Monday morning, kind of

Who: Dick Pleasants and Dave Palmater of WUMB Radio Station
Where: UMass Boston
When: Day 1, 12:55 pm
What: Tour of radio station and interview the announcer/hosts
Why: To learn about the evolution of protest music from some real sources

Today the snow and rain started our trip to Boston out on a one-hour delay, and we arrived…after a three hour ride. Our noon appointment at the radio station was only delayed one hour, though, after the four of us and Ms. Shepp scrambled to drop things at the hotel and then ride the underground and shuttle bus to UMass.

So for our music protest first adventure we got to chat with Dick and Dave about the history and essence of protest music. We were greeted by the station’s general manager Pat Monteith. To say the least, we learned a lot; the fact that Dick and Dave disagreed on just about anything made everything a bit more animated. The session started at 12:55 and we got out at about 2, with our brains full of knowledge about protest music. Their forte was definitely folk music, which started it all. There were records and records of old folk music, and beyond that, countless tapes. It was kind of mind-boggling to be behind the scenes of a media source you never get to see to begin with.

Dick and Dave had the typical radio-guy voices. It was kind of funny.

Our questions ranged from specific topic to topic, and gradually we moved our way through the protest music timeline. Technically, protest music has been around for a long, long time – since the 1600s. But we didn’t go back that far… We started around the 1960s, where protests of the Vietnam war movement melded into the popular music of the 60s. Folk music was pretty much the only genre that portrayed protests. As time went on, however, protests made their way to punk music, which was the new folk (as ironic as it sounds). Think about it – Folk music was generally left-wing and stood for a cause: punk music was angry, energetic, and left-wing as well. With punk in the 70s there was a new scene in the music media…no longer was the older generation speaking out. Now the young people were getting into protesting too, even if the rock riffs were centered around how awful parents are…!

The next truly folk form since punk music is rap, as it appeared in the 1980s, not in its current gangsta format. WUMB had interviewed author Tricia Rose, about the true origins of rap, and generously gave us a cd of that interview.

We asked Dave and Dick what makes protest music protest music – is it raising an issue, or raising an issue with an opinion? Dick said that, unquestionably, it had to present an opinion. Dave, on the other hand, said that raising an issue to people's awareness can be just as effective.

We also asked the two what makes a protest song powerful – is it being blunt and to the point, or with fleshy metaphors? Our answer was this: most of the time, protest music will be to the point; metaphors can be too difficult to decipher, especially if there is a cause that should be held up for immediate attention. However…! Metaphors can be extremely powerful and impressive because of their difficulty to write, and expand upon for a good songful three minutes. As rare as they are, songs based in metaphor can be just as powerful, if not more, than a to-the-point protest song about a specific time, place or (dreadful) president. So they’re rarer but have the staying power.

We parted ways after shaking hands, and Pat Monteith came back into the room and gave us each cds they published, containing songs written by WUMB listeners /songwriters for a contest the station held; the contest was centered around creating songs to express the book To Kill a Mockingbird, which is the book of “Big Read: Boston” program (www.wumb.org/thebigread). With new music and new information with us, we headed to our next adventure.

(Check out the WUMB radio station website www.wumb.org!)