Thursday, January 13, 2011
Eve of Destruction!
I do not think we should be so quick to undermine the efforts of these Vietnam protestors regardless of their intentions. Artists such as Barry McGuire may be phonies, however, their impact upon audiences was substantial and, in many cases, evoked "sincere" responses of anti-war sentiment. In that case, I believe we should give these figures of protest more credit to their impact and not entirely focus on their personal characters. It reminds me of the Lynn Rabinowitz paradox--her intentions are questionable and her motives are driven by a fascination of her symbolic conception of the African American culture as "Art." Many white student civil rights activists perhaps had similar intentions but their impact does not go unnoticed and, as we studied, is often seen as heroic. In terms of Vietnam protest, how do we purely analyze an artist such as Barry McGuire who, needless to say, had a number one hit through "Eve of Destruction"? Do we study McGuire in terms of sincerity, impact, or a mixture of the two?
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We should study both impact and intention as both give an insight to the culture of the time. The impact is obviously important because of its shaping of culture and history. While the intentions of a person's actions give hints to what many think of the time. The intentions of a historical or cultural figure leads to the thoughts of the time, giving a more accurate feeling of the time.
ReplyDeleteBoth. Like cause and effect. The effect may seem like the stronger, more important aspect because it is the change or so, but studying the cause helps us better understand the effect. Such is with the intentions and impact of the song. I mean, once we understood the insincerity, it was almost quite upsetting and did lessen the justification of the impact. Does that make sense? I'm not sure I know how to explain myself..
ReplyDeleteAlso, good/interesting connection
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