The Times They Are A-Changing......

Historical Significance: Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are-A Changing

The Time They Are A Changing is considered one of the most influential songs of the sixties. Robert Zimmerman himself (a.k.a) Bob Dylan, often stated that he really had no goal or intention of the song other than to try to capture the emotions that were going on at the time.
Early influences included Woody Guthrie and Odetta, who was an African American woman, well known in folk music genre, but not to the mainstream music scene.

The song is considered prolific considering that the writing and recording took place in 1963, at the height of the Civil Rights movement, which was a tumultuous time, but preceded other cultural and historical events that defined the era. For example, some feel it also alludes to the Vietnam War and increasing resistance to the war even though it preceded the death of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King and the massive anti-war movement.

A way that you could use this song in it’s historical context would be to look at the Civil Rights Movement, of which Bob Dylan associated himself with at the time of the writing of this song. Use the song and lyrics to speak about specific events in the movement that took place in the early 60’s.

Here is a sample of my idea (not a perfect format)
outube video: Lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vou4qUu5YY&feature=related

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Specific event: March on Birmingham-1963
Lunch Counter Sit ins-Greensboro-1960
I feel that this lyric is speaking about resistance to change, particularly in the South, where there was often violent reaction by white officials and residents to peaceful demonstrations by African Americans. The lyrics in general of this song plead that that change is coming and that you need to catch up or you’ll be left behind or invalidated.



Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
Specific Events: Letters from Birmingham-Martin Luther King
Press Coverage of March on Washington
Opinions of Civil Rights Movement

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Specific Event: School Integration at the High School and College Level



Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
Specific Event: Voter Registration Drives in the South
Freedom Riders.
SNCC
1961 -- Freedom Rides begin from Washington, D.C., into Southern states.

1962 -- President Kennedy sends federal troops to the University of Mississippi to quell riots so that James Meredith, the school's first black student, can attend.



The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.
Specific Event: Civil Rights act of 1964
1964 -- Congress passes Civil Rights Act declaring discrimination based on race
illegal after 75-day long filibuster.


There are several other techniques I feel teachers could use with this artifact.

1) One use of this song is to have students decide what events from this era relate to the lyrics. Students could create their own 60’s timeline with events they feel are highlighted by the lyrics

2) An assignment with a modern twist, would be to have them use the lyrics and find samples from today regarding a particular issue or event (Iraq war, human rights, Katrina) to relate to the lyrics and present with their own 2000’s timeline.

3) One final ideal, you could also have them bring in a song they themselves may feel the describes the era they are living today and to analyze the song from the perspective of someone who will be looking back at the song 40 years later, like we are examining Dylan today.


Resources:
www.bobdylanlyrics.net/bob-dylan-biography.htm
http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade60.html
http://www.cnn.com/EVENTS/1997/mlk/links.html
www.africanaonline.com/civil_rights_timeline.htm

Immigration and Pop Culture

Immigration and Pop Culture

In reading the Introduction to Immigration and Pop Culture, I could not help but to reflect on the article Jewish Gangster Masquerade. The chapter describes the gangster flicks of the 1930s and how they depicted Italian and Jewish Gangs and that the films were popular for many during the era of the Great Depression. Other films made during this era were made for escapist reasons, but that these films were marketed particularly because of their realism. Whose reality were they really depicting? In one sense, it allow some to feel a certain affinitiy or pride at being portrayed as tough, intimidating. For others, it attributed negative stereotypes as gangsters were also portrayed as menaces to society.
As I was reading the article, I could not stop reflecting on my own and my friends’ experiences with the gangster films of today. I grew up in a predominately Latino community that included African Americans, Asians. It was considered vital that you have seen Scarface (with Al Pacino) and the Godfather, and that many of the males in my neigborhood wanted to emulate the power that Michale Corleone(?) had in the movie. In fact, for many of my friends that I still have in the neighborhood, Scarface is their all-time favorite movie. I began to think that that the appeal of these types of movies was not the violence depicted, but that because the power the gangs had. The gangs really did not have to relinquish their ethnic identity, but in fact portrayed them as being proud of it.
Although the goal of the real life gangsters was to attain a type of acceptance and respect into society, whether it be their own or the mass society of the city in which they lived, for my classmates, it was the power and intimidation that they gravitated to most, to have people answer to you, not the other way around.

Cultural Capital lesson plan

What's in your Brain? A study of cultural capital

Start by having student list topics they feel they have the most
knowledge about. It could be related to a place, such as a
neigborhood or region of the city.A hobby, such as hip hop music,
sport, or knitting.Or part of their identity,
such as religion or ethnic heritage.   Then have them pick one
of these topics to reflect in-depth about. What do they know
about this topic? Why do they feel they are experts at this topic?

Students would research about their chosen topic.
Where did it originate?Is there any variation or
diffusion or variations within this topic. Students would
then create an poster that would inform others about their
topics and provide historical context as to how this topic
has changed or evolved over the years. They are to use visual evidence
such as  photos or  drawings to illustrate their poster as well as
their reflective piece to explain why they chose that topic.
Another option would be to have them create a short
powerpoint or imovie.

Have we (women) evolved?

In viewing videos from Avril Lavinge, Lil Kim and Fiona Apple, their songs were in a way for them to flip the tables on maybe what was considered traditional male territory in terms of song topic. The topics of cheating, disappointment and sex empowerment were now being written from their own perspectives.
The song "Criminal" by Fiona Apple is the about a women who uses a man, "just because I can", which is not something women are not taught growing up how to be. After all, aren't we supposed to be caring and nuturing...yet on guard, because it is expected that maybe our men will cheat on us? Not the other way around? Lil Kim raps about achieving sexual satisfaction and sexually dominating men, yet uses her sexuality as a marketing tool in ways that leave little to the imagination. Avril sings about disappointment about a broken relationship, but also shifting the blame to her ex, so the title Happy Ending is meant to be an irony.

At the time that these songs and videos came out, they were thought to be ground-breaking or revolutionary in someway..expressing how they really felt or what they really wanted, but you do see some very traditional male expressions still taking place in the cinema/video aspects of their music.
The women are portrayed in the male perspective, even if their songs sing about having the upper hand in the male/female relationships. They are still objects to watch, to be seductive to the viewer, and objectified. Some is intentional, either done by the approval of the artist, but I do feel that their message of female "empowerment" gets lost in their videos. You end up looking at innocent looking faces, heavily made up, body parts featured that are appealing to male viewers.

In Lil Kims video, you even have a "Barbie" factory in which Lil Kim's images are place on Barbie bodies. Lynn Spigel essay "Welcome to the Dream House", Spigel mentions that female collectors of the Barbie doll use the minature world of Barbie to make authoritive statements about themselves (Spigel 325). Lil Kim's "How Many Licks?" video is an explicit example about this. She raps about how she expects her male sexual partners to satisfy her, yet she markets her self as a flavor to be experienced, in three different types.