Protest/Patriotic Music
In this week’s work, we learned about civil liberties and how the Constitution limits the government’s abilities to take away our rights in most situations. One major civil liberty that has been in the public discourse the last few years is protest. We know that protest is a constitutionally protected right and we also know that protest is as much a part of America’s history as our core values. The Boston Tea Party, the American Revolution, Shay’s Rebellion, the fight for Women’s Suffrage, the fight for civil rights for black americans, the Stonewall uprising, the Black Lives Matter protests…all of these were movements to try to improve America for the people who call her home. I want to know your thoughts on patriotism and protest? Can you be a good patriot and engage in protest? Does being a patriot mean just accepting America for how she is, good, bad and all, or does it mean working to try to improve her for all? For this assignment you will choose two songs from any genre, any decade (examples below). One should be what you deem a patriotic song and one should be what you deem a protest song. I want you to define protest and patriotism, WHAT THEY MEAN TO YOU, and then I want you to compare and contrast the two songs. I’d like you to do a bit of research to see if you can find why the songs were written. What was the artist trying to say? Your analysis should be no longer than one page.
Song examples:
God Bless America
This is America
This is one of the references: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTQff8exfoc