What music made a difference?

Cafe Society
1

For me, it was the first time I heard non-bland Top 40 music on the AM car radio. I pushed the button for WCFL in my parents’ station wagon, and it was a band called the Beatles…

I relived that moment replying to the overrated “Beatles were overrated” thread:

[QUOTE=me]
The reason I’d say “you had to be there at the time” is to get a feel for how much CRAP there was on the radio when the Beatles showed up. If you were cruising around in the early '60s, your musical choices were a couple of AM radio stations. This was before cassettes or 8-tracks, and as the phrase “Top 40” implies, you heard the same 40 songs over and over.

Take a look at that Top 40 for the week before the Beatles debuted … we were inundated with “easy listening”: Bobby Rydell, Bobby Vinton, The Singing Nun for Og’s sake!
And… Surfin’ Bird. Can you imagine hearing “Bird, bird, bird/the bird is the word…” every time you got in the car?

Here was the #1 hit in America for that week.We were getting force-fed a lot of white bread…

Can you imagine what it was like to change stations and suddenly hear… The Beatles? Even the lightweight "I Want To Hold Your Hand” and “Please Please Me” were a revelation for kids who were starved for rock and roll.
[/QUOTE]

It’s weird to think back on how threatened our parents were by them. “You call that music?” my mom would say and forbid it. Pastors held “Beatle Burnings”. Uptight society hated the freedom of boys having hair longer than a crew cut. My own dad would call up my friends’ parents and offer to use our dog clippers to get rid of their sons’ “Beatle hair-dos” (yes, some of them took him up on it. Sorry, Tommy ‘n’ Judson…).

But they were right to be threatened. The Beatles were one puzzle piece in the rebellion against conformity that would grow and give birth to the anti-war movement, hippies, drugs, race riots and all the mess of the 60s/70s. [/oversimplification]

A lot of other music fueled that fire, and convinced me I would never share my parents’ values. Dylan, Doors, Who, the Dead… but for me it started in the “way back” of the family station wagon (with no seatbelts).

I’m hoping others here have a band, a song, a genre that made a difference. In society, or in you.

2

A guy name “Judson” needs a crew-cut.

3

Yeah, all the cool kids were “hot-combing” their hair to look like Mick or Ringo, and the Tightie-Rightie dads were giving their kids flat-tops. Sigh…

It didn’t take for long. Judson resented the crew cut, but within two years had “that dadburn hippie hair”, and (kind of fits the topic) was guitarist for a psychedelic jam band, out-Pink Floyding the Floyd…

4

What is old Judson up to these days?

5

The Sex Pistols swearing on live TV.
James Brown’s I’m Black and I’m Proud (along with Marvin Gaye’s What’s Goin’ On)
Bob Marley’s music and involvement in political discourse in Jamaica.

These days, music is less likely yo play a dominant cultural role. Pussy Riot are making provocative statements and were jailed for it.

6

I’d say getting jailed is an indicator that you have a cultural role. At least it means TPTB are taking notice.

Wasn’t the rise of hip-hop a big part of cultural identity? You mentioned James Brown (I’m Black and I’m Proud) and Marvin Gaye (What’s Goin’ On). I’d add NWA (Straight Outta Compton).

I think we’re just lacking more current examples. Anti-war music was huge in forming attitudes about the Vietnam war… where is the anti-war, anti-Trump music now?

7

How about FDT (“F*ck Donald Trump”) by YG and Nipsey Hussle? There must be plenty more.

I’d like to think “Strange Fruit” caused a huge impression on many and “made a difference,” as in changing things.

8

I suppose people like Springsteen playing free concerts as part of anti-Trump rallies would count. In Madison (WI) we had thousands singing along with him: “We Shall Overcome”.

9

By the way, we didn’t.