Case Studies in the Cultural and Political Uses of Popular Music

Jeannette Beebout
WR 241
David Biespiel
April 4, 2013

Case Studies in the Cultural and Political Uses of Popular Music

In the past, my three friends enticed me to free
my docile gain and live with no oppositions.
Similar to their  careless personalities,
they wanted me to unnotch my tie as if
it were the thing keeping me domesticated.
From miles and roads away, the scent of Jumanji
washed over us like a vail on a bride.
Was it in fact the smell, or was it the creeping fog?
Regretfully, I pressed on with them, into the dark graveyard.
The hooting owls and woody plot scared me
and I felt the hair on my nape stand as chills flooded my body.
It was too late to turn back, cause I’d be alone.
If somehow, you were at God’s level up there,
and could majestically peel back the layer of smoke,
underneath the raw cloud, there was a gathering.
A rave preceeded from a pipe, and the
oppressed sounds of post-war French music a-
beamed from the old sound-system in his beat up car. It was alive.
Each strike of the piano key brought a similar thud, thud, thudding,
loud enough to wake those whose homes we stood above.
My heart raced as the people I trusted nagged,
pressuring me to sin a sin that costed mere cents.
Now this plant was neither aloe or soy,
or one that could pop leaves off and live without consequence.
No, the epidermis of this plant was both
everlasting and a lifesaving tool.
Specifically, this was a demi strain of ganja.
It came from unique descent, greater than the rest.
Even on a weak day, it’s power surpassed it’s cousin.
Imagine on that naturally starless night,
how the oppressed had freedom and got their voice back,
and spoke directly into the mic to my heart.
We let the white surround us; the night we all became one.