Editing Protest song (section)

==Types==
[[File:Portrait_of_Billie_Holiday_and_Mister,_Downbeat,_New_York,_N.Y.,_ca._Feb._1947_(LOC,_5020400274,_cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Billie Holiday]]’s haunting rendition of "Strange Fruit" powerfully protested violence, making it a "rhetorical" protest song of political and social systems of her time.]]

The sociologist R. Serge Denisoff saw protest songs rather narrowly in terms of their function, as forms of persuasion or propaganda.<ref>R. Serge Denisoff, "Songs of Persuasion: A Sociological Analysis of Urban Propaganda Songs", ''The Journal of American Folklore'' Vol. 79, No. 314 (October – December 1966), pp. 581–589.</ref> Denisoff saw the protest song tradition as originating in the "psalms" or songs of grassroots [[Protestant]] religious revival movements, terming these hymns "protest-propaganda", as well.

Denisoff subdivided protest songs as either "magnetic" or "rhetorical". "Magnetic" protest songs were aimed at attracting people to the movement and promoting group solidarity and commitment – for example, "[[Keep Your Eyes on the Prize]]" and "[[We Shall Overcome]]". "Rhetorical" protest songs, on the other hand, are often characterized by individual indignation and offer a straightforward political message designed to change political opinion. Denisoff argued that although "rhetorical" songs often are not overtly connected to building a larger movement, they should nevertheless be considered as "protest-propaganda".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Denisoff|first=R.Serge|date=1966|title=Songs of Persuasion: A Sociological Analysis of Urban Propaganda Songs|journal=The Journal of American Folklore|volume=79|issue=314|page=584|doi=10.2307/538223|jstor=538223}}</ref> Examples include [[Bob Dylan]]'s "[[Masters of War]]" (which contains the lines "I hope that you die / And your death'll come soon") and "[[What's Going On (Marvin Gaye song)|What's Going On]]" by [[Marvin Gaye]].

Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison, in ''Music and Social Movements: Mobilizing Tradition in the Twentieth Century'' (1998), take issue with what they consider Denisoff's reductive approach to the history and function of song (and particularly traditional song) in social movements. They point out that Denisoff had paid little attention to the song tunes of protest music, considered them strictly subordinate to the texts, a means to the message. It is true that in the highly text-oriented western European song tradition, tunes can be subordinate, interchangeable, and even limited in number (as in Portuguese ''[[fado]]'', which only has 64 tunes), nevertheless, Eyerman and Jamison point out that some of the most effective protest songs gain power through their appropriation of tunes that are bearers of strong cultural traditions.<ref>Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison, ''Music and Social Movements: Mobilizing Tradition in the Twentieth Century'' (Cambridge, UK, 1998), p. 43.</ref> They also note that:<blockquote>There is more to music and movements than can be captured within a functional perspective, such as Denisoff's, which focuses on the use made of music within already-existing movements. Music, and song, we suggest, can maintain a movement even when it no longer has a visible presence in the form of organizations, leaders, and demonstrations, and can be a vital force in preparing the emergence of a new movement. Here the role and place of music needs to be interpreted through a broader framework in which tradition and ritual are understood as processes of identity and identification, as encoded and embodied forms of collective meaning and memory.<ref>Eyerman and Jamison, ''Music and Social Movements''(1998), pp. 43–44.</ref></blockquote>

[[Martin Luther King Jr.]] described the freedom songs this way: "They invigorate the movement in a most significant way... these freedom songs serve to give unity to a movement."<ref>"Protest Movements: Class Consciousness and the Propaganda Song", ''Sociological Quarterly'', vol. 9, Spring 1968, pp. 228–247.</ref>