Vivienne Chester

WONDER/LAND:

ACTIVISM IN MUSIC WRITING

Now More Than Ever: Australian Music as a Transcendent Tool for Social Change.

vivienne Chester would really be much happier as a guinea pig.

With the investigation into allegations of misogyny against Sony Australia ongoing at the time of writing, it is important to remember the ways in which music can transcend its production and produce positive societal change. Music has a unique ability to provoke emotions and encourage empathy in a catchy and palatable format – it brings people together! It is because of this that music is more than just a collection of sounds. Music is a force for change.

Marginalised groups in Australia are using music to express themselves and bring issues to the forefront of the Australian cultural debate. Thelma Plum is a Gamilaraay woman whose song ‘Better in Blak’ has been certified gold in Australia – you’ve probably heard it being played on the radio. The song’s lyrics – apart from being catchy – serve to bring feminism and Aboriginal representation into the pop sphere in Australia. Plum, when asked about her motive to write the song, responded “there was absolutely no representation in mainstream media.”

Brisbane based band Cub Sport also use music as a tool for social change. The band’s most popular song to date – ‘Come On Mess Me Up’ – has been certified platinum, and came in at number 24 on Triple J’s Hottest 100 in 2016. The band uses its platform to promote LGBT+ rights in Australia. Many of their songs – apart from being catchy – spread this message. After same-sex marriage was legalised in 2017, front-man Tim Nelson claimed that the song’s popularity had helped spread the message of equality across the Australian airwaves.

A bit closer to home, Perth singer-songwriter Stella Donnelly made waves with her single ‘Boys Will Be Boys’, released in 2017 amidst the burgeoning Australian #metoo movement. The album in which ‘Boys Will Be Boys’ belongs is currently sitting on 5.5 million Spotify streams. On her bold feminist lyrics (such as “Boys will be boys/ Deaf to the word ‘no’”) and the enormous international impact they have produced, Donnelly stated, “being a feminist makes me accountable for how others are being treated, not just how I’ve been treated and how I want to be treated.”

Modern Australian musicians are using their music as a medium to create social change, producing tracks that transcend their original form to become resonating statements of activism. However, this is nothing new. Australian music has a long history of protest

and social activism. Born in 1912, Peggy Glanville-Hicks was a hugely influential Australian composer who paved the way for women in music. Glanville-Hicks wrote several major operas and has a yearly address named in her honour. Through her music, this trailblazer was able to forge a path for women musicians in Australia.

Jumping forward to the 1970’s, music was an essential part of the second-wave feminist movement in Australia. Helen Reddy’s hit track ‘I Am Woman’ proved that it was more than just a catchy tune when it was played at protests around the country. The 1970’s also saw the start of Australia’s Gay Liberation movement. An anthem for those involved that became popular on mainstream radio was Supernaut’s ‘I Like It Both Ways’, with the track’s suggestive lyrics bringing LGBT+ issues to the forefront of public consciousness.

First Nations people have also been using song as a medium to promote issues such as land rights and equality, for decades. Music proved an effective communication tool for many artists because of the form’s unique ability to take difficult issues and make them palatable to a mainstream that could otherwise be quite resistant to these messages. In 1985 the Warumpi Band released ‘Blackfella/Whitefella’, a resounding call for equality throughout Australia. They then toured with Midnight Oil, who produced perhaps one of Australia’s most iconic rock songs to date, ‘Beds are Burning’ – a track that recounts the abhorrent treatment of the First Nations communities they visited on tour. The enormous popularity of the track – as well as its catchy chorus – propelled the issue of equality into the limelight.

Other songs from First Nations artists, such as Archie Roach’s ‘Took the Children Away’ (1990) and Kevin Carmody and Paul Kelly’s ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’ (1993), have directly influenced Australian culture in the long term – culminating in events such as Kevin Rudd’s ‘Sorry’ speech in 2008.

It is hard to believe that Australian culture and indeed Australian history would look the same without our music. As a form, music is more than just the act of writing and listening to a collection of sounds. It is a cultural and interpersonal exchange capable of creating shifts in popular culture. Music transcends its form when it is used as a force for change.

My Winter Glow Down

megAn runDle is mentally stable again now that Love Island is back

I wore shorts today.

Yes, it’s very cold I know, but both of my sweatpants were in the wash and what was I meant to do? Wear jeans when I’m lying down on the couch all day? Outrageous!

So I wore my shorts today and I noticed two things. Firstly, I should own more than two pairs of sweatpants, and secondly, HOLY SHIT I need to shave my legs!

Glorious they were, like two mammals warmly covered in a thick coat of fur. I’d never seen my leg hairs that dark before. I couldn’t help but stroke my newly fashioned legs. Not prickly at all, but soft and gentle. If anyone walked in, it would have looked like I was patting one of my cats, but I wasn’t. It was just both of my legs. As I patted, I realised this was the start. The start of my very own ‘Winter Glow Down’.

We’ve all heard of the ‘Summer Glow Up’, where one may lose weight, tan, dye their hair, and basically do anything to just look HOT. Trust me, I respect the grind but I’ve always wondered about winter. What about when our body goes into hibernation mode and we just disregard our appearances entirely? Well, the wondering must come to an end because I’ve decided that as a society, yeah as a SOCIETY, we should own our Winter Glow Down just as much as our Summer Glow Up.

I used to think winter was a time to prepare myself for summer. Where I could work out in the freezing cold, just so I could look good for the thirst trap bikini photos I’d post in five

months’ time. I was living for summer and wasn’t really living in the present.

This winter, however, I did it a little differently. It wasn’t on purpose, but I completely let myself go. I don’t know about you, but this past semester I fully burnt out. I don’t even know what happened in it. I blacked out. Was last semester in 2021? I don’t know. My body was tired and I needed rest.

After exams that’s exactly what I did. I watched a billion shows on Netflix, stopped tanning, slept a lot, made myself pancakes, and just did whatever the heck I wanted. I had completely forgotten my usual summer preparation process.

This is where the patting the hairy legs part comes in — I realised that I was in fact ‘glowing down’. I could literally see my body just letting go, and the cool thing was, I didn’t give a shit. Just chilling out for a season and letting myself get a lil’ ugly, was exactly what I needed to restart and calm down, rather than worry about how I’ll look in a couple months’ time when we actually start wearing shorts again. You know what, I was happy and hairy.

Seriously, fuck Summer Glow Ups. This winter, glow the fuck down and just let yourself go. Take some time to rest on the rainy days in, and look after your body by letting it rest. I’m not even joking, my skin has actually improved by glowing down…wait, does that mean I’m glowing up? Maybe my Winter Glow Down is actually glowing me up after all…oh god, I’ve gotta restart this article.