"It’s Not So Easy to Be Free": The Sounds of Protest in Folk Rock.

The 1960s and 1970s were a time of profound societal and political upheaval in the U.S., truly a maelstrom of sociohistorical transformation. Folk rock artists in this milieu would articulate sounds of protest in America as they expressed the struggles and concerns of their day. Artists spoke to iss...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters Vol. 102; pp. 313 - 332
Autor principal: Martinez, Theresa A.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters 2025
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:The 1960s and 1970s were a time of profound societal and political upheaval in the U.S., truly a maelstrom of sociohistorical transformation. Folk rock artists in this milieu would articulate sounds of protest in America as they expressed the struggles and concerns of their day. Artists spoke to issues that impacted poor and working people. They reflected on the extraordinary movements of disenfranchised groups, particularly the Civil Rights movement. They spoke to a brutal war in Vietnam that was costing thousands of lives. This paper focuses on a lyrical and thematic analysis of the work of selected folk rock artists as they reflected on and responded to the sociohistorical context of their times. The paper specifically unpacks the lyrics of our selected artists through a theoretical lens that examines oppositional cultures or cultures of resistance within marked social locations or cultural formations—an authentic and strident response to the chaos of their times.