Music is a means that people can join community worldwide as it serves a similar function for everyone. Different individuals appreciate the different genre of music. It is common to find someone listening to musing through various devices while on the bus, train or shopping. Every individual develops a particular taste depending on the society or culture they live. People from different cultures may not understand or recognize a song because it may not be part of their culture (Kemple, 2009). The paper aims at analyzing John Lennon’s song Working Class Hero using Karl Marx theory of community manifesto.
Karl Marx is a renown German theorist, philosopher and socialist revolutionary. He worked with Friedrich Engels while in exile in England to form the theory collectively known as Marxism. His thoughts have influenced the fields of politics and economy. The Communist Manifesto explains the objectives of Communism and the assumptions common to the movement (Alexander, 2014). The theory reflects how one class exploits their naivety of the other type. The superior class tries to make the other class seem worthless just as John Lennon introduces his first stanza by saying, as soon as one gets born, they are made to feel small.
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Modern society, in particular, is still characterized by conflicts of class usually seen between the proletariat and bourgeoisie. The first section explains the materialist conception of the high class. The oppressed are the majority in society while the oppressors are a minority. The working class is the proletariat, who do most of the hard work in a society. The bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat and uses them to make a profit thus accumulate profit just as John Lennon says: those in power torture the vulnerable, putting them in school for almost 20 years and forced to pick a career when you are full of fear. The bourgeoisie, therefore, enjoys when you have the fear as they will use such an opportunity to continue oppressing.
The bourgeoisie puts up systems so that the proletariat can follow with a promise that there are rooms at the top and that one will have to work hard to achieve the level of success they desire. To be like the folks on the hill you must learn to be happy in your current position as John Lennon states but the truth of the matter the bourgeoisie will never allow the proletariat to rise, they will continuously make life terrible for them as they use their strength to become more prosperous. The communists will always support their interest as suggested in the second section of the theory.
The struggle however always ends in a revolution when the proletariat becomes tired of the oppression and gains the courage to revolt against the bourgeoisie. The proletariat becomes aware of the strength each has and rises to power thereby overthrowing the owners of production. In the song, John Lennon concludes by saying if you want to be a hero then follow him showing that those who are tired of the oppressive regime should rise and take power since they are a majority they deserve to get treated well (Wright, 2017).
Conclusion
To understand music, you need to be conversant with the underlying theme of the composer and probably the context at which the composer was referring. Listening to the lyrics keenly makes one think of the relevance of sociological theory in everyday life. Music still plays an important role in the society today. Apart from entertainment purposes, music is still used to pass information that enlightens the public on the different happenings around the globe.
Reference
Alexander, J. C. (2014). The Antinomies of Classical Thought: Marx and Durkheim (Theoretical Logic in Sociology) . Routledge.
Kemple, T. M. (2009). Weber/Simmel/Du Bois: musical thirds of classical sociology. Journal of Classical Sociology , 9 (2), 187-207.
Wright, R. (2017). Sociology and music education. In Sociology and music education (pp. 23 42). Routledge.
