3 Defiant Tracks To Add To Your Playlist
Three Defiant Tracks To Add To Your Playlist
By Craig Sadler
Music is a huge part of my daily routine, as I’m sure it is for many others. If I’m not listening to music at home, then I’m taking it with me through my trusty Bose over-the-ear noise-cancelling headphones.
Headphones in, world out?... right?
Well…not really.
While music often reflects what is going on in the world, the overwhelming presence of music in our lives means that music itself has the power to change the world… In this way, music is powerful. Trickling into the subconscious of millions of people – music both indirectly, and directly, affects the way people feel, think, and see the world. Music is a constant in our lives, in shops, lifts, car radios, our own headphones – in this sense, music is powerful…and the figure of the artist is incredibly influential as the messages they imbue within their lyrics seeps into the psyche of the masses.
The world will always go on, with social and political systems continuing to fail most people who live within them. This has caused artists to display their resistance to the system by creating music that reflect this, ultimately becoming protest soundtracks.
Music has always served as a vehicle for expressing social and political discontent, as an outlet for those who are marginalised within society to make their voices heard.
Where words fail, music speaks…
Here are three tracks that are defiant, alongside the artists who stood up against their opponents and said ‘fuck you' to the system.
1. The Charade – D’Angelo
"All we wanted was a chance to talk/ ‘Stead we've only got outlined in chalk."
Now, this a great track. D’Angelo was always going to be on this list, not because he is one of my favourite artists, but because of the sheer amount of self-healing he went through during the 14-year gap between his critically acclaimed ‘Voodoo,’ in 2000, and ‘Black Messiah,’ in 2014.
During this gap, while D’Angelo personally healed, civil unrest persisted. However, D’Angelo timed the release of Black Messiah to assist conversations about the fucked up political climate of the country. Protests across America called for reform against decades of minority killings at the hands of corrupt police officers. The structural silencing of black voices forced D’Angelo to speak politically through this album as a means of fuelling and showing solidarity with these protests, amplifying black voices calling for justice.
‘Relegated to savages bound by the way of the deceivers
So anchors be sure that you're sure we ain't no amateurs’
D’Angelo uses his track, ‘The Charade,’ to talk about the ongoing discrimination against the black community in America. Throughout the song, he talks about how African Americans are perceived as savages, thieves, rapists and murders. The use of the word “bound” in the 2nd verse is used both literally – as a reference to American slavery and the literal chains that bound slaves in their subjugation – and figuratively, as African Americans are now suppressed and institutionalised by those in high power.
He goes on to reveal the level of bias black Americans have had to endure, despite cries for change. It calls bullshit on the systematic implementation and acceptance of racism.
‘With the veil off our eyes we'll truly see
And we'll march on
And it really won't take too long’
The song is crafted, in a way, to encourage people to participate in fighting against the system. D’Angelo focuses the attention of listeners and gets them to delve deeper into the lyrics to realise that shit needs to change. The song is a powerful act of defiance against the American justice system by inciting riotous behaviour and powerfully outlining how people of colour are discriminated against in a country that dubs itself ‘the land of the free’.
Sometimes music is the only way to get heard. D’Angelo proclaimed to his tour manager in 2014, "The only way I do speak out is through music. I want to speak out." Speaking through music is, in a way, more radical than speaking in a political context because it penetrates wider culture more effectively – people are drawn in by the music and are left with an awakened view of racial justice.
2. Control – Janet Jackson
“When I was 17, I did what people told me
Did what my father said,
And let my mother mould me.”
‘Control’ (1986) is a song from Janet’s third studio album of the same name. The song is about Jackson finally taking control over her life and playing by her own rules, not by anyone else’s.
When I first heard this track, I immediately thought of how unusual a life the Jackson family must have had. The Jacksons were a family dynasty that shot to fame after The Jackson 5 took over the popular music world in the late 1960’s/early ’70s.
“Jacksonmania” was intense, real and spread across the world. This huge worldwide spread ultimately stripped Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlo and Michael of a normal childhood and instead, they were under the control of their fearsome father, Joe Jackson.
It is hard to fully explain how cruel this man was, the Guardian summed it up in a tell-all article a few years ago calling Joe Jackson, “one of the most monstrous fathers in pop”. Years of abuse, manipulation, and psychological bullying were only some of the accusations made against Joe by his children, which eventually led to Jackson 5’s decline in the mid-1970s.
