Throughout the history of the United States, people have used various methods to fight injustice and fight for what they believe in. From organizing movements and unions to violent demonstrations, people have resisted oppression and social injustice. Cultural productions have often accompanied these resistances and have gradually become powerful as means of protest in and of themselves. In particular, music and the visual arts have played an important role as means of expression for individuals who may not have access to ways of communicating with the public to spread their messages. As emerging cultures, music and visual arts serve as platforms for new ideologies that may be opposite or different from dominant ideologies, and thus allow people to contest hegemonic norms. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Music has historically been enjoyed by people of all backgrounds, regardless of race, class, gender, or gender identity; as a result, various musical genres emerged and became platforms of expression to communicate, address social issues, and challenge hegemonic norms. Since the development of capitalism and corporate privatizations, workers' movements have emerged to counter capitalist exploitation. However, while strikes and boycotts have worked in some cases, they have not always been successful and most of them have resulted in bloody deaths. Alternatively, music could call people to organize and could also spread the message about their cause to the general public, aiding the movements' effort to unite workers. In particular, popular music could easily be sung collectively, so it was generally adopted for singing during the labor movement. People like Joe Hill, Ralph Chaplin and Woody Guthrie (Workers of the World, Awaken!, The Story Of Woody Guthrie's 'This Land Is Your Land') wrote songs set to the melodies of existing songs with altered lyrics, and audiences could easily sing as part of a larger movement fighting for workers' rights. The easy accessibility of folk songs, especially through aids such as The Little Red Songbook, provided a platform for expression by lower-class citizens to combat the process of class formation and to challenge the dominant economic ideology of capitalism. Similarly, music has been used as a means of expression by women in feminist movements to oppose the hegemonic ideology of patriarchy and the structural and representational aspects of gender formation. On the one hand, starting from the blues that originated around the end of the 19th century, women like Ma Rainey were important figures who led the emergence of the musical genre to express their thoughts on sexual desire, independence, domestic violence, the rejection of marital norms, and so on (Angela Davis). She created a cultural platform and outlet for Black women to convey their perspectives on society to the public. On the other hand, rock music, which was generally considered masculine and espoused misogynistic ideologies, was countered by disco and hip hop. Although disco music originated with black gay men in the 1970s, when it became mainstream through the film Saturday Night Fever starring John Travolta, white women were also able to express their identities. White women were able to ignore social expectations and show their individuality through disco music. For how long.
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