Joe Glazer: A Voice of the Unions

Hello world, this is my first attempt at a legitimate blog so here goes. I am enrolled in a class called Music of Resistance, Revolution, and Liberation at Westminster College. The purpose of this class and blog is to understand how music can be shaped to address social and political issues. The class will show different ways in which music exist as a catalyst for social and political change. We will study people, songs and events that caused social and political changes and how they impacted the world. Finally, we will apply the history of this style of music and apply them to contemporary issues and how today's musicians are addressing these issues.

Music is something that I hold very close to my heart. I am a musician and it is the only thing that I consider myself good at. I have dedicated myself to learning a number of instruments and styles and without music, I would not be where I am today or have the friends that music has allowed me to make. I took this class as an opportunity to further my knowledge of a topic that I am so passionate about and to understand the roots of such a revolutionary form of music. I want to come out of this class inspired by musicians who not only make great music, but helped change the world. I hope to be able to use this knowledge to express myself on another level.

http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/video/CFV10055_220k_480_w.swf

The link above is a video about an artist by the name of Joe Glazer. Glazer was known for being a labor activist and founder of Collector records. Glazer sang for presidents such as Kennedy and Truman and with his record label, he was able to spread awareness of union rights to the masses. He also helped other artist with the same message spread their music.


More information on Joe Glazer can be found here:
http://www.laborheritage.org/?p=657
http://www.wfma.net/glazer.htm

 I chose to cover Joe Glazer because I felt his sincerity to this issue. Having experience with record labels, I understand how beneficial a label can be to an artist through distribution. Glazer saw this and made it happen on his own. Glazer understood that to get a message across through a song, the words and verses had to be simple for people to understand. Because of this, Glazer took traditional song melodies such as "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah" and used his own lyrics to spread his message. His main theme was unity among workers. If the workers did not stick together then the union would fall apart. This concept can be applied to anything and that is what really had an impact on me. His music is the greatest vessel to express his feelings on certain issues. He stated that music builds the spirit. This is a quote that I believe represents the true nature of music and of this class.

Express yourself,
Felix