Popular music has a way of reflecting what’s really going on around us, as songwriters and artists write directly about current events.
Music is a universal language, and a window to the soul. The following artists left their windows wide open. These songs allow us to time travel to a specific place in history.
Special music activates many parts of our brain, including the so-called limbic system of the brain, which is involved in motivation, emotion, learning, and memory.
Robert Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan’s proclamation of the senselessness of war and violence. Peter, Paul and Mary scored a Top 10 pop hit by covering it. But it was the author’s version, sung with a voice that settles somewhere between helplessness and hope. https://youtu.be/MMFj8uDubsE?si=6fRK7IeuDOgXk3F7
Sam Cooke was inspired to pen this towering tune which, is actually a catalog of frustrations and travails. The song is given a majestic orchestral treatment to match the seriousness of the topic, while Cooke sings like a man who’s lived through it all and has the wounds to show for it. Sadly it became a touchstone for the civil rights movement released after his untimely death in December 1964. https://youtu.be/wEBlaMOmKV4?si=tHkgxSQo4g9QAh5o
Marvin Gay's style to talk about the social issues of the times, with the title track becoming a major hit in the process. All along with co-writers Obie Benson and Al Cleveland were after a general malaise. There’s something so elemental and yet so vast and unanswerable about the title question. The sad thing as brilliant as it is, is how it seems to always be timely. While it might take us back to 1971, it will likely hit home for the exact time and date it is heard. https://youtu.be/o5TmORitlKk?si=IxHYMPX_q6DxJcNe