Analysis Of Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come

To understand the true meaning and emotion behind Sam Cooke’s revolutionary song “A Change Is Gonna Come”, we must first understand Cooke himself as a musical artist and as a person, as well as understanding the Civil Rights Movement and the role it played in the songs creation. Sam Cooke was one of eight children born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He began singing at an early age in his church, because his father was the Baptist minister at the time. After some time had passed, Cooke and his family relocated to Chicago. There he began performing gospel music with his siblings.

A song that connects to the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is I How to Save a Life by the Fray. This song shows the theme of losing a friend and not being the same. When the song says “I lost a friend” it is relating to the Greaser’s and mainly Ponyboy when Johnny died in the hospital. In the beginning of the book when Pony was describing all the Greasers he said that Johnny was like the gang’s pet, everyone’s kid brother. Another thing Ponyboy said that Johnny would never have known what love and affection were without the gang.

During the 1950’s, a time of movement and change, known as the Civil Rights Struggle was present. This was a time where African Americans pushed for equality by various methods of reform. Although, advancement had been made, the African Americans wanted to push for more. As the push for freedom was taking place, leaders rose up to the plate to encourage their people through speeches, marches, lectures, literature and many other forms of protest. There were many different ways of taking on this movement.

Motown Records was founded by Berry Gordy in Detroit, Michigan. Detroit was the motor city and that is where “Motown” Records came from. Berry Gordy used $800 from money he scraped up from his family members to make this possible. Motown Records was an R&B record label that became hit. He mainly signed African-American singers and he would shape them up in a way that they would be accepted by the white audience.

In chapter 13, Painter displays the new laws that came out of African American activism as well as the negative effects of the Vietnam War on actual change. The passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 got rid of legal segregation, and was a huge success for African Americans everywhere. These two acts were hat the activists had been working so hard for all this time. The issue though was that, “This enormous achievement triggered immediate opposition” (Painter 304). This always came with any success for African Americans, but they could not downplay what a huge moment this was in history.

King’s main focus in Why We Can’t Wait is the breakthrough year, 1963, as the beginning of the Negro Revolution,

The "British Invasion" is the name awarded to the time in the 1960's, when many British rock bands and pop artists attained mainstream success in the US and worldwide. Many of these bands started out covering American songs and showcasing an American Rock and R&B influence in their music. As these groups gained popularity, lots of them explored new music territory and created their own unique sounds. The band that comes to the front of the mind when the of the British Invasion is mentioned is The Beatles, who first came onto the American music scene in 1963, but attained widespread popularity in 1964 after their appearence on the Ed Sullivan Show. The Beatles were a force to be reconed with on the worldwide music charts from that point until

Next, I believe the 1960s was full of segregation and people who were very violent against African Americans. It states in the text “People like Martin Luther King and Rosa parks were fight for African American civil rights.” This shows the fact that African Americans were actually fighting just to be like everyone else and get people to think of them the same as everyone else. They didn't get a fair trial or anything they had to prove to the white men and women. African Americans were biased and never accepted until the civil rights act was

The last big change that I am going to talk about is the Harlem Renaissance. Harlem is a neighborhood that became the place of black politics and culture in the 1920’s. Many African American artists, photographers, musicians, and writers came out of Harlem. Alain Locke captured the creativity of the Harlem Renaissance when he published The Negro Man which was an anthology of essays and poems by emerging literary voices that embodied the spirit of black pride and militancy for younger generations of African American artist and civil right leaders apart from the generation before them who tried to become more like the white culture. This time also included jazz music and gave birth to many great jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong which is my favorite.

Racism in America has been around for centuries however it was in the 1960's that the attitudes of many Black Americans started to quickly change and they realized they wanted equality. Out of this, The Civil Rights Movement emerged which was a peaceful social movement that strove for equal human rights for black Americans. The leader of the Civil Rights Movement is no one other than Martin Luther King Jr. In his book, Why We Can't Wait, King tries to convince Black Americans to realize their reality, remember their roots and important and mainly, to seek changes to social conditions and attitudes.

Folk music has since quite a while ago assumed a key part in supporting change developments in the United States over the years. Radical activists, looking to counter an assortment of misuse in mid-to-late twentieth century America, frequently utilized music to express their trusts, points, and objectives. In "To Everything There Is a Season": Pete Seeger and the Power of Song, Allan Winkler shows the reader how society vocalist Pete Seeger connected his musical gifts to enhance conditions for less lucky individuals all over during this time. This book uses Seeger 's long life and great melodies to think about the vital part society music played in different dissent developments and to answer such key inquiries as: What was the wellspring of

One instance that Butler believes should have been a major turning point was Barack Obama being elected President. Yes, President Obama made great strides toward equality but it was nothing impactful like the things he campaigned for. “Obama’s presidency brought about nothing approaching the racial reconciliation he had campaigned on” (Butler 28). I believe the society, more so African Americans believed that President Obama could undo the racial inequality that has been around for hundreds of years. It would take far longer than 8 years to totally transform what Butler refers to as the

Introduction: The civil rights movement of 1954-1968 has made a huge impact on the history of African-American equality. All the great leaders of the movement have gone down in history for their courageous work and outstanding commitment to the civil rights movement. One of the most famous of the activists was Martin Luther King Junior (1929-1968) . King is still remembered today for his legendary speech entitled “I had a dream”.

Music is not only used to capture peoples hearing but it is used to power peoples minds through the power of an individuals voice. Music served a critical role in the African American’s lives, as it was used to uplift their spirits as well as providing them with hope and strength to fight for civil rights and overcome segregation between white superiority and the unfair treatment of the inferior black. Music was defined as the voice of the people that lived through the oppression of the civil rights movement. During the civil rights movement, there were many different types of music genres sung, dependent on the culture, this included spiritual music; gospel and even folk music, which was performed by musicians, singers and even people of any musical talents. Through this, it brought about the uniting of people to join together and sing songs that helped them go through the oppression of the civil rights movement.

All the various changes that was going on in society was different than it used to be since it actually effected younger people and not just their parents. One example is how the children of the baby boomers was forced to go fight in a war that they didn’t believe should be going on. This upset many people, especially the younger generation (generation x). This generation way of thinking of life was different than their parents. They believed that there was more to life than just going to work, taking care of your family and going to war.