Wouldn’t it? Has it no value for its own nonpolitical sake?
They undoubtedly had an effect on men’s hairstyles. It’s incredible, today, to think that there was a time when this was long hair, but in 1964, it was. By the end of the decade, even middle-aged, conservative men wore sideburns. Or at least didn’t Brylcreem their hair to death.
Yes, influence doesn’t only mean getting political agenda X passed. It can also mean cultural and social impact, and the Beatles made a huge one. As Rilchiam notes, they helped bring about the lifestyle changes of the 1960’s, made longer hair and relaxed social behavior more acceptable, and kick-started the counterculture. Of course as** Farin** notes, there is a chicken and egg thing going on. Did changing social trends create an atmosphere where the Beatles could thrive, or did the Beatles change social trends? It’s probably a bit of both.
I don’t think ANY one artist in ANY medium has ever been powerful enough to change history directly, unless he’s one of those rare artists (Havel, Paderewski) who manages to attain a position of governmental power.
That doesn’t mean art is completely impotent- just that any individual artists can only have so much influence.
Bob Dylan was in no position to enact political change, but together with a lot of other artists, he played SOME small role in galvanizing opposition to the Viet Nam War and inpsiring support for civil rights for black Americans. That’s SOMETHING, though his importance is often overstated.
Along the same lines, NO one author or artist changed American attitudes on gay rights, but a simple TV show like “Will and Grace” surely made SOME small difference. Combined with a LOT of other books, plays, movies and TV shows, art made SOME difference in public attitudes over time.
So, art can make a difference, just not a sudden or dramatic difference, and not in a vacuum.
Art can inspire people and serve as a gathering point for the creative, the bold, and the revolutionary.
Imagine if the black artist had never existed in 20th century America. No Langston Hughes. No Nora Zeal Hurston or Richard Wright. No Paul Robeson or Dorothy Dandridge. No Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington. No Chuck Berry. No Sammy Davis Jr, Lena Horne, Sydney Poitier. No Ray Charles, no Motown, no Aretha. No James Brown.
Would we even have a civil rights movement? The lawyering of folks like Thurgood Marshall and Spottswood Robinson was impressive, but legal arguments don’t penetrate the soul like art does. A lawyer isn’t a goodwill ambassador. A voice like Ella’s is, though.
Jazz and rock and roll brought black and white people together. Both inspired generations of thinkers, artists, writers, and revolutionaries. Bob Dylan and the Beatles would be no-names if it hadn’t been for the black artists who had preceded them, twisting and shouting at the establish before this was even a “thing”.
I don’t think it was a coincidence that rock and roll took off right as black people began to throw off Jim Crow. The consciousness of the time inspired the music, but the music itself spread the consciousness in a positive feedback.
James Brown stopped a riot from happening just by singing “I’m Black and I’m Proud”, words that were considered too taboo for radio play at the time. Who knows what would have happened if Boston had gone up in flames? Anything could have happened.
So yes, art can make history.
The theatre was very important to the women’s suffrage movement in the UK. I would say they definitely helped shape the course of events. There was specific suffrage theatre, many actresses were involved (and were powerful women in the public eye, which no other professions really allowed for), there was influence on the performative aspect of the movement, and also musical influence in the form of songs.
As noted by Little Nemo, the movement wasn’t created out of nothing. But I do think the influence on events was profound. The plays at the time were meant to show the hypocrisy of the situation, and they were effective. The arts were used strategically by the suffragettes.
Would the course of history be different without the influence of the theatre on the suffrage movement? Probably. I think it would’ve been slower.
Agreed. I think music was undoubtedly one of the most important and long-lasting catalysts of a more integrated American society starting in the latter third of the 20th century.
I really don’t have an educated opinion, but my uneducated (for now) opinion is that artists do hold sway, specifically people who make movies, music, tv shows, and books. Through those mediums you can express a lot of ideas which can change things, and enough people are into them where they can make SOME kind of difference. I think they have. If all of those mediums were all talking about one way to go politically, I bet it would change things.
monstro makes a great point. You can make much the same argument about the gay rights movement, too. A big part of what made the movement grow so rapidly was seeing positive portrayals of gay people on TV and in movies, which helped “normalize” homosexuality for millions of Americans - both straight and gay. I know a lot of gay people whose path to self acceptance was helped significantly by seeing gay people in the media who were portrayed as happy, healthy, and successful.
Or, if you want a negative example of the power of art, look at the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or The Turner Diaries, both works that have inspired terrible real world events.
May I put forth three names. They are all noted artists who became presidents of their respective countries. To be sure, all were from Eastern Europe, but all were respected as artists and two were highly respected as statesmen.
Czech poet and playwright Vaclav Havel, Polish composer Jan Paderewski, Croat composer Ivo Josipovic.
One more negative example: According to Cecil, the Ku Klux Klan never burned a cross until The Birth of A Nation, based on a novel that included a completely fictional cross-burning, came out.
Until I listened to Jerry Dammers & The Specials tune Free Nelson Mandela, I’d never even heard of him. I suspect I’m not alone in the UK in that sense. Although there would have been plenty of people supporting his cause prior to that, I believe that this song was responsible for turning a relatively obscure campaign into a National/International one. Which eventually led to his release.
Just IMHO…
That reminds me of a positive example, though: Superman versus the KKK.
Definitely. I think you could make a really strong case that Pedro Zamora did more to advance the cause of the acceptance of gays then any other individual even Harvey Milk(not saying I 100% agree and it’s hard to measure their affects in different eras).
Yes, technically he wasn’t an artist but the star of a reality show(The Real World) but he unquestionably influenced an entire generation.
And the same film/novel inspired the re-creation of an organization that had been defunct since the end of Reconstruction.
I actually mentioned Havel and Paderewski in post #24.
I came in to post this. Before rock, there was white music and colored music. When Dick Clark booked Fats Domino on Bandstand, someone said “you know he’s colored.” Clark replied “I don’t care about his color, I care about his music.”
The first openly gay people were in the arts, and responsible for other gays coming out.
Speaking of Mandela and apartheid I remember that in the case of the Sun City song the profits from the song were used to support political prisoners like Nelson Mandela and to keep up the pressure on the regime.
Very informative Pop up video from the time:
Besides the help that the money gave to the activists, the song was also successful into convincing many other artists to boycott South Africa, denying a big source of revenue to the ones supporting the system.
The shameful part was that the song was not played in several markets of the USA because it was deemed “too black” or something, so even though it got popular in many areas, in the days before the internet the censoring of the song made it not reach “gold record” status.
Still, it got a lot of recognition and the efforts of the artists were not useless:
Read more: ‘Sun City’ | Top 10 Protest Songs | TIME.com 'Sun City' | Top 10 Protest Songs | TIME.com
You can make a good argument that Jodie Dallas did more to advance the cause of gay rights than Milk did. And Dallas wasn’t even a real person. But he was a gay person that Americans saw living his life every week just like a straight person did. And this is a good example of how art (even a TV sitcom) can change events in the real world.