Looking back to the beginning of our blog posts, I was able to connect blog 2 and blog 3. Blog 2 was about Jimmi Hendrix and the national anthem. Blog 3 was about how black music has often related to their african american hardships. In my 2nd blog post I believed that Jimi Hendrix was able to create his version of the national anthem in a way that spoke about hardships america has faced. This can easily be connected to “Every Tone was a Testimony,” which explained how black music often interpreted hardships african Americans have faced. Jimmi Hnedrix used the national anthem, which is a very prideful song, and added depth to it. Although many thought it was transgressive, few thought it was meaningful. I believe it was a way to explain the emotions during the war. Although i don’t think Jimi Hendrix tied the War with the pain of African Americans, he did tie it to the pain of Americans in general.  He was able to alter the anthem and get a great deal of attention because of it. Just as Marie did when she sang the “Black National Anthem.” In order for many social issues to be heard artists have to find a way to create attention towards it or it might not even be acknowledged. The video of Jimi Henrdix and the article work hand in hand together. In the end to tell a story, you must be able to grab the attention of an audience. Artists like John Legend, J.cole, Tupac, and Billie Holiday, were all able to talk about everyday discriminatory issues, and prejudice. Music can talk about the past, present and future, and it so happens that many songs written or sung by african american artists explain a long fight people of color have been dealing with. Jimi Hendrix created a few songs that were able to speak about oppression. Songs like “freedom” and “Machine Gun” were not easy to understand right away. Hendrix did change lyrics every time he was on stage when performing some of these songs, but in the end he was able to tie in with the black panther party or other people of color who were being mistreated. As time has passed in this class I feel that I have had my eyes open to a lot that I wasn’t aware of. Is it sad that I feel like I learned more about history in this class than my actual history class?

I stand by what I said in my blog posts, many artists have to talk about what’s going on in order for it to be acknowledged. They already have a lot of fan base so it’s easier to get the message around.