Music by the Marginalized

        When people feel disregarded, forgotten, or mistreated by society, music can serve as a great outlet of expression. Words alone may not let them show how they feel, but a song containing rhythm and a meaning behind its lyrics can let people not only express their feelings for themselves, but to also show the rest of society how they feel and have been treated. A beautiful thing about music is that anyone can turn to it when they have these feelings, but as seen by various examples, music can be a great tool for different marginalized groups. Marginalized groups can be characterized to include groups that live non-normal lives or have non-typical social identities that is responded with disrespect or mistreatment. Various marginalized groups have used music to express themselves.Even during slavery, slaves would create songs to communicate but also to express the sorrow and misery of slavery. And then during the era of Jim Crow, African Americans and civil rights activists would often break into song during marches or speeches, because sometimes a song is the best way to express yourself. And to this day, African Americans still use music, specifically hip-hop, to express societal problems they have experienced, whether it be police brutality or intergenerational poverty. Other groups that have been forgotten or disrespected have also used music to express themselves. During the counter-culture of the 1960s and 70s, hippies who lived very “un-normal” lives created free expression music that questioned the status quo. And later the creation of grunge and punk rock music was birthed from the societal angst of a group that many of at the time would consider weird. When a group of people are mistreated or forgotten by society, music can serve as a great form of expression because it might actually make the rest of society hear them.