University:
University of Wyoming
Course:
HP3151 | Mass Media and Collective Consciousness
Academic year:

2023
Views:

147

Pages:

1
Author:

Allison B.

Listening to all of the tracks on the album, I found a strong correlation between the themes in the album and those of our course thus far. The notions of our future, racism, changing generations, media consumption, news organization falling to corporate ownership, and the present failure of capitalism to extinguish poverty. Ever present in the album too is a sense of dread and fear even, that global violence or the climate crisis will win out and that it is the time now and the new generation’s time to confront these issues in the years to come. Focusing specifically on the track of “Next Movement”: The themes I mentioned above are present, and the messages are impressively relevant, especially given the album was published in 2011. Molina acknowledges racism and how society was structured in the 1980s to benefit those at the top, where the wealth sites, leaving the middle-class struggling and those in poverty suspended there. He points out that children of color are more likely to live in poverty than their caucasian counterparts, an undeniable truth still today. Additionally, he speaks of the upcoming elections in 2012 (midterms), 2016, and 2020 and how they would be fundamental for change and youth activism. I found this part of the song particularly chilling, given the undeniable changes the US has experienced in this length of time, especially politically with the transition from President Obama to the Trump administration to now President Biden’s administration. It is also undeniable that youth activism and voter turnout are at a high point, highlighting Molina’s observations (and predictions in a way) of youth activism, finding their own way to speak out against challenges established in past generations that will come reach a critical point in our lifetimes.