The Art
How does musical and visual art maintain attention? Whereas photography creates actual imagery, like an empty plate showing the lack of food, music uses elements such as comedy, tone, and repetition
“The black ol’ dust storm filled the sky, and I swapped my farm for a Ford machine” (Guthrie)
(Woody Guthrie, Michael Ochs Archives)
There is a disguised truth behind Guthrie’s accessible lyrics. He reveals the emotional hardships of the dust storms. People of the time were
Another way that he builds the emotion, and thus brings the audience into his lyrical world, is through repetition in a song, where he repeats the line “I ain’t a-gonna be treated this-a-way.”
The song “Do Re Mi” (“Do” being slang for money, or “dough”) cautions other “Okies,” the name originally given to native Oklahomans (and then cast upon all foreigners seeking shelter in California), against the “Garden of Eden,” i.e., the “promised land” in California.
(Guthrie)
In music, tone is controlled to a greater degree than with written text, as the words are sung, and the musician adds a degree of context through their melodies and vocal decisions. Tone is to music as imagery is to photography. Tone builds the emotional truth, just as a photograph reveals the explicit external conditions of disaster victims.
Accessibility is the key to art’s potency. Guthrie, much like Lange with her Migrant Mother photo, was able to tell his story to every member of society because his melodies and harmonies were beautiful to listen to. Even a novel such as The Grapes of Wrath, which tells the story of one family traveling with thousands of other “Okies” to California. is only accessible by those who have an ability and desire to read longer form literature. Guthrie’s music tells his story to all who have the pleasure of listening. He consolidates the stories of the geography-based oppression during the Dust Bowl, telling the story of economic hardship in the length of “Do Re Mi.”
Ultimately, poetry and song, much like photography, can take difficult circumstances, capture their emotion, and create a spark of change, whilst maintaining attention.