Social Commentary is in the Ear of the Beholder

My role as a sociologist mirrors my personal outlook: the goal is not to find THE answer, but to gather as many answers to as many questions as possible, to get the fullest picture of our confusing yet ordered social system. Musicians and artists often provide commentaries on our social system in their projects. What is a social commentary? A social commentary is a way to provide insight on issues in a society, using words (or lyrics). Social commentaries may be used to promote or provoke change in a society, resonating with our deep seeded desires for peace and justice for all.

Although I am not an "artist" in the classical sense, putting together ideas and creating subject matter and conversational fodder in the world of teaching sociology is very much an artistic endeavor. Sociology graduate students feeling frustrated at their perceived lack of progress or ability to pull successive 12 hour work days might take heed: do artists plug away for hours every day? Of course. But more often the creative spirit takes hold at a given moment, with an onslaught of productivity, only to be followed by hours, days, months or years of artist block. Stringing together ideas and building on a body of work that only shows its iceberg tip in academic articles is a creative process that should be given respect and breathing room. In my view, incorporating the artists' perspective into the practice of sociology can lead to a fuller discipline and alleviate such professional anxiety.  After all, teaching sociology provides a captive audience in which the social norm is to more or less pay attention and please you. Imagine a singer/songwriter getting this treatment on the daily! Artists are constantly taking these social risks, in part by offering social commentary. Sociologists too take risks in being the ones on campus breaching the uncomfortable (and in some cases unacknowledged) social issues, such as racism, abuse, the class system, and of course the task of caring for our elderly, our veterans, and our disadvantaged citizens.

As an example, let's hear a favorite U2 song.  This song has killer drums and quite a hook--it's also a social commentary about social conflict. Specifically it recalls Bloody Sunday, of which there were actually two- one in 1920 and one in 1972, both involving British troops in Dublin. The latter event ended in 13 Irish citizens killed at a civil rights protest in Northern Ireland. Although its about a specific event, Bono of U2 actually altered the original lyrics, which condemned the Irish Republican Army, to make it a broad social commentary about the atrocities of war in general.

In the end, social commentary through music is in the ear of the beholder..so listen close.