We talk about protest singers and protest songs in my other English class, so I want to talk about it on the blog too because I found this subject very interesting.
I’ll introduce you a very engaged singer, who I like, Michael Jackson, I know that everybody knows him because he is one of the most known artist in the world.
Michael Joseph Jackson is born the 29 of August 1958, in the USA. He was a huge artist, referred as the King of the pop, Jackson is recognized as the most successful of all the time by the Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance and fashion made him a global figure in popular culture for 40 years, as we all know! He began his career as a member of The Jackson 5 with his brothers in the middle of the 1960’s, and his solo career in 1971.
He composed many songs which the most famous are “Beat it” or “Thriller”, and made video clip to accompany them, so, he acquired a reputation as an art form and the popularity of these videos helped to bring new television channel like MTV to fame, now and thanks to Michael Jackson this TV channel is diffuse in the entire world ! Trough music videos, Jackson popularized a number of dance techniques such as the robot and the moonwalk, and influenced numerous hip hop, pop and R&B artists. The King of the pop is the most awarded artist of the history of music, he was also a notable humanitarian, donating and raising hundreds of millions of dollars for beneficial causes and supporting more than 39 charities …
So, I’m going to talk about the song that I choose, Earth Song.
In this song he protest against the war, the poverty, and the global warming, and this cause is very current and we have to think about it quickly. Michael Jackson wrote this song in 1995 and it’s the earth situation of now, in 2010, we can say that this song was a kind of futurist.
It’s such a powerful song, like when Michael J. say “what we’ve done to the world, look what we’ve done … ", this sentence make you thinking about it all our actions everyday which are destroying our planet, because, as Michael Jackson say “we”, he uses the first person of the plural, so he includes us in his lyrics, just because it’s our fault, all of us, humans. We have to take care about our Earth. He uses rhetorical questions, in the first verse and in the rest of the song too, and repetitions, those kind of process are made too think, and react.
I like the character of Michael Jackson because he was one who dares to show the reality, and talk about it. And that part of his personality, according to me, that is why he is so famous, still after his death.
Those are the reasons why I choose to talk about this song which I appreciate a lot for the message.
the link to watch the video clip on youtube with the lyrics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1lbOgBtE3w
or the official clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7z_w83fSjM
Lola D.
