This is another example of who the unity of language and symbols contributed to the efforts of the Student Movement. Cui Jian, not only opposed the socially implemented constructs of social class by wearing peasant clothes, he in turn as well implied an ideology supplanted in the motives of this act. This act of defiance was understood to have been in reaction to his disdain for China’s political make-up as well as its history within its agrarian revolution. The reception of this act would have otherwise not have been as effective nor significant if it wasn’t for the codification of the youth within Chinese pop music oriented towards the Student Movement. The government’s immense interference with the public in censorship as well as the banning of certain activities, in this case music, spoke to the government’s insecurities within keeping its social order. Cui Jian was even revoked of his position in the Bejing Orchestra because of his immense influence and oppositional representations. In Rock Nacional you see an identical situation. Young men who tried to combat social constructs and government censorship combatted this oppression by wearing skirts, bright colors, and sported long hair. Women as well, although not given as much opportunity in the rock and roll sphere to overtly express their social opposition, wore mini-skirts and attended stayed out late, which was frowned upon based on traditional ideas. These gendered positions that were enforced by the Argentinian government were an example of history in which was attempted to be erased through themes expressed in Rock Nacional.

Traditional ideologies of how women and men of different social classes were expected to act, look like and be nonetheless as well as the cultural submissiveness expected in relation to all authorial figures, from men, parents and especially to its government were challenged during the Student Movement. The youth masses no longer adhered to these social constructs as their parents and grandparents had, insisting on the reformation of these ideals as well as economic and political change as well.

In revolt and protest of its central government, Argentinian youth chose specific rock songs including, “Le Marcha de la Bronca", to represent their efforts and the social and political movements in which they strove to enact. “Nothing to My Name” was the Chinese Student Movement’s equivalent to exactly that. These songs were chosen for their inspirational language and compositions that motivated and reminded its listeners of the political circumstances in which they were trying to change.

An essential element for an activist group’s strength when striving for a cause or goal is to have a common identity/ideology with a language and set of symbols in which are attributed to that identity as well. In this case, pop music stood as the medium in which this unified language and ideology was communicated and internalized. Within this musical genre, artists were able to express a code of analogies and themes in which resisted nationalistic and government-supportive ideals with youth at the deriving force of its reception and support. Although Rock Nacional’s rock music had themes almost identical to songs such as “Nothing to my Name” and also held immense popularity within the youth culture, Rock Nacional wasn’t strictly tied to the actual radical and political efforts against the government. Rock Nacional was also a sphere for youth to whom wanted to combat the confining social expectations implemented by traditional opinion and governmental regulation. These youth didn’t necessarily identify themselves with Peronists or other radical groups to whom went beyond listening to rock music and changing their physical appearance to deny the country’s central government.

The nationalistic and historic themes seen in traditional Chinese music were challenged and diverged from with Cui Jian’s rock and roll and the concerts that he and other artists performed in. These concerts were signature in creating spaces of unity and enabled people to whom opposed the central-suffocating and rigid authority of the communist state to cultivate an identity driven by music. This is incredibly similar to Rock Nacional which also utilized concerts and festivals such as Barock to geologically and, even in certain circumstances, ideologically, bring together fans of rock music and anti-establishment groups.

This is an interesting phrase that Simone sings as the last first line of the chorus. This gives a sense of compromise in achieving complete equality in America. She mentions desegregation and unification but then seems to believe that those things might need to be sacrificed in order to receive equal rights.

In this bridge where she repeats “do it slow” again, she brings a more modernized version of the previous bridge. The last bridge was set during the historical context of slavery as this one is mentioned as present day as well as in the perspective of the black citizen. Instead of mentioning hurtful statements she is singing phrases of protest and principles of the equal rights movement. They want desegregation. They want reunification. They want national participation. But they must do it slowly and peacefully. She then goes on to say, “But bring more tragedy”. She is directly addressing the people in which are killing and wrongfully imprisoning black people throughout the country and reveals that she is aware that these circumstances are reality and will continue as she continues to fight as well. She is not accepting this as fact but rather is stating reality. This specific verse truly emulates a protest song as it is repetitive and proclaims the goals of their efforts.

