Songs of Success and Liberation

Success:

Weezer, “Beverly Hills”, Rock, 2005

Fergie, “Glamorous”, Pop, 2007

Jennifer Lopez, “Jenny From the Block”, Pop, 2002

Jay-z, “Big Pimpin”, Rap, 1999

Queen, “We are the Champions”, Rock, 1977

Liberation:

Sufjan Stevens, “Chicago”, Indie/Folk, 2005

John Lennon, “Imagine”, Rock, 1971

Frou Frou, “Let Go”, Indie/Electronica, 2002

Lynard Skynard, “Freebird”, Rock, 1973

REM “End of the World”, Rock, 1987

            The songs above are examples of popular music that reflect the Hindu aims of success and liberation. Success is definitely more prevalent in popular music than liberation. This is not surprising, considering how much our culture values material things. I also found that in most songs about success, the aim of pleasure is frequently intertwined. In our culture, success = pleasures. That’s exactly why you see Hugh Hefner at the beginning of the Weezer video with his three hot girlfriends and his big house. Our culture is obsessed with the idea that money creates happiness. With that being said, it’s interesting to note the popular phrase ‘money can’t buy happiness’. Well, which is it? Does monetary success add to the value of your life, or no? I personally feel that people’s lives are what they make of them, and that happiness is a decision. You can either decide to be happy, or not. We tend to forget that there are people in the world who don’t even have access to clean, safe, drinking water, yet we get distraught over not having the latest smart phone. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying winning the lottery wouldn’t add to the pleasures of your life. Buying a mansion in Hawaii would certainly make me happy. All I’m saying is that I don’t think money buys happiness; I just think money adds to your established happiness.

And how do you reach happiness? Hinduism would tell you to seek Liberation. They believe that self-realization leads to moksha, breaking the cycle of life, death, and re-birth. Self-realization goes much deeper than material happiness. This means that a divine wisdom or total knowledge of everybody, everything, everywhere and every time in the entire cosmos. This is rewarding for them since God only gives this wisdom to a qualified person who has sought knowledge for it’s own sake. In Western culture, we tend to seek liberation as well, but in a different way. We seek liberation in the form of freedom. In our culture, our music talks about freeing ourselves from the constraints of things like “the man”, persecution of religion, corruption of politics, and even material things. I think the Sufjan Stevens song is a great combination of the Hindu aim of liberation and the Western idea of liberation. He talks about getting rid of his clothes, and other material ‘things’ that we tend to let control us, yet also talks about the ideas of growing, knowing, and re-creation that is the basis for Hindu liberation. 

Songs of Pleasure & Community Service

Pleasure

Katy Perry, "I Kissed a Girl", Pop, 2008

Boys II Men, "I'll Make Love to You", R&B, 1994

Guns N' Roses, "Paradise City", Rock, 1987

Barry Louis Polisar, "All I Want is You", Folk, 1977

Ghetto Boys, "D*mn, it Feels Good to be a Gangsta", Rap, 1992

Community Service

The Beatles, "Help!", Rock, 1965

Michael Jackson, "Man in the Mirror", Pop, 1988

Dave Matthews Band, "You Might Die Tryin", Alternative, 2005

Jewel, "Hands", Folk/Rock, 1998

Black Eyed Peas, "Where is the Love", Hip Hop, 2003

The songs above are examples of popular music that reflect the Hindu aims of pleasure and community service. The aim of pleasure was extremely easy to connect with popular music as the ideas of love and partying dominate our popular culture. The aim of community service was not as prevalent, but not lacking. However, pleasure will always beat out community service simply because community service just isn’t as glamorous as pleasure. Our society puts emphasis on beauty, love, money, and happiness. Musicians know this, and they create music that will sell. On a Friday night, people want to dance to party music, not feel guilty for not donating money to Haiti.

I did notice a trend in songs dedicated to helping people. It’s almost as if it’s a popular subculture for musicians to better their career by releasing a song about an impoverished country. I’m not saying that every ‘heal the world’ song is fake, but that the possibility of a morale boost to an artists’ credibility shouldn’t be overlooked. I used a song by the Black Eyed Peas, who are a great example of this somewhat hypocritical idea. They release the song “Where is the Love”, about helping the world, but then release the song “My Humps”, about being given ridiculously expensive, designer label ‘things’, for simply looking extra fly. If they were as concerned for the less fortunate, or “practiced what they preached’ in “Where is the Love”, they wouldn’t be dumping their money into driving pimped out rides and wearing the latest from Versace. They’re not alone though. Most people, including myself, are like this to some extent. Yeah, community service is great, but it’s never going to be as great as falling in love and owning that sick ride you’ve always wanted.

The Hindu aims are different from the ideas expressed in popular music in a few ways. For pleasure, American culture typically does not follow the key Hindu aspect of moderation. In most cases, music today emphasizes over-indulgence. You hear songs all the time about getting fully intoxicated, like a G6. (i.e.: “when we drink, we do it right, gettin’ slizzard”. ) We differ in the aim of community service as well, only not in a bad way. In Hinduism, there are lists of things you can do based on your class or status. However, in western culture, there’s no suggestion, limit, minimum or forced amount of community service one can do. Anyone is free to do or give, or abstain from, anything they want in the realm of helping others.