The Big Question: What is Occupy Wall Street?

I must say, this has been one of THE most daunting questions I have ever had to answer in one sitting. Where do you begin? The movement itself is such a huge and multi-faceted rebellion that has taken place in so many places throughout such a large span of time.

I believe the best way to attempt to answer this question is to take a closer look in smaller chunks. I alone will not be able to completely answer this question. But I do believe that, when the rest of our class has all answered this question in a similar fashion our readers will be able to put these puzzle pieces together to form a picture they can recognize. Here is my piece of the puzzle:

Arts Within the Movement: Music

The Occupy Wall Street Movement has been an amazing time. A time for coming out into the open and making the silent voices heard. The movement may have been sparked by the email of two people organizing to occupy wall street. But the role of music within this movement is of vital importance, in more ways than one.

The art of song has been used throughout time for many different reasons. Within the Occupy Wall Street Movement, celebrities have written songs, making their views on the 99% known. Their intentions, of course remain unknown. Do they really feel strongly about supporting these people’s causes or are they simply seeking for a stage for which to eat up some attention. Normal people have been writing songs too. This offers another way for the 99% to make their voices heard: through music. Music offers yet another language and dimension for their word to be spread. and yet still many people have written parodies of OWS to other famous songs. Perhaps this is simply a way to make fun of two things at once, but it too is a clever way to spread the ideas of the OWS movement. The social media cannot be overlooked.

In Jaqustell’s blog entry titled The Effectiveness in Poetry in Occupy Wall Street she talks about a branch of social media very similar to that of music: poetry. Poetry is essentially music through the spoken human voice. In this particular post Jaqustell talks about how poetry was a popular thing in the beginnings of the social movement because it promoted more members to join. She also wrote “The ambiguous nature of poetry itself lends the interpretation of the message to be diverse across audience members”. I found that this fit perfectly with music; what language is more universal than music itself? We have seen that throughout this entire movement music has been used to gain more members and to allow a very diverse population a specific way for them to be able to relate to and connect with the movement itself. Music, just like poetry, is a social medium that has the ability to put everyone under one umbrella.

One of the most essential ways that music has been used in OWS is through  chant. Protesters have used chants for years.  This is a musical way for which a group of people can instantly become organized and more powerful; a single imminent and uniform mass rather than a scattered mess. Another post that particularly stood out to me on this blog was a post by meechiepeachie. This post discussed the General Assembly that the movement had organized in order to stay organized. OWS is especially unique in terms of protests because they refuse to have one single leader. Therefore, this group formulated this “general assembly” as a way to ensure their equality and uniformity. As shown in the video on this post, one leader takes a turn each time to speak whatever needs to be spoken at a specific time. And whatever the temporary leader says everyone else chants back in return. This is a musical way that those involved in OWS have been using to keep themselves uniform and organized, without the need for a leader. These chants symbolize the equality sought after by these protesters.

Music has a huge effect not only on the brain of the individual but on entire groups simultaneously. Music may not be featured as a subtitle on the title of a book about the OWS Movement, but it certainly deserves a good deal of consideration and discussion. Music has been found in many more aspects of this movement than I originally thought, to be honest. Perhaps other aspects of this protest have been overlooked as well. I can’t wait to see what the other puzzle pieces our other authors come up with to help answer the question fully: What is Occupy Wall Street?

Occupy Wall Street is a social movement like none other. Music has organized, music has allowed a spotlight to anyone and everyone, music has made those involved in the movement equal, has made them one. These and more are the roles music has played within the OWS movement. For me, this is Occupy Wall Street. This is my puzzle piece I give to you. I hope it finds a fitting place among these other pieces the other authors of this blog have to offer. This is Occupy Wall Street.

Sarah Chaney 

Music and the Brain

So I have been trying to find some way to show the enormous impact of music within the OWS movement. Over the course of this semester it has certainly proved to be a more difficult task than I thought. The truth is music itself has not played a large role within the movement, but it has so much to do with the little things, that make the big things possible. Let me explain.

Way back in 2000 Time Magazine featured an article by Michael D. Lemonick who wrote about “Music on the Brain”. Additionally he brought up several great points that are worthy of some thought and discussion when considering the role of the arts within the movement. Below is an excerpt from this article:

“As for music’s emotional impact, there is some indication that music can affect levels of various hormones, including cortisol (involved in arousal and stress), testosterone (aggression and arousal) and oxytocin (nurturing behavior) as well as trigger release of the natural opiates known as endorphins. Using PET scanners, Zatorre has shown that the parts of the brain involved in processing emotion seem to light up with activity when a subject hears music” (Lemonick).

