Power of music

        In the following minutes, I will present you 5 songs which I find extremely powerful by the message they deliver.  Each artist was engaged in something different but just as important as the other. Let's discover and analyse these !

        Strange fruit is a protest song that has been written as a poem by Abel Meeropol and interpretated by Billie Holiday in 1939. This music tackles the lynching of African Americans which is the act of killing someone without a legal trial, usually by hanging.  These racial-based murders were mostly happening in the Southern United States between 1880 and 1950 and at least 5000 people were reported dead by this act. In the extract I made you listen to, there is a metaphora in the lyrics : "Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees "

The black bodies are compared to a strange fruit which means it is unnatural to see these corpses hanging in the trees.

        Imagine was the most successful single of John Lennon’s career, the track was released in October 1971. John Lennon asks us to imagine that there are no countries, because without countries, there wouldn't be wars and people. We are surrounded by hate, cruelty, murder, war and racism. The world that he sings about tells us how we should want the world to be. He hopes that someday everyone will have the same dream and so it won’t be a dream anymore, it will become reality and then we won’t be separated by our countries or beliefs and we’ll live together as one.

        In 1989, Phil Collins dedicated one of his song to the fight against poverty. Another day in paradise is an invitation to pay more attention to homeless people. The lyrics are telling the story of a woman living in the street trying to call a man. "Oh think twice, cause it's another day for you and me in paradise" ; he encourage peolple to get out of their confort zone and help the others because, they, don't have any access to our paradise. In the world we live in, everyone has to care about the other, otherwise the society will never change and people who are in difficulty will never get out.

        Take to me to church is a 2013 soung that denounces homophobia, Hozier is tackling a subject that he lived and, instead, we can hear the emotion in his voice and lyrics. He shares to everybody to teach tolerance to the next generations. He suffered of the tough words that his family employed; they said that he was born sick because he is gay and so he has to go to church. Falling in love is like dying to the eyes of his family. This song is a fight to make people understand that homosexuality is natural.

        Finally I chose a french recent song, Mesdames of Grand Corps Malade which was released 2 months ago. Fabien Marsaud, of his real name wanted to make a tribute to women. It's a song that is very meaningful to me because the older I get, the better I understand what women go through. I don't understand sexism while the society is sexist, I don't understand the inequalities and all the violences of which women are victims. Grand corps malade is as shocked as most of us and just highlighted the values of women, which is something that we need more in our daily life. We need more recognition from men and that's why I chose to make you listen to the whole song, all lyrics are important, he even try to make excuses for all the unfair things that we go through .

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