Popular music can not only tell us about the conditions of the time that contributed to its creation, but also call for social change. Artists, such as, Bob Marley, hold counter-cultural perspectives that they express through their lyrics as well as hold through their persona and image as an artist, which influences the society.
Bob Marley can be seen as a counter-cultural icon, as he called upon people to address the “Real Situation” and to rebel against greed and racism. As a Pan-Africanist, stemming from his Rasrafari religious beliefs, Marley believed in the unity of African people worldwide. In the song "Africa Unite", he sings of a desire for all people of the African diaspora to come together and fight against "Babylon", a term used by Rastafarians for a powerful, yet immoral place or government. Relating that in the bible to the reality of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. “Marley came from the poverty and injustice in Jamaica, and that manifested…show more content… As well as being influenced by the preaching style in Jamaican musical tradition, showing links to the islands rich African musical heritage through the drum, rhythm and movement (Hendriques, 2011: 11). This provided a foundation to the beats that turned Ska, the type of music that influenced Marley as he grew up, into Reggae as a musical form in his own songs. As well as being a member of the Rastafari Movement, whose culture played a defining role in the development of reggae. Marley took the music out of the socially deprived areas of Jamaica and into the light of the international music
One feature of the Payola System is its hegemonic influence. Antonio Gramsci developed the philosophy and the sociology of geopolitical into the theory of cultural hegemony, whereby one social class can manipulate the system of values and mores of a society, in order to create and establish a ruling-class