Marissa Corpus Soc 142 Participation Article

            The first article that I chose was "How Social Movements Do Culture" by William G. Roy.  In this article the author compares two moments in history: the People's Songster Movement and the Civil Rights Movement.  While these moments in history occurred at two separate times in the 1900's, they were movement's that had a primary focus on integrating folk music as a form of culture.  The People's Song Movement was during the 1930's through the 1940's; this was a communist-led movement.  Folk music during this time was meant to reach the working class of the United States.  The music turned out to be more of a performance rather than involving their targeted audience.  On the other hand, the Civil Rights Movement was a very successful movement in that the folk music involved the people.  It didn't matter who was singing, what mattered was what the people were singing together.  This enabled a type of solidarity in what they were standing up for.  The author stated that music does not have a lot of influence on cultural movement anymore.  Most music these days is something to be bought and listened to rather than being involved in. 

Marissa Corpus Soc 142