Reading Response: Teenagers, War, and the Power of Music

Teenagers. Creative, volatile, passionate, spontaneous, and the future of the world. Both the rappers we read about today, and many of the smaller names mentioned in the Tablet Mag article, began their work before they were even in high school, full to the brim with ideas and dreams about a bright and better future. The Heartbeat Project, too, uses music to bring young people together to find common ground. It's not hard, when you're 16. It's so much easier to see someone from the 'other side' as just another kid who gets grounded by unreasonable parents and is nervous about that biology test next week than 'the enemy'.

War. I am fortunate enough to have grown up a pretty stereotypical, middle-class, liberal family in a quiet neighborhood in Columbus. I do not know war. I will not pretend to understand. All I know is what I read in the media, which, as we have been discussing in class, is unavoidably operating with a second agenda. I realize that growing up in such a conflicted and contested place would create a deep rift even between people so malleable as teenagers. It is a different world.

The Power of Music. Everyone listens to music. All types, all languages, all occasions, all times of day. It seems to appeal to a deeper level of humanity we all share, one that provokes emotion in a way we cannot describe. Teenagers plus war could only lead to something so powerful as music: angry music, pained music, proud music. Leftist Israelis call Subliminal racist; the right wing named him a true patriot. His fellow rappers shunned him as the musician who killed the Israeli hip hop scene; he is looking to find European and American audiences. Israeli Jews hate Israeli Arabs for being Arab; Arabs hate Israeli Arabs for being Israeli. DAM is under fire for 'suporting terrorism'; they also collaborated with UN Women to raise worldwide awareness about 'honour killings'. Music tells two messages: what the singer sings, and what the listener hears. It is a difference beyond the words of the song.

Discussion Questions:

1. What role will rap play, if any, in the peace process?

2. Do you see the work of the two musicians we read about as positive or counterproductive?