En tu idioma / In your own language

Eduardo del Buey
Foto: Allen Ginsberg LLC/ Galería Howard Greenber
La Jornada Maya

Martes 18 de octubre, 2016

[i]Music is the most direct of the arts. It enters through the ears and goes straight to the heart. It is mankind’s universal language.[/i]
Astor Piazzola

Bob Dylan’s winning the Nobel prize for literature underscores once more the power of songs in shaping societies. The poet of the sixties moved a generation to call out for fundamental change, asking “How many roads must a man walk down, before they call him a man” in the charged civil rights movement of the era. His music continues to inspire new generations of music lovers, and underscores the power of songs.

From the beginning of time songs have become the way for each generation to communicate its angst and hopes to each other and to the world. They have also been means to bring people together for the betterment of humanity.

On August 7, Israel 21c reported that “The dulcet voices of the women in Jaffa’s Rana Choir give the impression of perfect harmony.

The 10 Arab and 10 Jewish singers do have a strong bond, yet their views are hardly monolithic.
“It’s not easy; we don’t all agree about everything all the time,” says Lubna Rifi, 40, an Arab Muslim resident of Jaffa who joined the group last year.

“It’s challenging to hear other opinions and try to understand the other person’s point of view. But at least you are seeing the picture from their side and they are seeing it from your side,” she tells ISRAEL21c. “In this amazing choir we are doing something to change our difficult reality”.

This is just the latest example of how songs can and do change the world for the better.
In the 60's, the result was a decade of change and transformation that defined an era. The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Peter Paul and Mary, and others wrote and sang the words that inspired social action on a hitherto unknown scale.

They did so with three to four minute songs that incorporated and encapsulated strong and direct messages that struck their audiences with a force that belies belief. And they accomplished a global social revolution without the ubiquitous social media we have become used to using in today’s global village to get our messages out.

In “Blowin’ in the Wind” Bob Dylan asked a few simple questions in a way that shook the core of our beliefs and set a generation on a course that would change the world forever. Hence his Nobel Prize.

In 1984, UK singers led by Sir Bob Geldof formed Band Aid and recorded "Do They Know It's Christmas" to highlight the plight of Ethiopians suffering through the worst famine in modern history.

They were joined a few months later by Canadian singers who formed Northern Lights and recorded "Tears Are Not Enough" for the same purpose.

In the spring of 1985 American singers and musicians formed USA for Africa recorded "We Are The World" to support the famine victims. The song brought together the US's finest musical artists including Bob Dylan under the baton of Quincy Jones.

And in the autumn of 1985 Julio Iglesias, Gloria Estefan, Jose Feliciano, Placido Domingo, and other Hispanic singers recorded "Cantaré Cantarás" to bring to light the African crisis to Latino audiences.

In mid-1985 year, Sir Bob Geldof and others organized the Live Aid global concert (including performers from the then USSR) using satellite technology for the first time in history. The event lasted sixteen hours and raised millions of dollars.

It made young and not so young audiences aware of this crisis. For the first time artists who enjoyed global fame and fortune shared their talents for a humanitarian cause, and came together to move their international audience to action.

Songs are one of the most effective media for arousing strong feelings in people. They meet the criteria of all effective communications -- they touch the soul and drive audiences to action.

Driving audiences is what we seek to do in any communications effort, be it political, social, or commercial.

The same formula can be used today to get a message across to a target or mass audience.

Simple words, short sentences, a good story, and cadence can make any speech, press release, or speaking note memorable to an audience and motivate people to action.
Tell stories, mesmerize the audience with a good rhythm, and use melodic language to reach others.

The late New York Governor Mario Cuomo once said, "you campaign in poetry and govern in prose". All communications are campaigns to win over and touch vulnerable souls -- hence they must be poetic.

With today's social media technology, songs can reach a global audience immediately.
Songs have become a global force indeed, and when a major songwriter is honored with the Nobel Prize, the world is indeed moved.

Mérida, Yucatán

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