Kendrick Lamar's song "Alright" off of his album To Pimp a Butterfly speaks on police brutality against the black community. Protesters against police brutality and activists, especially in the Black Lives Matter movement, took to chanting the chorus ("We gon' be alright") during protests.
I've attached both the extended music video, which furthers these concepts in its visuals, and a video of protesters chanting the chorus in response to police harassment. What I also love about this song is the fact that, even when speaking on such a pressing and heavy topic, the chorus comes through in a positive light and serves to unite people under its hopeful message.
I think it is the mark of extremely successful, impactful protest music that people are singing (or chanting) it at actual protests. I really like the positive themes of the track, and especially the chorus. To me that builds the basis for a successful protest movement. It should be constructive. It should build people up rather than tear society down. Messages of unity, togetherness, and perseverance are what movements like the Civil Rights movement embodied, and it's a community's positive will that serves as a foil to society's evils.
ReplyDeleteI came to Kendrick Lamar after he won the Pulitzer and I'm constantly blown away by how much incredible music he has. I can't express how impactful it is for me to see the real life influence a mainstream artist has on people. I feel like so much of my values are reflected in this music video. I really admire Kendrick Lamar for this.
ReplyDeleteI love the Alright video! The images in the beginning of the video illustrating gang culture in black and white, the drugs, violence and blood, scared children, burning cars, and smoke, and how clean the police officer is already strikes a chord in me. I love how he introduces the video with prominent parts of the poem he expresses in To Pimp a Butterfly before he starts the song. The strong sense of community, culture and life in Lamar's roots are shown in tandem with the dangerous and terrifying parts. Through an almost magical realism lens, the video shows Lamar flying through his hometown, painting him as a prophet floating above his kin, using his words to help people in his community leave gangs and fight against police brutality. I love how he responded to the opposition from this album with another beautiful album.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great example of a case where a piece of music's cultural adoption in the context of protest is as significant as the song itself. It's true that the disproportionate targeting and violence the black community faces from police is one theme of the song, but it's also about so much more than that. It puts a human face on the struggles that result from life in poverty and gang culture; I think it also has a message of religious redemption. There's so much going on here musically, too, that we can almost forget because of the power of the words, and certainly the images in the video. I encourage everyone to listen to this (and Tribe's Space Program) without the video to force yourselves to attend to the sonic/musical aspects that contribute to the protest themes.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great song that is beautifully complemented by its amazing music video. Bradley brings up a really good point about the cars, and I would also like to bring up that in the beginning when the cops are carrying the car, it is similar to royalty being carried around, but it also feels similar to how people carry a coffin at a funeral. I think that this parallel was definitely purposeful, being that so many police brutality cases start by cops stopping somebody in their car.
ReplyDeleteI love this song. This is the perfect example that shows where protest music is directly used in the process of protest. The music speaks for itself, and it's applied use is exemplified here.
ReplyDeleteAll the layers embedded in this song/video work to solidify the activist stance of Kendrick's lyrics. Similar to Brad and Ines, I was quite drawn to the car image at the beginning evoking the idea of a funeral procession. Seeing this recurring symbol of a car throughout, I'm reminded of the ways an everyday object can be a site of such contention in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement. For some people, it serves as both a safe haven to escape a situation and also an anxiety-inducing death sentence.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate how on this track Kendrick, while still addressing the systemic police and judicial inequalities, comes from a place of hope, to give people hope and acknowledge that that the community has each other. While it is extremely important for him to share his activist stance, he advocates for a united community in spite of the difficult years in the past and the times to come. I think this is part of the subject material is highlighted in the vocal choirs and crowd scenes of his music videos
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the second video with the use of the song by a protesting crowd! It is so cool to see how this track has grown into a kind of anthem. As Hannah mentioned, there are so many layers to it. I think its success as protest music can be attributed, at least in part, to this complexity. I think the contrast of positive images with allusions and examples of horrible injustice creates something very real, where the positive and negative strengthen each other.
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