This gives insight to America’s position in a global perspective. During the time of immense discrimination and racism in America, the Cold War as well as the Vietnam War were happening as well. This was due to America’s global involvement in imposing democracy and attempting to eradicate communism, which was thought to be “evil” because it was different from our own political system. She says that because the peaceful protests and segregated-school boycotts, went against the power constructs of the white-democratic man, black people were in turn deemed the enemy just as the Communists were. Just because they opposed unjust political circumstances that favored the white man, they were compared to having communist views and supporting the communist cause in America although it had no relevance at all. This just reveals our government’s anxiety and egotistical complex that it feels the need to control people and their beliefs throughout the entire world and that they would do anything to attain that goal.

Simone creates the historical context for the discrimination that is present during her time in American history. She mentions the country’s inhumane history of slavery and the inferiority thought of black people. Power construct’s diminishing of the black identity and citizen during times of unequal rights stemmed from the ideology that black people were merely objects undeserving of rights or humane treatment. She repeats “do it slow” over and over again to reveal how repetitive racism and race crimes have been since the beginning of slavery and even hundreds of years later in the more modernized context. It seems to be something that has and will last forever. She repeats back some of the insults and stereotypes prominent in the white-racist ideology which were that black people were lazy, were rotten (as in destructive and harmful to society) and describes these ideas as being outright insane and ignorant, having no concrete truth whatsoever.

Simone's belief in prayer and God takes a dramatic shift as she sees no progress being made. Black people are still fighting and are still being killed without any positive outcome in their favor. She is restless, embittered and angry, rightfully so.

Simone references hound dogs in relation to the white male police officers to whom own and use them in the line of duty. She describes a national atmosphere of unease and misconduct against black people. Even young school children who have done nothing wrong nor have caused any havoc end up in jail. Law enforcement’s fear of losing their superiority that would come with black people attaining their equal rights catalyzed them to wrongly imprison and kill peaceful protestors without warning or probable cause. Many of these crimes would go unquestioned outside of the black community creating a sense of fear and possibility that any black person could be killed at any point in time just for being black. The white-male police officers hold the power of who lives, who dies, who has the power and who doesn’t.

By describing this song as a show tune could signal two separate things. In one perspective this could mean that although this song holds concrete and tragic truth, that it wont be taken seriously. This is because of the extent in which racism and discrimination has been present in the United States (since its birth) and the fact that the “white man” is in charge and has the power for any change or progress. When she sings, “But the show hasn’t been written for it, yet”, this reveals Simone’s hope in achieving equal rights for all black people in America. Although they were not successful in achieving this rightful goal just yet, as long as they kept writing “show tunes”, didn’t keep quite and kept fighting for what they deserved the show would be written and their dream of equal rights would be achieved.

This stanza is interesting as Simone’s mentioning of prayer and religious belief juxtaposes Mcguire’s mentioning of it in “Eve of Destruction”. Barry mocks religion as holding a place in American culture because of the contradictions that our country acts against its principles meanwhile Simone references religion as a source of comfort. She says that racism and hate is so prominent and widespread in America that it must be in the air, and out of hopelessness and anger resorts to prayer. To still have faith and to still have a sense of hope in prayer and religion to somehow destroy the hate, during a time of heightened race crimes and discrimination, is extremely powerful.

In comparison to Barry Mcguire’s protest song, Nina Simone’s protest song is in the perspective of someone who is directly affected by the country’s discrimination and white-male-favoring ideology, being a black woman in America. Because of her direct interaction with social, political and economic racial restrictions prominent in America’s construct, she is focused on this topic rather than having a global scope as Mcguire focuses on. What is to follow is her reaction to her national context of racism and race crimes.

