Political science professors Beth Henschen and Edward Sidlow discussed Motown classics that have been hailed as anthems of revolutions and that often originally had much different meanings in a talk on unintentional activism to 25 students on Tuesday.
The talk was part of Women’s History Month. It highlighted “Dancing in the Street” by Martha and the Vandellas and Aretha Franklin’s version of “Respect,” two prominent female artists from Detroit.
Henschen and Sidlow tag-teamed the lecture, taking turns giving the history context of the songs and the artists.
“When I think about Motown music I do think of it in that activist type of way,” said senior history major Brittany Best. “That’s how I think most teachers portray it in a lower level setting. To think of it as accidental activism is really interesting to me.”
Sidlow said “Dancing in the Street” has been viewed as a call to arms for urban unrest.
He said Marvin Gaye and William “Mickey” Stevenson saw kids playing in water coming out of a fire hydrant on a hot summer day. Gaye thought it looked like the kids were dancing in the street and they wrote a song around the idea.
According to Sidlow, the song, whose lyrics he thinks are rudimentary, is not about activism.
“An anthem, give me a break, it’s children playing in the water,” he said.
He said that unrest in America and fighting in western Europe turned it into a song that had qualities that were larger than life.
Henschen started with Otis Redding’s original version of “Respect” and said that Franklin “Aretha-ized” it.
She said that Franklin turned the meaning of the song inside out and activists have made it the voice of the feminist and Civil Rights movements.
“People have poured meaning into [the song],” she said.
Henschen said Franklin’s list of idols consisted of men like Redding and Sam Cook and suggested Franklin simply wanted to prove herself to be in their league.
Sidlow said Barry Gordy, founder of the Motown record label, did not want any of his songs to create unrest. He, and the artists at the label, just wanted to get rich and be stars.
“It was good time music,” Sidlow said.
Sophomore Elizabeth Krochmalny, political science major, is working with Henschen on her honors thesis about politics in music.
“Its really impressive learning all of these small tidbits about why these songs came to be,” Krochmalny said.
Arnold Fleischmann, head of the political science department, said he didn’t understand the history of the music before the lecture.
“I know the music but I would have been in grade school and high school for this so you didn't have a feel for where these things came from,” Fleischmann said. “You just reacted to them at the time.”
Henschen said that finding a message in these songs might deteriorate them.
“These songs are examples of songs that endure,” Henschen said.
