Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddam"

The purpose of this song according to Wikipedia the initial purpose for “Mississippi Goddam" by Nina Simone was because of the murder of murder of Medgar Evers in Mississippi and the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama. The purpose of this song also is to state that by the Civil Rights movement doing things slow would not get any results, that things have to be done fast . The audience of this song I believe were the public in general, whites, African Americans, the government and the country, Simone wanted to let them see that it wasn’t just their problem it was everybody problem, and by doing it slow nothing was going to be done in the country. "Mississippi Goddam" produce the arguments of how things are moving, what result have they had during all that time fighting, and it creates emotions of anger, fury, rage, and ire.
I think this song was likely successful because it was something new, fresh and something with a purpose, even though it was banned from radios, still made a big impact when it was heard, I believe it was pretty successful in the part of the Civil Rights movement. "Mississippi Goddam" has a strong argument, and a very thoughtful purpose, maybe this wasn’t the only things that were happening at that certain time, but Simone show this two cases as an example of how thing were at that specific time in Alabama and Mississippi time.
Finally “Mississippi Goddam" is a clear example of fresh and new music, with political and awareness purpose to the United Sates, that showed the reality of the US at that time. Simone had the initiative to showcase these issues out there to the public in a creative and artistic way. In addition “Mississippi Goddam" is a very ground-breaking way to express a political issue like this that was happening in Mississippi and Alabama.

3 comments:

  1. Interesting: can you be specific about what about the song strikes you as new and surprising?

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  2. I think that the way it was sang, and how she played the was kind of surpising and new.It was kind of surprising, because you don't know what is coming next when she played the piano, every time she sang that song, she sang it differently, so it was kind of exciting and new how she played the piano, how she hit the notes, and so forth.

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  3. I agree - I think there's something very different about her style - and a contrast between the style and content that draws us in.

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