Good Get Up, Stand Up: POP And Protest Essay Example

English

Since the beginning of the early 20th century, different musicians have come together under the common cause of human rights activism to fight hunger, corruption, war, oppression, apartheid, AIDS and Third World debt. These are together with breakthroughs that have assisted in the promotion of justice and equality through addressing gender-based discrimination, racial justice and immigrant rights. Musicians within the ‘Get Up, Stand Up: Pop and Protest’ have been able to achieve these through a wide range of platforms that include single songs passed through word of mouth to multi-million star-studded dollar benefits. Some of the significant activists who took up activism through music include Joe Hill and Bob Geldof who raised their voices by drawing together different groups of people and singing out to them with universal harmony and unforgettable verses (EBC, 2005). ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ has generally been a good reminder of the huge potential of music in protests that fight for the basic needs and rights of human beings.
‘Get Up Stand Up’ is therefore essentially the use of entertainment for the communicative practice of strategic entertainment crafted out to specifically communicate on issues concerning developmental concerns with purposes ranging from narrowly defined individual-social marketing to much more liberation driven need for social change (Singhal, 10).
The Live 8 concerts on Stand Up and Get Up have consequently been an influential tool for fighting Poverty in Africa, demonstrating just how musicians have used their voice to influence critical issues that go beyond the realm of music and explores the deepest depths of human suffering, discrimination and need, transcending the confines of popular music (EBC, 2008).
The ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ new tour documentary highlights the important role that pop music has played in the continual struggle for equality and peace. It is a program that traces the birth, growth and development of the protest songs in Get Up, Stand Up to the American union movement exploring the massive impact of pop culture in the politicization of the baby boomer generation especially during the Vietnam era. It particularly has its concern on the history of protest and politics in black music, from the pacifism, gangsta rap and black separatism movements to rights activism.
The music in the ‘Get Up, Stand up Documentary’ moves effortlessly from various types of songs that include "The Times They Are A-Changin'" to "Power to the People”, all of them having an outstanding omnipresence. The program is able to put into perspective the immense power of popular music by weaving together commentaries from present day musicians, music critics and historical footage. It is from the 1970s when musicians in America started tackling larger issues than simply their music and fans that included concerns from diverse and far-flung countries like Tibet and Bangladesh. The benefits of such individual hit songs and concerts that included Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" together with USA for Africa's "We Are the World," was that they were able to raise millions to assists some of the poorest nation in the third world continent while at the same time capturing the attention of billions of people throughout the world (Dan, 2005).
‘Get Up, Stand Up’ was essentially produced as a celebration and investigation to indicate how pop music goes beyond simply "popular" music. The film chronicles have been able to use songs as punctuations to the significant way that music has the ability of conveying social dissatisfaction, while at the same time highlighting unrest in the labor industry and denouncing terrorist attacks. The website ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ furthermore has additional information concerning the background history and development of protest music. In the website, there is a keen analysis on five significant songs that have been considered as protest music including a discussion on the people who wrote them and a consideration and explanation on why they wrote them as well as why they are 'revolutionary’ in nature (Dan, 2005). The website also provides other video footages and information exploring some of the most significant historical events including the Great Depression, Birth of Bangladesh, war in Iraq, the Ethiopian Famine, Central American Wars, Civil Rights, Vietnam and Apartheid among others. All these have been an inspiration to a couple of the music and hence offering readers the opportunity for them to share their thoughts on the different issues that have been raised by each.
The ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ mass movement for musicians in the popular industry for purposes of protest and activism has therefore managed to be an effective communication tool for social change. This can be attributed to a number of different reasons that include the fact that the public has always been consuming a lot of entertainment from different media that include readings, films, documentaries, handouts as well as social media sites (Singhal, 12). All these are media that have been an integral part of people’s lives. Although there are many individuals who have perceived entertainment as containing frivolous content that is most of the time insignificant in its effects, the ‘Stand Up, Get Up’ concerts, documentaries and music have been able to prove the paradigm and stereotype as wrong. They have all been able to influence a significant component of change in the society and have spurred a host of behavioral and socio-cultural change revolutions throughout the world.

Works Cited

Educational Broadcasting Corporation. Get Up, Stand Up: The Story of Pop and Protest/ Protest
Music as Responsible Citizenship. WNET: New York. 2005. Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/getupstandup/about.html
Singhal, Lacayo. Pop Culture with a Purpose: Using Entertainment Media for Social Change.
Oxfam Novib: Netherlands. 2008. Print.
Dan, Nailen. Get Up, Stand Up: The Story of Pop and Protest. The Salt Lake Tribune. 2005.
Retrieved from: http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=3054363&itype=NGPSID