Free Essay: Rock and/or Folk Music and War, Politics or Workers' Rights

The humanity has always been at war, it is probably just the nature of people. The powerful countries continue to intervene into weaker countries affairs and this makes a lot of people indignant. I am also concerned that there is a war in many parts of the world, as in Syria or Ukraine. That is my primary reason for choosing this topic.

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Talented rock and folk musicians were the ones who protested against the US intervention into Vietnam in the 1960s. Such characteristics of rock music as powerful and loud guitar and drum sounds coupled with emotional vocal performance makes rock music ideal for expressing protest. Folk musicians were not indifferent to social injustices as well. For instance, Bob Dylans 1963 song The Times They Are A-Changin is a worried warning that the war may soon come to the US homes: There's a battle outside And it is ragin' It'll soon shake your windows And rattle your walls. John Lennon wrote his world-wide favorite Imagine in 1971, the year America started the second decade of its intervention into Vietnam. That year was the time of rising opposition to the US policies in Vietnam, like, for instance, exploding a bomb in a Senate rest room as a form of protest against American participation in the war. As John Lennon himself said in his 1980 interview, Imagine bears the same message as many other of his songs, Give peace a chance, for instance. It is about people giving a chance to the world without countries and religions where there is nothing to kill or die for.

The most influential music event of the epoch was the Woodstock Music Festival often called the three days of peace and music. The most memorable anti-war performance of the event was Jimi Hendrix performance of The Star Spangled Banner where he used his guitar to virtually recreate the war scene to remind the people how horrible and scary the war is.

Music Style That Appeals to Me the Most

Of all the musical genres that we have reviewed in the course jazz is the one that appeals to me the most. Though I prefer its modern vocal versions being certainly mixtures of several genres like the music of Melody Gardot or Nina Simone, I am still interested in the genres origin and history. Jazz is supposed to originate at the turn of the 20th century when classical American melodies got mixed with African tunes and slave music. The main characteristic of jazz music is endless improvisation of performers on stage as well as syncopated rhythm, swing rhythm and polyrhythm. The most common instruments were the piano played virtuously by, for instance, Art Tatum, the trumpet the instrument favored by Dizzie Gillespie and Louis Armstrong; the saxophone played by Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. However, the greatest and most harmonious instrument in jazz is the human voice, female voice in particular. Such performers as Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and many other female singers constitute the best jazz can offer. The present jazz forms can be characterized by one single feature it is definitely a mixture of different genres like soul, blues, gospel etc. There is even such strange combination of music styles as acid jazz, being quite smooth and classy in brilliant performance of Kyoto Jazz Massive. As for me, I am most attracted by vocal forms of jazz, with female singers at the front such as Stacey Kent, Norah Jones, Katie Melua, Melody Gardot, Diana Krall and many others.