Success/Liberation Songs

Success *=potentially offensive.

Travie McCoy, "Billionaire," Pop, 2010*

MC Hammer, "U Can't Touch This," Rap/Hip Hop, 1990

Flobots, "Handlebars," Alternative, 2005

 

AC/DC, "TNT," Rock, 1975

The Presidents of the USA, "Naked and Famous," Post-Grunge, 1994

 

 

Liberation

Twisted Sister, "We're Not Gonna Take It," Rock, 1984

Audioslave, "Doesn't Remind Me," Alternative, 2005

Johnny Cash (version), "Highwayman," Folk, 1985

Men Without Hats, "Safety Dance," New Wave, 1982

Blind Melon, "No Rain," Alternative, 1993

 

 

 

As was expected, worldly success was a much easier theme to find in Western music than was liberation, in the religious sense of the word.  Success, as demonstrated by the songs I chose, comes in many forms, including most commonly fame and monetary gain. If you watch the video for Handlebars by the Flobots, you'll find that it depicts the typical ideal of worldly success (money, fame, power) and pits it against a different ideal of success: that of peace and prosperity for all. 

 However, I had a lot more fun choosing my liberation songs, because it was a more difficult theme and couldn't be taken quite as literally. In "popular" (I use quotes because my music choices for this assignment are anything but) Western music, liberation usually takes the form of liberation from others, such as in "We're Not Gonna Take It," showing a distinct difference in a Western perspective of liberation versus a Hindu perspective. The rest of the songs I chose fit a very abstract definition. "The Highwayman" (which can be attributed to many authors) talks about a man who is killed many times, but always seems to come back, so perhaps it speaks more toward reincarnation, but in the song he speaks from a place outside of that cycle, about how he may come back again or may find a place to rest his soul, which I thought spoke a little bit to a chance at liberation. "Doesn't Remind Me" fits again in a more Western way. He talks about doing various things because it doesn't remind him of anything, which I see as sort of a Western idea of liberation from others, and in less of a spiritual way. If you watch the video, there are some distinct parts of "No Rain" that speak to liberation. The lyrics don't make any direct references, but the video features a little girl in a bumblebee outfit who, after wandering for most of the song, opens a gate to a field of bumblebee girls who all play and dance together. This reminded me of the atman = Brahman lecture involving a drop of water splashing into an ocean that represented the divine. The difference between that and the video would be that all of the individuals in the video retained their individualism, and at no point did they merge into the same figure -- not that that would have helped in more than a representational way, because this ultimate divine reality cannot be qualified. So literally, it doesn't work, but figuratively I think that the song, in combination with the video, makes a good reference to the concept.

 When completing this assignment, I was surprised at how hard a time I had in defending my choices for songs for liberation. I felt it was necessary because without the defense, they may not have seemed to fit, but the "general feel" you get from a song can't really be used in this way, and that's what I went on for "No Rain" and "Doesn't Remind Me," along with a few more key details. 

Pleasure/Community Service Assignment

Pleasure songs:

J. Geils Band, "Centerfold," Rock, 1981

Sir Mix-A-Lot, "Baby Got Back", Pop, 1992

TJ Arnall, "Cocaine Blues," Folk, 1947 (Johnny Cash version)

No Author, "Drunken Scottsman," Irish Drinking Song, No Date (Oral tradition makes accurate dates and names impossible to find.)

Dirty Heads "Lay Me Down," Alternative, 2010

Community Service:

John Lennon, "Imagine," Rock, 1971

The Beatles "Let it Be," Rock, 1970

Styx, "Mr. Roboto," Electronic Rock, 1983

 

Band Aid, "Do They Know It's Christmas," Pop, 1984

USA For Africa, "We Are The World," Pop, 1985

 

In completing this assignment, I found that pleasure, as a theme, was overwhelmingly the most prevalent idea. For community service, I had a very hard time finding any acceptable songs that I did not have to "stretch" to meet the definition of the assignment, so much so that I had to resort to Christmas music. This is because in American society, pleasure isn't a transitory concept that one grows weary of with time: it is the embodiment of success, the ultimate goal in life. Also, music is generally something you listen to when you're having fun, and pleasure is a big part of fun. This difference also shows a difference between American and Hindu culture: while most Americans are individualistic, always looking out for themselves first, many Eastern traditions expect people to be of a group mentality: be part of the group, and sacrifice for the whole to achieve.

 

 

I was surprised while doing this assignment by how many songs that I tried to pin as community service were more self-centered "help me" songs or "nobody's helping them" songs, rather than "help others" songs. Examples of this would be Metallica's Welcome Home Sanitarium and Black Sabbath's Iron Man, both of which point out a sad situation but make no suggestions on resolving it. The only song I found that clearly advocated doing good things was "Mr. Roboto," who does the jobs no one wants to do and works thanklessly (except for the song in his tribute) to help others. The Beatles and John Lennon songs more revolved around the theme of coming together than necessarily doing good, but the implication is that the former will lead to the latter. In the end, though, I had to resort to cheesy Christmastime songs to finish out my five, because that is the one time of year that Americans are receptive to the idea of giving toward others.