Take a look around you boy, it’s bound to scare you boy Mcguire directly addresses his male audience to acknowledge the truth about their country. This specificity in the sex of the audience communicates that he is talking to the men in which were to fight in the war as well as the young generation of boys. He is warning younger boys of the utter world-wide chaos and death that is potential to come if the country kept acting as it had with imposing its democratic beliefs through acts of war in Vietnam and Asia. Also, the fact that he addresses only boys makes evident the social context of the unimportance of women, politically and as citizens who have the power to create change in their country. In this context the white man has all the power and opportunities to do so. Mcguire himself was a white man of the younger generation, being 19 when he wrote the song, and is directly speaking to those like him. This time period was also during a “youth revolt” which consisted of its younger generations to be more vocal of their opposition of the government’s actions and ideologies. This audience includes the young, white middle class who occupied the famous Woodstock of 1969 which emulated these very anti-war expressions that Mcguire himself is performing. He doesn't want the white man to fall into a state of internalizing propaganda and developing destructive nationalistic attitudes created without the proper awareness of what is happening in the world. He essentially is protesting our country, but seen in many acts of resistance, creates an of alienation of an entire sex outside of his peaceful efforts.

Mcguire addresses another contradiction our country performs in relation to its world-wide actions. The government promotes violence, discrimination and killing in order to get their desired outcome while socially enforcing their religious beliefs of God and Christianity meanwhile the ritualistic beliefs of the religion describes murder and pride as sins. Our government feels entitled to claim themselves as eligible exceptions of these rites as they place themselves above any other country and group of people.

He explains that we try to demonize other countries (Communist China) that oppose our national beliefs and views, specifically our democratic political system, meanwhile we are the actual ones that are creating world-wide destruction and is, in turn, evil to its world and even its own people. He says that the hate we try to frame on other countries is actually present in our own through racism. Selma, Alabama was the starting location for a march that ended in Montgomery for voting rights for black citizens as well as the context of “Bloody Sunday”. Bloody Sunday occurred when police officers shot down several peaceful protestors for refusing to turn around and to continue their protest. When he moves on to talk about how we spent four days in space, he is explaining how during this time as well, the Cold War was a prevalent issue for the government, because of our power-fetishized ideology. During this time, much media coverage was on our advancements in scientific technology to arrive in space, in competition to Communist Russia’s and China’s. We tried to use this scientific progress as a way to change the subject and direct the listening-citizen’s attention away from the real issues at hand. Even if we travel to space and get distracted for a few days, we still have to come back to reality and to our country that kills if their political and social ideals are opposed.

Barry talks about our government’s inability to create legislation or attend to the issues inside of our country which are inevitably being ignored as war and the world-wide fight for democracy is made the primary concern. These issues include the discrimination and inferiority of black people embedded in our social, economic and political construct, which protests alone, cannot fix. The government has the power of change and benefitting its citizens but instead is investing and attending to its nationalistic anxieties.

When he says that the “truth knows no regulation”, he is referencing our country’s feeling of entitlement to be able to impose democracy and kill in the name of it. The truth he speaks of is our truth and our government, although supposed to uphold and enforce regulation and the rights of human beings, hypocritically sees no boundaries in controlling others beliefs and decides who lives and dies because of it.

The button that is being pushed is symbolic for the ease in which the United States could destroy the entire world; with its weaponry and its prominent self-righteous ideology.

Using the word “even” signifies Barry’s proclamation of his disgust in the vastness of the war and its fatalitites in Vietnam and Eastern Europe, with his own nation being at the center and cause of it. Mcguire describes a disturbing scene of death and depicts a war where, from our nation's perspective, killing and the loss of humanity if justified.

Initially, with reading this lyric for the first time, I assumed that he was describing the "eastern world" as a place of war time and destruction from a nationalistic perspective. This assumption was made without any context of Mcquire’s age, further lyrics, nor the historical context of the year of its creation. Later to find out starting from later in the verse that the opposite was true.