Reflection paper

PROMPT: 

If you listen to music and watch videos from popular culture today, the language of rebellion seems to be everywhere. Whether it involves powerful denunciations of the establishments or calls for individual autonomous self-expression, the music and entertainment industry has made a fortune out of marketing a spirit of rebellion and revolution to the nation's youth. Too often, the irony of a mass-marketed message of resistance goes unnoticed: What would Che Guevara have thought of his counterfeit on T-shirts and Walmart racks? How did the 90s rock band Rage Against the Machine deal with the fact it had to perform its angry protest songs at the MTV music awards to a cadre of record-label executives and millionaire producers? 

Youth culture as rebellion goes back much further, of course. At the very time younr Americans in the 1960s discovered their own soundtrack to civil disobedience and antiwar protests, record labels perfected their business strategy for the counterculture. Gil Scott-Heron's 1971 song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," from "Pieces of a Man," is a rich source on the 1960s, with its clear rejection of commercial culture, its critique of the moderation of the civil rights movement, and its dismissal of apolitical counterculture. But the artist's work and influence on rap and hip=hop also allow for connections to the 1980s and contemporary music. 

As you listen to Scott-Heron's songs, what critique of American society was conveyed? How does his music (please feel free to listen to other songs) resemble more modern popular music styles? Consider Scott-Heron's song "Message to the Messengers." Do you agree with the criticism of modern rap and hip hop? What do you think about Scott-Heron and his music? Does it translate to modern students?

Gil Scott-Heron was born 1 April 1949 and died 27 May 2011.

Gil Scott-Heron, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (1971) link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnJFhuOWgXg

Gil Scott-Heron, "Message to the Messengers" (1994)

Other videos of interest:

Rage Against the Machine, "Testify" (2000 MTV Awards) link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNrmz_rnN90

Kendrick Lamar, The Blacker the Berry" (2016 Grammy Awards) link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGGCx-RrKg8&list=RDdGGCx-RrKg8

M.I.A., "Borders" (2016) link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Nw7HbaeWY

Guidelines for this assignment: 

1. All writing is to be done in complete sentences with proper English grammar and mechanics. This includes, but is not limited to, proper nouns, subject/verb agreement, spelling,sentence construction, and punctuation.

2. Your response must answer the questions asked. 

3. The reflection response you submit must be a minimum of 550 words. The word count should be included in your reflection response. 

4. The response must be your original work. You may not copy from the internet, your text, or other students.