in black activism - expressly, the 2013 establishment of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement which came as a consequence of the unjust killings by police in America (Friedersdorf, 2014). Interestingly enough, BLM protesters began to employ Lamar’s “Alright” with a frequency at demonstrations - so much so, Coscarelli (2015) dubbed it the “unifying soundtrack” of the movement.

It is my belief that this is a result of the song’s catchy melody and assurance of survival found in the repeated “we gon’ be alright” by Lamar in the chorus. The latter, in particular, becomes an optimistic mantra to reprise again and again in the face of the legalised slaughter of African-American men and women by police which is only further supported by Lamar’s (2015) articulation that the song is a “chant of hope and feeling” - the first of which these protesters are undoubtedly in need of. Through this song, among many other rap songs, I believe the spirit of protest lives on. I actually think it will always exist, it just won’t always have the soft strumming of Bob Dylan’s “The Times Are A-Changin” or the soulful crooning of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?”. Sometimes it will sound like Los Angeles rapper YG shouting “Fuck Donald Trump” alongside the late Nipsey Hussle - and that’s okay, too. The power of protest is that it is in the hands of the people and can be wielded however they wish it to be.
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jennyJune 2, 2019 at 2:31 AM
According to TIME (n.d.), in the past few months, thousands of protestors have began to act on social media and the streets in response to the murder of Michael Brown and Eric Ghana and the subsequent grand jury decision not to prosecute the police responsible for their deaths. These active elements, hailed by some as the birth of the New Civil Rights Movement, are now portion of a decentralized movement that protests across the country and "calls for an end to institutionalized racialism, particular police brutality against African Americans" under the banner of "black life issues".
Like the previous democratic rights era, its dub in background music distinguishes the movement. Young harmonist, some well-known, others at the basic level have found their role in the movement by simultaneously resurging and redefining the tradition of remonstrate vocals..

According to RollingStone (n.d.), Atlanta artists Daye Jack and Killer Mike jointly opposed police brutality against the black community, reflecting deeply on the history of the protests. In the video, many CNN appearances from Mike are scattered in footage from past protests, which proves Run the Jewels rapper's status as one of the most vocal public person in the movement.
"Montage is a way to show that, despite the tragic themes, it brings people of various circles together, unite as one, and should not be tolerated," video director David Galado said in a statement.
Important Lyric poetry: "Live with your head down, raise your hands / No, no, don't shoot"
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jennyJune 2, 2019 at 2:32 AM
According to The Guardian (n.d.), this moral panic is driven by older, more conservative activists, but the current opposition to excessive popular music stems largely from young feminists. If the MTV generation is the first one force to engage with music videos, the YouTube generation is the first person to understand these videos in social media and online discourse. Cultural consumers have never paid more attention to the explicit and implicit information embedded in popular art forms. Debates over racialism, misogyny and cultural possession, which used to grow sturdily mainly in community of scholars, have now become mainstream. Sometimes these concerns about "problematic" art go to the extreme of comedy --- Tumblr, if your favorite questionable that you wonder if there are any questions that are no question --- but at least young consumers are asking the right questions in the playwright Auguste Wilson's axiomatic spirit: "All art is political because it serves someone's politics."

The world has many issues nowadays. Music is always an efficient good media to speak out human being’s voice. Hopefully, the leaders of politic governments can listen people’s voice and work for their people. Water can carry a boat and also can overturn it. Being oppressed by officials, the masses revolt against them. The profit and right of civil people is vital. This is the history education. People always are the most powerful people. Therefore, music is important, protest music is important. This is the first step of people’s behavior. We don’t want to expand the worse effect of the angry emotion. Communication and make people live a happiness and comfortable life is the best solution to adjust the conflict between people and government.

References:

RollingStone. (n.d.). Songs of Black Lives Matter: 22 New Protest Anthems. Retrieved from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/songs-of-black-lives-matter-22-new-protest-anthems-15256/kendrick-lamar-alright-32927/

The Guardian. (n.d.).Blurred Lines: the most controversial song of the decade. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/13/blurred-lines-most-controversial-song-decade

TIME. (n.d.). The Return of the Protest Song. Retrieved from http://time.com/3672318/protest-song-returns/

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Chris PidgeonJune 3, 2019 at 12:33 AM
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Chris PidgeonJune 3, 2019 at 12:34 AM
How was Bob Dylan's song Master of War involved in controversy during the Bush administration?

Owner of countless accolades, Bob Dylan is undoubtedly a legend. As a musician, songwriter, poet and activist, his words have been heard countless times across our modern history. His messages, interestingly, have an innate ability to remain relevant throughout the decades. Most importantly, his songs of protest and rebellion have seen constant resurgence for their powerful connection to modern issues.

There are many pieces of music in Dylan’s catalogue that elicit a sense of the provocateur. Known for his lyricism, strong political opinions, and his unphased approach to sharing said opinions, Dylan is no stranger to controversy. His most celebrated songs, such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’”, featured much support for the Civil Rights Movement. After JFK’s famed speech remarking the “rising tide of discontent” (Kennedy, 1963) in the US surrounding discrimination and segregation, many musicians joined the cause. Dylan’s music quickly became quasi-anthems for the movement’s many messages, and he was heralded as a prolific voice for the people.

Dylan’s library also featured many songs in support of anti-war movements, praising peace, love, a free world, and an end to all war. “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” was described by Dylan himself as “one long funeral song” (Dylan, 2004), written directly in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis (Friedman, 2013). However, there was no song more notorious for its outrageously political material than “Masters of War”.

“Masters of War”, released in May 1963, borrowed heavily from an old folk song named “Nottamun Town”. It featured the same melody, yet with repurposed lyrics to fit a violent, powerful message in opposition of the Cold War of the early 60’s. Specifically, lines such as “You fasten all the triggers / For the others to fire” (Dylan, 1963) point fingers at war profiteers and the stockpiling of nuclear weaponry. Most notably, the song features lyrics entirely out-of-character for Dylan – “And I hope that you die / And your death will come soon”. These angry, confrontational words were received by many as the most aggressive from Dylan to date. He took no shame in his distaste for those who he felt were manipulating war and pain for their own profit.

While the song saw great controversy initially, it largely shifted out of the public’s attention for some time. However, the song immediately saw a resurgence in relevance in late 2004, when the Secret Service arrived at Boulder High School in Colorado. They claimed they were “investigating claims that George Bush's life was threatened at a rehearsal for a school talent show” (Maass, 2004). A group of students were reportedly heard saying “George Bush, I hope you die, and I hope you die soon," and "I'll stand over your grave" (Maass, 2004). This case of mistaken identity, which involved the Secret Service perceiving Dylan’s lyrics as the students’ own, landed the students in the middle of an intense effort to secure the President’s life. These lyrics were in fact from “Masters of War”, as the students quickly claimed. Parents, teachers, and the school’s principal, banded together in support of the students, encouraging the Secret Service to leave – albeit “with a copy of the Dylan lyrics to examine” (Maass, 2004). There were in fact several protests against Bush’s presidency at Boulder High School that very week; perhaps the Secret Service were correct to ensure that no threats against the President were really taking place.
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