The country is a mess.

From the dismissal of racial threats by universities to abuse of power ubiquitous across social media, society has started to notice the everyday atrocities that happen within the country, yet we haven’t found the perfect medium to express cries for change.

Unlike the 1960s, we are now more engaged than ever before in sharing acts that we deem unjust through the simple click of a button on social media. A post is not enough though. Not only are individual posts more difficult to make go viral, but it is also seen as someone just ranting their individual feelings about a subject. Why not then search for a medium that has proven itself in the past to work? I believe that music is the best path that we have towards revolutionizing social change throughout the country.

Music is defined as the vocal and/or instrumental sounds combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion. Music has virtually always been present in society as a means to express oneself. Society has seen music as a way to promote change and a means to prohibit detrimental attitudes that would inhibit social injustice. One example of how important music was in society is when James Brown stopped riots after the assassination of MLK by saying, “Let’s not do anything to dishonor Dr. King. You kids, especially, I want you to stay home tonight and think about what Dr. King stood for. Don’t just react in a way that’s going to destroy your community.” If music had enough power to stop riots throughout the country, why can we not use it to effectively promote messages of change again? Up until around 1969, music had been used as a way to inspire social change. After the National Guard shootings at Kent State, however, music changed from protest songs to a more softened, cerebral pursuit of expression. As one American University student recalled, “We’re afraid to believe too much in anything or anyone.” Society had determined that protests meant violence, or at least the chance of violence, and decided that instead of pushing back, giving in was the better path. This resonates still today as protests have increasingly become violent, leading to the injuries or arrests of many protesters that are simply trying to promote social change.

While there are artists currently that try to promote social change, many don’t even have the chance to be heard unless their video goes viral on social media, and even then, it has little to no impact on legislative actions. Many artists supporting social change, particularly with racial inequalities, tend to come from a hip-hop background, which has historically strived to portray the inequalities in the African American culture. A problem with this though is not the artists themselves, but rather the mainstream genre as a whole. While you have hip-hop artists that make significant strides to inspire change, many of the mainstream artists promote a message that actually does nothing for change and has no substance at all, or even reinforces negative stereotypes that prohibit change. Rap music videos, as well as the content of the songs themselves, sexualize women to a degree that discourages change within feminist movements for equality. This is just one way that the mainstream hip-hop culture has started to enable the sexualization of women, which can lead to even larger issues, such as increases in rape and sexual harassment because people see it as normal behavior. It’s not only hip-hop though. Pop, rock, and other genres have all promoted mainstream, corporate music that is determined by the label rather than the artist. With the corporate record labels determining the music being put out on the radio, we, as a society, rarely get to hear cries for change, because that’s not what “popular music” consists of.

One of the more recent examples of a popular artist supporting social change would be Macklemore, who has had hits that call for social acceptance of sexual preferences. We need more artists to determine the music they release to the public rather than letting corporate labels monopolize our ears. To inspire change, we need to have a revitalization of protests through music. Music can help inspire not only movements, but change as a whole. All genres alike need to come together to promote a single message of a better society. As Jimi Hendrix once said, “Music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music.”