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Artists Inspire Cultural Revolution
Dennis Walsh
Paris was once the center for art, literature, and music in the
world. Exploding in the world with a new sense of self,
Impressionist artists questioned everything. Painters like
Pierre Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet and Edgar Degas saw the
world differently, delighting in vivid colors. Composers began
using discordant chords and diverse musical arrangements to
convey impressions and moods.
A century later, the Impressionist influence was still alive and
well in music. Beatle mania achieved a popularity and a
following that was unprecedented in the history of British show
business. Like Impressionism, The Beatles' revolutionary music
inspired a generation. Forever having a political dimension,
music became the single-most important means of artistic
expression in the sixties. It was rock's first golden decade of
acceptance; an exciting revolutionary; a time of radical
revolution in music, art, politics, lifestyles, technology, and
fashion. Musicians became major cultural icons.
The Beatle music inspired change. The Beatles' album Revolver
was a breakthrough experience. That same year, the Beatles
Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band revolutionized rock
music. The Beatles incorporated the expansion of consciousness
into their songs. They weren't alone. Bob Dylan expressed the
spirit of the political protest in powerful poetry. His music
became anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements.
The spirit of the sixties birthed a reaction to material
secularism and caused a movement toward a new spirituality and a
questioning of authority. The American civil rights movement
demanded that Black citizens be included in the political
process, the free speech movement at Berkeley and student
movements at other universities throughout the United States and
Europe demanded the same for students.
In the summer of 1964, the issue of integration was heating up.
Ninety minutes after President John F. Kennedy was shot,
Vice-president Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president. The
next year, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act; Martin
Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and that summer,
black and white students went to Mississippi to work with the
Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in voter
registration drives, in what was called "Freedom Summer."
Later, the "free jazz" of John Coltrane and others shattered
conventional forms of jazz and gave expression to spirituality
and political poetry. Classical composers such as John Cage
broke down conventional musical forms incorporating sixties'
spontaneity into their music.
Dennis Walsh progressofmusic@hotmail.com
About the author:
Publisher of Progress of Music a popular music magazine, Dennis
Walsh is a music specialist in journalism and marketing. He is a
media expert in advertising and retail merchandising developing
music marketing campaigns for corporate entrepreneurs. Through
Music Enterprise, Dennis enjoys giving emerging artists a head
start in the music business.
You can read all of his articles through the Progress of Music
at http://www/progressofmusic.com/articles.htm
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