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Occupy Wallstreet Music on Youtube

anon@indymedia.org (ionnek) | 16.11.2011 00:55 | London

On hearing that the occupation in New York Zuccotti Park was evicted this morning, I spent a few hours browsing for more info. On youtube, I stumbled across something rather different. As one youtuber puts it: "Occupya Wall Street is trying to find its musical groove as the demonstrators show no sign of stopping their revolutionary revolt against corporate greed". I'll share some examples and wonder if the revolution will be youtubed after all.

David Harvey pointed out that apart from organising and assembling, building a social movement is fun - so looking at the music of the Occupy movements makes sense. One thing is the music that is being played in the squares, but then there is also the music people use in their hommages to the movements on youtube.

I'm not so much interested in the quality of the pieces, don't know much about music anyway - but it strikes me how many people take the time to express their political emotions on youtube via music. Some do it under the impression of an occupation, like this young guy with his guitar who sings a song he thought about while being at Occupy Los Angeles. Others turn to Youtube precisely because they can't participate physically, but want to contribute anyway, for instance this guy, very emotional, who can't go to an occupation but dedicates a song to "them who stand for all of us".

Some clips are like these fans videos made for a favourite popstar - photos lifted from the web, overlaid by some tunes. Considering the range of chosen tunes, the Occupy Wallstreet supporters must be a varied bunch.

Someone collected images found on youtube, flickr, facebook etc and combined them with The Who's "we won't get fooled again". Another one used Reggae/Rock: "Stand tall" by Rya Fraser - and got a hearty thank you from Brisbane in the comments. An "Occupy Wall Street Tribute" counters mainstream media representation of the protests by showing photos of protesting "people who are not hippie slackers", overlaid by The Beatles' "Come Together". "Talking about a revolution" can't be left out - here combined with pics and sound from Occupy Wallstreet on Oct 5th.

Sentiments of "the nation", kind of "the better America" thing, seem to be quite widespread. Radiohead's national anthem is remixed and accompanied by images of a violent police raid on Occupy Wallstreet. The uploader says: "This is the most important video that I have created thus far" and encourages massive redistribution. A rap-style piece about the occupiers agenda is dedicated "America" and "to everyone out there in the streets protesting" and mixes the US flag with audio footage from the occupations.

Some musicians used their own songs and added protest footage from occupy wallstreet, for instance Iris Eve. And there's a remix of political speeches with some techno-ish beats, directed at the "99%" and claiming that "this is our chance to restore the American dream".

Quite a few people made their own songs, like a slightly boring singer songwriter. Another one identifies the need for the movement's very own protest song and attempts to "fill the gap" with his own creation to the tune of "Give peace a chance". The singer-songwriter protest song style seems to be rather popular on youtube. Here's one by Spencer Livingstone, one by Evan Wilson, one by Square of the Roots from Springfield, Illionis, and another one about the American dream.

Many rappers/hip hoppers created new songs for the Occupy Movement, like "Better Days" by Rob Royalty & Flick Millan, or the "Regular Man" song. The rhytm is taken from peoplechanting the slogan "Occupy Wallstreet". More rap is here and here and in one of the many 99% songs, one of the few with women in it. Finally another "Anthem for the Occupiers" starts with the Anonymous trademark greeting: "We do not forgive. We do not forget" and closes with the slogan: "We come to occupy".

 


anon@indymedia.org (ionnek)
- Original article on IMC London: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/10981