Music has always been an influence in society. Whether it be the song that sparked a revolution, or the artist that got everyone dressing exactly the same or the song that made people think, we can’t deny music plays a role in society. As far back as anyone can date music has been a huge part of many societies, used in rituals, celebrations, and as identifiers, or forms of expression even.
However for the purposes of this article and my own personal taste, I’m going to the references as current as possible, no disrespect to music and societies of the past! Lady Gaga is a great example of how music and musicians can impact society. In 2010 Lady Gaga was the number costume that people chose for that years Halloween. Also in that year she was named TIME Magazine’s most influential person. That is a very significant position to have, especially for a musician. Also in 2010 her woman’s wear magazine cover was the company’s top seller in 2010, as well as the cover of Rolling stone selling 245,000 copies, one of the company’s highest numbers to date. Also in September of 2010 she gave a speech on repealing Prop8 “don’t ask don’t tell” and while we can’t put that victory on Gaga 100%, we can acknowledge that she definitely played a role in it. Her influence in society is real!
Ever since her rise to fame in early 2009 and 2010 she has been more than just a musician. She has influenced the way we dressed, the way we think and how we feel about ourselves and others, in arguably a positive way. In 2012 she teamed up with UNICEF to spread the message of compassion, and make a difference in the lives of children in Peru and South Africa. This message of compassion is an extension of her 2011 Born This Way foundations message. The Born This Way foundation (another example of her influence on society) was created to make her fans and all members of the LGBTQA community and heterosexuals as well feel safe welcomed and loved, as well as educating others about the importance of kindness, and to help troubled LGBTQA youth, homeless youth.
Lady Gaga gas also written a song titled “Angel Down” off her new album JOANNE a song about Trayvon Martin. She has also been an advocate and active protestor of black lives matter, as well as most recently the he is not my president movement, a movement for the rejection of president elect Donald Marie Trump. She also attended the emotion revolution summit and got involved in the discussion of making schools a place where all students can strive and feel safe. She has even met with the Dali Lama to discuss methods to spread world kindness and promote world peace. And this year in 2016 at the academy award she was joined by rape survivors to sing her song (and to stand in solidarity with them) “Till It Happens to You” as well as campaigning at a “Its On Us” rally with Vice President Joe Biden to bring awareness to the horrors of Sexual Assault on College Campuses. She was also present in Orlando Florida earlier this year and made an empowering speech for the families of the victims of the Pulse club shooting, a massacre of the LGBTQ community, that took place in a nightclub Pulse this past June. She has also attended and performed at many pride rallies, as well as even speaking at the national equality march in D.C.
She is a true humanitarian and with her life and her music has aimed to do nothing but improve and influence society in an extremely positive way.
Another influence music has had on society is that in recent years (the last five or ten) the Hip-Hop Rap and R&B communities have been adamant about removing the use of the word “faggot” and just in general negative speech about the Gay community. For years the rap and hip-hop community has been seen and known for their explicit homophobia, but in recent years many artists have stepped up to combat this situation, as well as educate their fans and the African American community as a whole as to why the use of the word and other gay slurs and intolerance is unacceptable. Work has been done to spread peace, positivity, acceptance, and tolerance. For example rapper A$AP Rocky made the following statement to Interview Magazine “it’s 2013 and it’s a shame that, to this day, that topic still gets people all excited. It’s crazy. And it makes me upset that this topic even matters when it comes to hip-hop, because it makes seem like everybody in hip-hop is small-minded or stupid and that is not the case”. He also made a direct statement to his fans saying “I treat everybody equal and so I want to be sure that my listeners and my followers do the same if they’re going to represent me. And if I’m going to represent them, then I also want to do it in a good way”.
Jay-Z has said to CNN “what people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love because that’s their business. It’s no different than discriminating against blacks. It’s discrimination plain and simple”. Kanye West as well has MTV “Not just Hip-Hop but America discriminates, I just want to go on TV and tell all my rappers and friends Yo stop it! “ Nicki Minaj said “I face opposition every day and so many time I wanted to kill myself, and thank God I didn’t, I want my life to be a testimony to my fans and especially my gay fans”. Even rappers as old as Fat Joe have made statements on this issue saying” Fuck it if the people don’t like it, if you’re gay, rep your set”.
As we can see the conversation there is changing. One huge example of that is the career and success of singer songwriter Frank Ocean, one of Hip-Hops first openly gay artists. Although frank has received a lot of backlash he has also received a lot of love and even won a Grammy for his debut album Channel Orange the album received high critical acclaim and the hip-hip community embraced and celebrated him. His second album Blondethat came out this year, four years after his debut. It went straight to number one on ITunes worldwide, furthering even more the message of acceptance and tolerance. Another example of this is rapper Young Thug posing in a purple flowery/flowy dress on the cover of his album Jeffrey . Though there was some backlash and criticism many were welcoming to the idea and stated that he is changing the world and changing Hip-Hop.
Another influence music has on society is Mariah Carey, in 1994 Mariah Carey released her song “All I Want for Christmas Is You” from her album Merry Christmas. Ever since the songs release it has gone number one every Christmas. It has become a Christmas standard. It was once called “one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon” in the New Yorker. In 2013 it even accumulated $50 million dollars in royalties, it has gone number one internationally. The Daily Telegraph hailed the song as “All I Want for Christmas Is You” as the most popular and most played Christmas song of the decade in the United Kingdom”. With global sales of over 14 million copies worldwide it remains one of her biggest songs to date. This just goes to show you can’t have Christmas without Mariah Carey.
Music has always had an impact on society, and more times than not the influence has been extremely positive and has changed lives for the better. Education, acceptance, and Unity have always been at the heart of the message of music, and it can almost be guaranteed that in the generations to come the musicians will use their music to continue to positively influence society, making it a better one for all.