This is an incredibly important discovery. Music literally has a direct effect on the brain, whether we want it to or not. Throughout the movement celebrities have written pieces expressing their take on the movement, people have written parody songs to poke fun at the movement, and people for centuries have been protesting with the help of songs and chants, all sung in unison. Music has been used in the OWS movement and in protests throughout time to, quite literally, make their voices heard. Maybe music has a little more to do with the movement than we thought.

Sarah 

Gasoline for the Fire

In my last post, I talked about how music can induce trance states in people. The role of music in the Occupy Wall Street movement is invaluable and irreplaceable. It is through these trance states induced in people by music that puts so much energy, hope, and power in these people. Music has given the people of the OWS movement their fire and their strength. One great example I found of this recently had to do with a band mentioned in my last post. Outernational I randomly ran into at a reggae concert. I liked their sound and thought they were talented so I followed them…straight into the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The following is a Youtube video of this band performing at an OWS event this past March. It is clear that this band and their music brought fire and energy to this group of people. But what is even more fascinating is how LITERALLY EVERYTHING they do musically is reflected directly upon the audience.

Before the lead even starts singing, his way of almost “preaching” power to the audience with the way he used his voice got their attention, made them want to hear more. Excitement was set from the very beginning. Their excitement as well as their fists rose in response as the first song comes to a brief pause and he yells “Welcome to the Revolution!” As the music picks up tempo, so does the audience. A mosh pit quickly starts at around 3:00, which is exactly when an exhilarating and very fast guitar solo starts. At 3:30 you see a police officer escorting someone away from the scene. At first only two people are pushing each other around. By 4:20 the moshing has grown exponentially with almost full participation, again at the same time that the music accelerates in tempo. Then EXACTLY at 4:40, the band stops to sing a melodic line in unison. The second their instruments stop playing the people stop moshing, like clockwork. This unison line seems to bring the group back into focus as a whole as they all start clapping at the same time in the same way, with their hands high in the air. And when the band starts playing again, the audience is uniformly bobbing their heads to the beat. Finally at 5:25 the band stops the music altogether and the lead singer starts a chant. Whatever he said the audience repeated, as they chanted about having power within the OWS movement together. After 6:10 a slower song starts, and the people’s mood calms simultaneously.

This power of music is unstoppable. And it is one of the reasons why the people of the OWS movement feel the same way.

Sarah 

Story Time: Voiced by the Theorists

So I recently went to a concert for The Wailers. Thanks to my little brother I have recently started listening to more reggae, and this concert was actually his Christmas present to me. The opening act was most interesting. It was a band called “Outernational” and I could not pinpoint what kind of music it was- a fusion of punk, indie, folk…it’s hard to describe. But they were definitely not reggae. They sang about a nationless world where all people are equals, and they told the audience their music was not a specific type or genre of music, it was “future rock”. Their sound actually reminded me of Beirut and the Red Hot Chili Peppers punkified.

I couldn’t stop smiling, and I couldn’t keep my eyes off of them. The lead singer had incredible charisma; everyone in the audience came to chill to this reggae music, but this opening act comes on stage and instead of making a fool of themselves, actually changed the whole mood of the audience. I suddenly felt empowered and filled with energy. Not to mention that ALL the members of this band were incredibly talented musicians who all took turns soloing which added to this feeling of energy and equality. I was really impressed and excited. I wanted to hear more, so I liked them on Facebook (this will lead to another post specific to OWS and the band itself later).

Woodstock Fest. '69

I am a Music Performance Major. I love music, and I have always known it can hold great power over people. One of the most dominant forces of music that even still astounds me is its power to almost control people’s minds. Ethnomusicologists everywhere discuss the many different trance states that people enter when listening to or participating in music making. These trance states involve people’s motor skills (like moshing or dancing) and their emotional states. People also experience psychic and autonomic effects as they enter these trances that completely alter states of consciousness. The interesting thing about these music-induced trances is that they are more powerful and easily accessed within a communal group (Sacks 2530). I have felt these moments many times in my life and I hope you are able to relate as well.

It truly is an amazing experience. In my next post I will look further into how these music induced-trances have played a role within the OWS movement.

Sarah

Music is the Answer (Continued)

So I just recently read a comment one of my first posts on this blog titled Music is the Answer. Jennabeaver left an excellent comment with a question that I had to investigate further. She wondered who the “underground DJ” for the OWS movement was. Who it was that initially brought so many people together that it would be put in this history books. And I think I now have an answer to that question.