Anyway, enough about the male side of the Jackson family, we all know too much about a certain Thriller singer – I’m focusing on the youngest female from the dynasty, Janet Jackson.
At the time of recording ‘Control,’ Janet was only 19 years old and lived the majority of her life on the side-lines of her brothers’ success. Janet’s previous two albums failed to captivate audiences both critically and commercially, she had a chance to break this trend with ‘Control.’
“First time I fell in love, I didn't know what hit me
So young and so naive, I thought it would be easy
Now I know I got to take
Control, now I've got a lot”
And break it she did, by cutting loose what was holding her back. One being her short-lived marriage to James DeBarge and secondly, her professional ties to her father.
“I'm not saying I don't want to be a part of the Jackson family, because, of course, that's my name,” a 20-year-old Janet Jackson confided to People Magazine, back in July 1986, only a few months after the release of this album. “But I wanted this record to be my own.”
‘Control’ was when Janet finally found her voice. Prior to that, people just gave her songs to sing. This album asserts itself as being a reflection of who Janet is, she is literally taking “control” of her career, and the success of the album proved that she knew best.
“Got my own mind
I wanna make my own decisions
When it has to do with my life, my life
I wanna be the one in control”
3. Uptown – Prince
The ’80s belonged to Prince, he released nine albums - almost all classics — during this precious time for pop culture. ‘Uptown’ was the first single from Prince’s third album, ‘Dirty Mind’ (1980).
The song addresses prejudice and racism, with the use of the song title ‘Uptown’ as a metaphor for a better place that is free of such discrimination and hatred.
‘Uptown’ described Prince’s idea of utopia, free from prejudice, racism and discrimination. This described utopia is still craved today! This track continuing to be relatable.
Prince told Rolling Stone that, he and his friends “took a lot of heat all the time. People would say something about our clothes or the way we looked or who were with, and we’d end up fighting. I was a very good fighter… I never lost. I didn’t know if I fight fair, but I go for it. That’s what Uptown is about – we do whatever we want, and those who cannot deal with it have a problem with themselves”
The song starts with Prince describing an interaction with a woman on the streets of Minneapolis.
“Now I don’t usually talk to strangers, but she looked so pretty”
Prince was known to be quite a recluse throughout his career, he lived a very private life, but he had an extraordinary personality.
“Baby didn’t say too much… she said, “Are you gay?”
This kind of direct questioning was directed towards Prince a lot. A common misconception about Prince was that he dressed effeminately, so he must be gay, right?
Well… a good answer to that question is, “who cares?” Prince expressed himself how he wanted and if that meant dressing in a pink feather boa matched with a pastel-hued sequinned suit then eat it up, baby.
His response “No, are you?” hints at his humour and his controversial views, defying what he is being labelled by switching it on its head. This answer by Prince suggests he feels her closed-mindedness is because she’s “a victim of society” who believes whatever she is told by others.
"She's just a crazy, crazy, crazy little mixed up dame
She's just a victim of society and all its games"
The song discusses the questions many fans at the time had about Prince’s sexuality. Even though the rest of the lyrics make it clear that he was heterosexual; sexuality didn’t matter to Prince.
The artist praised the idea of embracing and infusing femininity and masculinity together, no matter what gender you choose to be.
Let’s not forget, this song was released 40 years ago, during the early days of America’s AIDS crisis. It wasn’t in any way an easy ride for homosexuals during this time – their sexuality being used to demonise them as the AIDS crisis validated many culturally homophobic sentiments, being dubbed the ‘gay disease’.
‘Uptown’ was Prince’s way of slowly blending political statements into his musical art.
Uptown is a place where you can be free to express yourself, and Prince was very attracted to it. He was the epitome of unapologetic self-expression.
I feel this track is defiant because it is Prince rising up against prejudice, whether it’s targeted at skin colour, style, sexuality or class. Prince covers it all in this one track and it makes for a very powerful yet groovy listen.
This uptown utopia Prince created is still somewhat out of reach for us living in society today… but I know he is there now, shooting hoops and jamming away.
R.I.P you Sexy M.F.
“We don’t let society tell us how it’s supposed to be
Our clothes, our hair, we don’t care
It’s all about being there
Everybody’s going uptown”