Music Industry after the Events of 9/11

After the twin towers fell, music industry made a powerful response. Musicians expressed their reactions through musical dialogues full of pain, anxiety, and suffrages but at the same time, hope, unity, and justice. Musicians created a number of works and music pieces to express their thoughts and feelings about 9/11 and touch the hearts and minds of Americans. 9/11 tragedy ruined lives of innocent people but it did not ruin American nationalism, spiritual unity, identity, and hope. Music produced immediately after 9/11 played a core role in renewing American spirit, patriotism, and unity. The paper correlates how musicians used their songs to express their thoughts about 9/11, explains how music has been used as a uniting agent, and analyzes song lyrics to determine the thoughts and actions of the musician.

Bruce Springsteen, Toby Keith, Alan Jackson, Steve Earle, Neil Young, and other singers were famous with their unforgettable performances and original messages that were sent to the whole American nation and the world. Each song was unique and original reflecting special characteristics, ideologies, patriotic features, high moral principles, and religious undertone. In their songs, artists tried to recall, protest, judge, or question but on the whole, their music helped to unite people and renew the country’s destructions, a sense of patriotism, and American identity. Bruce Springsteen’s musical reaction to terroristic events was pretty simple and straightforward but at the same time very emotional and painful. In his “The Rising”, the singer celebrated those who lost or risk their lives and used religious symbolism to remember that awful tragedy. “The Rising” sends a message of hope and represents a theme of recovery for the whole county. Springsteen wanted to calm people, instill faith in Jesus, and encourage people to unite and renew their country’s spirit and identity. The composition starts with no instrumental accompaniment, which allow to completely focus on the words and phrases and feel all the shock, fear, grief, struggles, and destruction: “Can’t see nothin’ in front of me/ Can’t see nothin’ coming up behind/ I make my way through this darkness/ I can’t feel nothing but this chain that binds me/ Lost track of how far I’ve gone,/ How far I’ve gone, how high I’ve climbed/ On my back’s a sixty pound stone,/ On my shoulder a half mile line.” Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” is considered a complicated but straightforward work, which reflects the country’s identity, justice, and patriotism: “We’ll put a boot in your ass, / It’s the American way.” The song also illustrates patriotic example of his father who “served in the army, / Where he lost his right eye”; but he did not lose a sense of identity, hope, trust, honesty, and faith into his country and “flew a flag out in our yard ’til the day that he died. / He wanted my mother, my brother, my sister and me / To grow up and live happy in the land of the free.” Keith’s song united people and gave them hope into happy positive future. Neil Young version “Imagine” was full of hopeful optimism but at the same time the song was “straightforward, yet essential; a call to peace to a populace focused on revenge” (billboard.com). Alan Jackson’s song lyrics “Where Were You” represents a wide range of emotions started from shock, fear, anxiety and ending with joy, hope, and grief that immortalize the events of 9/11.

As seen, musicians and composers wanted to depict a sense of American nationalism, identity, and spirituality and evoke deeply-rooted emotions, such as fear, angriness, shock and grief. Music played a role of the uniting agent as through their original musical pieces musicians tried to create so-called 9/11 dialogue and encourage people not to lose hope, faith in God, and a sense of being human.

Works cited:

Jason Newman, “9/11 Concert Tributes: Nine Unforgettable Performances,” Billboard, September 11, 2014, retrieved from http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/513468/911-concert-tributes-nine-unforgettable-performances?page=0%2C0

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
close
Haven't found the right essay?
Get an expert to write you the one you need!
print

Professional writers and researchers

quotes

Sources and citation are provided

clock

3 hour delivery

person