One important fact I note about music is that it extends the boundaries of human-beings and enables people to express their thoughts. An individual can, as a result, free his or her imagination to what can or will come to effect. Imaginations can run wild and to that effect show the diversity of human thoughts and creativity. Music elicits a spectrum of emotions. Moreover, it is universal no matter the roots of the music genre. Personally, music enables me to connect with people from different cultural spectrums, further enhancing my understanding of the diversity of the world at large, and connecting emotionally with the lyrics and sounds.
The origin of reggae music is the Jamaican and Caribbean Islands back in the 1970s. At these times issues facing people were mainly social and political instability, which can be compared to the current situation across the globe. Political issues include repression of marginalized groups. Social issues, on the other hand, include socio-economic inequalities, poverty and urban social crisis, and ideological stands. Music acted as a platform to address all those issues, as it still does today.
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Music enables me to construct and enhance my identity by listening to it and relating to the topic being explored. For me, through listening to reggae music, I tend to realize what I stand for and that in its core defines me as a human. I can form an opinion on what is relevant to me personally. Rastafarians used their music as a form of expression during their oppression. It further enabled them to communicate and gain a local understanding of issues they were facing both socially and politically. The gap between the rich and poor, for instance, keeps on increasing today. Through music, I determine that this gap is detrimental to the development of society. I see how my family struggles through ensuring we all have a good life. On television, nonetheless, others continue to revel in riches, mostly through the sweat of the majority who are struggling. Through music as a form of expression, such issues can be addressed.
Other than the above, music helps me construct and enhance my cultural identity, further enabling my understanding of myself and my roots. Reggae music was used to enhance the ideology of a social group; that is the Rastafarian and their culture. Other than this, reggae was also used to remind people of the oppression experienced during slavery in Jamaica; which enabled them not to forget where they came from and what they had gone through during slavery. Music further enabled them not to lose their cultural identity with the changing world. A good example I recently saw is the persecution of Christians in India by majority Hinduist and Buddhist community, which led to the deaths of people. The hate along religious lines deeply rooted that people kill each other got me wondering, ‘What if I was a Christian living in India? Persecution is present to-date with no political or social help from leaders. In this way, being Christian, I could relate with the persecution of people in Jamaica.
Bob Marley’s ‘Buffalo Soldier’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5FCdx7Dn0o is a good example of reggae music. The song is relevant in its reference to difficult times and resilience of the black man. For me, this shows that anything is possible. As Barrack Obama famously said, “Yes We Can.” The experiences described by Marley to me show that no matter how hard life gets there is always a way out. His lyrics also instill in me a strong sense of cultural identity, which essentially enables me to stay true to my roots even in the changing world and amid all sorts of disruptions. The song is further important as it teaches me to love all despite their origin- I learn not to judge by color, religion, and sexual orientation.
The power of music is so great if used in the right way because it can be used to address a lot of issues in the world and unite everyone. Music can systematically be used to tackle those issues and shape our views and opinions, which will empower the human who is weak. Moreover, music, at the same time, enables us to shape our culture which eventually affects the whole society.
