LOUDER: The Soundtrack of Change

So, I need you to repeat after me.

We are here!

We are here!

Women have used their music as a form of resistance for decades.

Taking risks.

We're ashamed that the President of the United States is Texan.

Singing the truth, even when the world is telling you to shut up.

I think music is one of the most powerful ways

to put a message out there.

This girl is on fire

This girl is on fire

We're walking on fire

Music has the ability to bypass this, this brain.

Music goes straight here.

And when something says the things

that you may not be able to articulate yourself,

it becomes part of you.

Music is more powerful now than ever,

because it's an example where people come together.

We have an opportunity today

that a lot of women before us paved the way to do,

and that's to be as loud and proud as possible.

On three. One, two, three.

Fuck the supreme court!

Silence is sometimes its own protest,

but it's born of not believing that your words matter.

And that's where protest music,

where the songs and the lyricism becomes so important.

God put you here because you have something to offer.

Whether they like it or not, you owe it.

If you're passionate about something, show up. It's important.

The silence is our enemy. The sound is our weapon.

When everything is so desperate,

when every day is a matter of survival,

I don't think you can help but be involved.

State by state, with a growing number pushing near-total bans.

We will shape and mold this country.

I will not be molded and shaped at all anymore.

So I don't think you have a choice.

How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?

Ok.

I shall not

I shall not be moved

I shall not

I shall not be moved

Like a tree

Planted by the water

I shall not be moved

Music itself is a great way to broach this topic

of, "what is the story we've been told about America?",

in a way that people can hear.

When I first started thinking about doing music as a career,

I didn't start out thinking, "I'm going to be an activist."

I went to school for classical music and learned how to be a soprano,

and I felt a little hollow.

I was like, "What am I doing?"

"What am I doing in this that a million other Sopranos can't do?"

So I went back home to North Carolina,

and then I started to hear the banjo.

The big discovery which set me off on this thing

of how these... activism, history and music kind of combine,

was finding out that the banjo was invented

by people of the African diaspora.

And I was like, "What?"

That was the moment where I was like,

"If I don't know this massive thing, what else don't I know?"

I'm of a long line of women who starts somewhere there.

I'm sitting here having had a pretty darn good life,

and what do I owe my ancestors?

What do I owe the women who came before me?

I think we have a responsibility.

We can't write the laws,

but maybe we can inspire the people who do.

Not the church, not the state, women must decide their fate!

A sweeping, deeply consequential decision

from the Nation's highest court, ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.

I don't think anyone thought that could happen.

I don't think we still have fully processed

that it can happen and that it's happening.

This is the summer of rage. And we will fight.

I do think the reason we have so many big artists

being willing to talk about reproductive rights

was because it was such a shocking moment.

Now y'all know it wouldn't be me if I ain't take a second

to call out these stupid ass men.

I need everybody in the audience right now

to say, "My body, my motherfucking choice!"

My body, my motherfucking choice!

One more time! My body, my motherfucking choice!

My body, my motherfucking choice!

Drop that shit, J Bone.

of old men.

It's been really heartening

to see a lot of Gen Z pop stars be so outspoken...

So many women and so many girls are going to die because of this.

...against this really regressive

wave of patriarchy.

It's never giving a man policing my body!

It's just crazy to me.

I can't imagine anyone making a decision for a woman

that's not her.

It's like we've gone back in time.

I don't think that's something I can sit back and just go,

"Oh, well. Hmm. I won't say anything."

I had to find my ways to be a part of it,

while not having people down my throat saying, "What do you know?"

And it's like, actually, I'm a woman. I know a lot more than you think.

Selena!

I think I started to recognize my platform meant something

when I was around 16.

I had a single mother come up to me, they were Latin,

and she was in tears saying,

"Thank you so much for being someone my daughter can look up to,

that looks like her."

That kind of put a little bit of responsibility on me.

And then in 2020, I felt like I should get politically involved.

It was around election year, and I remember

I wanted to give my platform to other people.

And then, I ended up interviewing Stacey.

- Stacey. - Hello.

I instantly felt like she was a friend for life,

and I believe that we, you know, believe in the same things.

Please grab some friends and vote early.

If there's an election on the ballot where you live,

make sure you show up at the polls.

Your voices matter.

My mission, my work is to amplify voices that are marginalized,

and empower people to organize around their beliefs.

Music can do the same thing.

The fights that we're in,

they can be overwhelming and we lose the thread.

Music lets us find it again.

If we work, if we fight, if we resist,

we can have more.

And this music reminds women that we have been here before,

we have pushed through and we will do so again.

Free our sisters, free ourselves!

The status quo is being challenged by the women's liberation movement.

Today, it's still a man's world and just look at it.

Women were paid an average of 59 cents

for every dollar a man earned.

In some states, women cannot own property in their own name.

Most women are raised to believe their true role

is that of wife and mother.

But some women are questioning whether this is so.

Loretta Lynn was this well-loved popular musician.

She had won multiple awards, had number one hits.

I mean, at the time, country music was largely known

to be a little more conservative.

She released a song praising the birth control pill.

This was a really scandalous thing to do.

There's going to be some changes made

Right here on nursery hill

You set this chicken your last time

'Cause now I've got the pill

It was this anthem of a woman taking control

not only of her body, but her future too.

And the song started getting banned from country radio.

What about women, Loretta?

Have they said, "Boy, it's about time somebody said something"?

The women are taking the pill. I'd say 90 percent of the women.

On radio stations, on television, "The Pill" was a huge hit.

It's still shocking to me that she was able to do that.

With that one song,

Loretta just blew up what was acceptable for women to sing about.

And she did it so unapologetically

that she opened doors for other women in music.

Thank you.

Liberation is here.

No area of male dominated American culture is spared.

Women wanted to equally participate in society.

I'm not going to sit quietly any longer!

And a big part of that meant changing what a woman's role was,

and how she was perceived.

A coalition of Liberation groups

invaded the offices of The Ladies Home Journal.

We demand that the magazine cease publishing advertisements

that degrade women.

Here's one! Here's one!

"Made for a woman's extra feelings. Secret deodorant."

I am woman, hear me roar

In numbers too big to ignore

And I know too much to go back and pretend

Women are told so much,

and it gets thrown at them in the form of advertising,

and in just the general attitudes of family and friends and society.

In general, "You are weak, you are inferior."

And what are the main things that you want? Equality?

Probably the basic underlying things.

Just a general change of attitude toward women, in general,

and on the part of women themselves.

Well, your song, "I Am Woman,"

it suggests a toughness, almost an aggressiveness.

- "I am strong, I am..." - It's a positive statement, ok?

Positive.

- I am strong - Strong

- I am invincible - Invincible

I am woman

Songs like "I Am Woman" resonate

because they're simply celebrating being female.