As we all know, this is the “year of the protestor”. I firmly believe that one of the reasons the OWS protests started and started with the fire they had was because there were so many other protests going on in the world at the same time. This year protesting was the new epidemic and those in the USA quickly caught it. There were Greece’s and Spain’s anti-austerity protests of the indignants, the British student protests of 2010, and of course the Arab Spring protests. However there were key people that definitely carried the straw that broke the camel’s back. An email conversation between Kalle Lasn, founder of the Canadian-based Adbusters Media Foundation and Micah White, Adbuster’s senior editor in which they formed the idea to have an occupation in Manhattan in early June 2011 was this straw. Lasn organized the movement’s website occupywallstreet.org on June 9^th. According to Micah White the idea was then “spontaneously taken up by all the people of the world.” Adbusters proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest the corporate influence on democracy, the increasing disparity in wealth, and for the lack of legal consequences for those who brought about the global crisis of monetary insolvency. The rest is history.

In my original post I discussed the similarities between the OWS movement and the electronic music dance scene. This is one thing they do not have in common. Bill Wasik’s article talked about how just one DJ through one twitter post. The OWS movement took a little more time and energy, and multiple people working together. The masses were there, they were just waiting for a leader(s). But what does this mean, why is this significant? This shows the OWS movement is not about one person, it’s about a whole lot of people. 99% of them, in fact. The power behind this OWS movement is not a leader with great public speaking skills, it’s about a community of equal but different people who come together to achieve what they all feel they deserve.

I would like to thank Jennabeaver for her comment on my earlier post. It’s incredible to me what can be accomplished when one person says what’s on the mind of thousands. What do you have to say? Turns out a lot more people could feel the same way.

Sarah

The Third Eye is Blind

Music plays a huge role within the OWS movement. My next few posts today are going to show just a few of them. This post features the sad truth of how people use music within the movement as a personal stage.

To start things off, we look to a man named Stephan Jenkins, from Third Eye Blind. Stephan Jenkins recently wrote a song about the OWS movement to perform acoustically live in Zuccotti park. Unfortunately as a fellow musician, I found myself incredibly disappointed with this video I came across on Youtube today. Music exists to bring people together, it truly is a universal language. It can change people’s lives.  Regrettably Stephan Jenkins merely used the OWS movement and his music as a staged bandwagon to hop right onto.

This was clear to me before this song even started in this video, as he hopelessly stumbled and stuttered over anything to say, and only generic “fight the power” words came out. And while I’m sure he touched many people’s lives with his hit songs back in the day, I fear this song he wrote is just an attempt to jog people’s distant memory of him. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with Mr. Jenkins, but he is certainly no songwriter. The lyrics for his song in the description of this video reveal this, with words like “if there ever was a time to get downtown and get nonviolent and fearless”. What? Furthermore a rather concerning part was the chorus itself: “oh where are the youth, we need you now come speak the truth, come break it down where are the youth, we need you now”. What do you need to be a famous pop star? The attention of the youth. And while it was smart for him to come attempt to reclaim his fame with the age groups that most recognized him from back in the day, the youth has moved on. Also the youth has little to do with those upset by being the 99%. The average age of these protesters are in their mid-thirties.

I’m sorry if you like Stephen Jenkins and his music, I know it seems like I have been drinking way too much hater-ade. But honestly, if you watch this video yourself, you will see the undeniable facts. Sneezing Pandas and laughing babies have millions of more views than this video, in fact is has less than 8,000. Stephan Jenkins wrote a…song, in an ill-attempt at some attention. Some celebrities have gotten away with things like this, it seems he is just not one of them.

Sarah

Music is the Answer

The similarities between the OWS movement and the electronic-dance scene discussed in Bill Wasik’s article are almost hauntingly similar. In this article Bill Wasik recounts of an electronic-dance DJ who planned a “block party” through twitter. 1,000 people were expected, but over 5,000 showed up. Super engagement is real and the social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and texting, is essentially the lifeline of their scene. Because you still have to search for this type of music, there is a huge sense shared community. These people came together because they felt invisible, despite their enormous numbers. Bill Wasik referred to this in his article as the “emergence of the mega-undergrounds”. Facebook and Twitter expose the huge disconnect between the real scale of things and the recognition within the dominant culture. This gathering felt like forcing society to respect their definite existence. The OWS movement is essentially the exact same thing! This “99%” felt invisible, but they knew their numbers were large. So they gathered to force society to recognize and respect them.

Sarah