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I am not minimizing music. I am elevating it by giving it its full due. It exists independently of everything else and is universal, - in sync with the pulse of humanity. Movements come and go but music exists independently of them. "We Shall Overcome" is a song is a song is song. The civil rights movement proved to be superficial but "We shall Overcome" is still what it always was; a song. You've relegated music to being a tool. I think of it as a companion. But this is quibbling. It can be both and that's the beauty of music; it different things to different people. Also, you and Troy keep saying that corporations have taken over Rap/Hip Hop. What do you guys mean by this? Are moguls like Jay-Z and Dr. Dre. and Puffy Combes and Russell Simmons a part of the problem or a part of the solution?

That is what is going on but I would suggest researching music and its ability to change things. At the core of communication for many cultures is the drum. Many would argue that the removal of the drum from the African in America is partially to blame for the way slaves were broken. I definitely feel that the shift in music from loving and empowerment, to disrespect and ignorance is the thing that has broken black America. There has always been racism and various isms in society. There have always been roadblocks. The one constant in our communities was music. But I'm not alone in this. If you think about the regression in the black community it coincides with the rise of Hip-Hop and Reaganomics. Black music lost its voice and control...the griots were silenced. James Brown went from black and proud to living in America. Jazz moved from Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra to Kenny g. The beauty and power of Motown was lost in the moonwalk and hip-hop was silenced by corporate America. Oddly enough if you research the origins of We Shall Overcome you will find that it is tied into the labor movement and foundation of unions so this point had more to do with how music actually shaped a movement prior to Rosa. You should also look at the Freedom Singers and Berenice Reagon who wrote about this. I remember teaching a course and the essay music in our hands was my one of the sources I used in argumentative essays. I'm on my kindle so I'm not going to dig that deep but I definitely plan on revisiting this in a book. I think people are failing to understand just how influential music is. Also James weldon johnson was more than that one song and his life and music shaped more than most blacks know. To minimize the importance of music and say that Lincoln didn't free slaves because of music, or slave uprisings weren't successful is to overlook that often slave uprisings were planned during camp meetings were faux worship was taking place. Music undercut what the masters thought was taking place and music humanized blacks and assisted in abolition. And that meagerly number was at least a number attempted by Tubman and countless songs were involved. But we are looking at music differently. I see solutions there.