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Folk Protest Movement

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Words 2440
Pages 10
Brendan Heffernan
Mr. Wallace
History Day rough draft
09/11/14

“Music can change the world because it can change people.” (Bono)Throughout history people have sought change through music. From opposing war to combatting racism, using the power of music for social change is an American tradition. The genre perhaps most closely associated with protest music is folk. Folk trailblazers like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger are important not only because they changed the thinking at the time, but because they left a legacy that inspired generations of politically active artists. One of the first stars of folk protest music emerged as part of the labor movement in the early 1900s. Before the movement took hold many workers were paid unfair …show more content…
Years later one of the most famous artists in the next generation of protest singers in the 1930s and ‘40s would write a song in Hill’s memory. Seeger wrote: “I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night / Alive as you or me. / Says I, ‘But Joe, you're ten years dead.’ / ‘I never died,’ says he, / ‘I never died,’ says he.” Seeger sung. What Seeger meant was that Hill’s music inspired a generation and kept his ideas alive long after he was …show more content…
He was bestowed with the challenge of being “The Chosen One.” Dylan was constantly asked about the meaning of his work in this role. The constant prodding he endured by fans and the press caused him to snap. He had had it with the role of leader of the folk scene. At the 1965 Newport Folk Festival Dylan did the unthinkable for a folk signer: he played his set with electric instruments. Dylan was considered a trader to folk. The past two years he had played the festival and was considered to be one of folk music’s heroes and now he was seen as the enemy by many loyal followers. Pete Seeger said he wished he could cut the wires of Dylan’s amps with an axe. Though Dylan turned his back on the folk scene he would continue to write politically charged music and left behind an important chapter in the legacy that is folk

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