Friday, January 16, 2009
As I see people walking down the streets, plugged in to their mp3 players, I wonder myself if they’ve ever thought about the song’s message, whether the song was delivering a message that was subliminal and not easily caught by the human ear or if it was obvious. As a student born in Brazil and raised in Paraguay, consideration of songs’ messages comes often to my mind. Like other countries, Brazil and Paraguay went through years of dictatorship, establishing a democratic country only relatively recently.
If one knows anything about dictatorship it is that one of the first rules established by the dictator is to end the freedom of expression. Such banishment has great impact on both artists and listeners alike. An artist can use music as a gateway to express his or her feelings about the oppression of living under dictatorship.
But artists under dictatorships in Brazil and Paraguay didn’t have much choice, because if their songs directly criticized the government in any way, shape or form, they would be sentenced to prison or death. Some artists like Brazilians Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso (who are both still alive) were seen as a threat to the Brazilian military government in the 1960s. The government held them for nine months before they were told to leave their country and seek refuge elsewhere.
Artists later figured out a way to express their opinions in such a way that the government wouldn’t be able to chase them down. They used hidden and subtle messages in their music, so that listeners would still get the message and the music they wanted, but the message was concealed from the government so it wouldn’t take action on the artist.
It is important for people to remember that repressive governments are still present in the world. The musicians and citizens of countries like North Korea and Cuba still lack of the privilege of expressing themselves. So, the next time you listen to a song, think about those who can’t experience the joy it brings or the message it reveals. Realize that something that seems so simple, like meaningful music, can be a dream to thousands of other people.
— Marcela Teixeira is a sophomore from Brazil.
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