Selected Songs
Music, movies, and novels are powerful tools that artists use to address most of the issues affecting their societies and attract attention of policymakers. The crafted messages become new ideas for overcoming the challenges many citizens experience in their lives. The first song for this analysis is “Same Love” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. These two artists try to convince the global society to accept the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community by promoting equality (Darrah, 2020). They also encourage people to fight in order to promote fairness for all. The second one is a famous song called “One Love” by Bob Marley. This musician uses it to call for global unity, love, and peace (Darrah, 2020). He appears to be unhappy with all forms of inequality since they make it impossible for more individuals to pursue their economic goals in life.
The third piece of art identified for this discussion is that of “Black or White” by Michael Jackson. This song has become a major humanitarian song that encourages global citizens to promote racial harmony and support one another. Darrah (2020) identifies this work as a response to the forms of discrimination and prejudice that were recorded in the United States during Jackson’s time. He went further to acknowledge that all human beings were equal in accordance with the law. A detailed analysis of these songs can, therefore, guide more people to learn more about social stratification and consider new ways to mitigate it.
Sociological Concepts
The identified songs offer meaningful ideas and reasons for promoting new changes in different societies. In the first song, the listener can identify several sociological concepts that are essential for dealing with the suggested issue. The first one is that of social identity and it tries to empower members of the LGBT community to stand up and fight for equality in society (Ritzer & Murphy, 2019). The second concept is social fragmentation whereby these individuals appear to be split and isolated from the wider community. The third one is that of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby LGBTs need to support their views and labels if they want to change their societies.
In the second selection by Marley, several sociological concepts are evident that different listeners can use to understand the major social issues affecting them. First, social identity guides this musician to attack common malpractice that affects the progress of many people in society (Ritzer & Murphy, 2019). Second, value consensus is outstanding since it tries to encourage all human beings to consider the idea of love if they are to maintain desirable social order. Failure to pursue it means that more challenges will emerge and affect global cohesion.
The third song presents a number of concepts that should encourage more people to deal with racial injustice. The first one is that of exploitation whereby the whites appear to treat blacks negatively and deny them some of the essential opportunities, including quality education and health services. The second is that social identity whereby the musician tries to represent himself as a member of the African American community. He uses his position to encourage Americans to promote equality and justice for all (Ritzer & Murphy, 2019). The third concept is that of labeling whereby the white view blacks in a negative manner. The song condemns such malpractice by guiding people to consider new ways to make their societies more progressive and successful.
References
Darrah, P. (2020). Where music meets travel: 19 Songs to celebrate equality in 2019. Go Abroad.
Ritzer, G., & Murphy, W. W. (2019). The Wiley Blackwell companion to sociology. Wiley.