Rebel Music 6 Tracy Chapman

by Alex "NLP co-editor Maeve McKeown on the quietly subversive music of Tracy Chapman..." " The history of folk music is littered with lonesome, humble, beardy men with a guitar, strumming tunes of political freedom. But in 1988, along came Tracy Chapman, an African-American woman singing about poverty, racism, gender inequality, domestic violence and life in the ghetto. When her debut album was released at the age of just 24, she caused a sensation. Not only did her music stand out amidst her contemporaries - a music scene dominated by synths and electro pop - but she married the mainly white political folk tradition of the sixties, with African-American soul and blues. An all-round outsider. After an appearance at Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday tribute concert, she shot to fame, gaining awards and glory from the Grammys to the Brits. Not a bad trajectory for a girl brought up by a single mother in Cleveland, Ohio. Throughout her career, Tracy has remained an activist, campaigning on issues including Apartheid, human rights, and AIDS. Many of the other artists featured in this series write angry, noisy, hardcore songs, designed to shock people out of their apathy and get their hearts thumping. What I love about Tracy Chapman's music is that she writes about devastating and tragic themes, but sings it to you as if it were a lullaby. Her most iconic song, Fast Car, lilts along slowly and calmly, lulling you into a sense of security; but look at the lyrics: You see my old man's got a problem He live with the bottle that's the way it is He says his body's too old for working I say his body's too young to look like his My mama went off and left him She wanted more from life than he could give I said somebody's got to take care of him So I quit school and that's what I did In this verse, she sums up the situation of so many women who live in poverty, forced to abandon their education and ambitions to care for another; in this case an alcoholic father. You get the sense that his alcoholism stems from his desperation, and yet feel angry at the dreadful situation in which this places his daughter. Her mother left, but can you really blame her? The daughter dreams about driving off in a fast car with her boyfriend, getting a job so they can "buy a bigger house and live in the suburbs". But you know that this is just a dream. Incidentally, Fast Car is the highest-ranking song both written and performed by a woman in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Another difference with the artists in the series is that Tracy Chapman could be considered to some extent mainstream. She has won many major awards and one of her songs was even covered by Boyzone! But that doesn't necessarily mean that her music is any less subversive. Consider another of her early songs, "Talkin' Bout a Revolution": Dont you know Theyre talkin about a revolution It sounds like a whisper While theyre standing in the welfare lines Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation Wasting time in the unemployment lines Sitting around waiting for a promotion Poor people gonna rise up And get their share Poor people gonna rise up And take whats theirs This doesn't sound like mainstream or liberal sentiment to me. "Talkin' Bout a Revolution" charted at #75 in the US. What Tracy Chapman managed to do, was to bring challenging revolutionary ideas to a mass audience. She challenged the complacency of white America, bringing anti-racist, anti-poverty songs straight into their homes. Her music and political campaigning continue to challenge to the present day. Tracy Chapman is beautiful, exceptional, inimitable - a true inspiration. "Maeve McKeown is a co-editor of New Left Project and a Political Theory PhD student at University College London."

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