Critical Introduction

Dear Readers,

Welcome to our Music of the 1960s and Present blog! We are four University of Maryland Scholars students, each with a love of music. Music has impacted us in many different ways since we all have experienced music in our lives, whether playing instruments, listening to the radio, or seeing artists in concert. The evolution of music is an obvious occurrence that most people are aware of, but we wanted to explore rock ‘n’ roll and compare the messages of two songs, one from the 1960’s and one from the 21st century. The 1960’s piece is John Lennon’s Working Class Hero while the modern piece is Rise Against’s Disparity by Design. We selected these texts because they convey economic hardships that come with affording college. As college students, we know how difficult it can be to pay for an education, and at times, taking on debt is necessary to gain knowledge that is needed for a better future. We take both the music and the message behind these pieces and analyze them in hopes that people will find some aspects relevant to their lives within the two songs we’ve chosen.

Together, Working Class Hero and Disparity by Design argue that despite what we, as a country, are told, there are separate rules and opportunities afforded to only the rich and influential while women, the poor, and minorities are often at the greatest disadvantage. Developing awareness of these two Americas is essential to starting a conversation where these most affected groups question this discrimination and others with more influence take action on their behalf. An Ideological revolution is essential to replacing the cultural norm that allows such disparity of treatment. Through our blog, we present this argument by focusing on the nearly identical messages within these two texts to
encourage our audience to become aware and to think critically about what they
are being told.

Economic inequality is still a huge issue today around the world. Just in the US, there are 9 million workers unemployed as well as 3.5 million people homeless.  In the last year there were protests in Taiwan and England, further emphasizing the global scale of this movement. We hope that readers will come away with more awareness of economic inequality minority groups face and have a new perspective on the economic balance of the world.

The methodology of our blog begins with the general elements of music in the 1960s and then examines the specific elements of the texts. We discuss the major rhetorical arguments and kairos first while later getting more in depth with analyzing the establishment of ethos and appeal to pathos. We chose to post in this order in order to get the reader interested with a more general overview of the songs and the context from which they were from. After providing the basic background, we were able to be focus on explaining lines of the song that best connect with the working class audience.

Although it is not Lennon’s most popular song, Working Class Hero, does appeal to his audience because of the most of them, if not all of them, were part of the middle class and felt inferior and hopeless about their miserable jobs. We ask you to empathize with these laborers and be an advocate to balance out the economic inequality. Imagine if you were stuck at the bottom of the social hierarchy with little support to improve your life. We would like you, as the readers, to analyze how these texts reflect the need for an equal distribution of wealth in America. Finally, we hope that you gain a better understanding of the inequalities of social classes, specifically the role of the middle class.

Thank you for reading our blog!