"Happy" as a protest song, woah

I hope you have listened to and watched the video of Pharrell Williams's song, Happy. If not, or you just want to watch it again (Yes, I love feeling like a room without a roof!), here it is.

Like most everyone else, I love this song. I first learned about it before I knew it was written for and connected to the movie, Despicable Me 2, when a friend sent me a link to the video 24 Hours of Happy. I loved, loved how it featured everyday dancers and the celebration of, well, dancing and being happy! I thought the song would come and go in a few months, like all snappy pop songs do.

But it didn't. Something remarkable happened. It became a global protest song.

The amazing post by Shan Wang on PolicyMic, "How This Became the Surprising Protest Song of Our Generation," breaks it down perfectly. Read the whole thing, but here are a few excerpts: 

"The peppy neo-soul song is not in any way controversial. But something strange began happening to it a little while ago. It became a mega pop sensation and an unexpected global anthem for citizens living under troubled regimes.

The movement started slowly — first it was the soundtrack to a video of people dancing joyfully in Paris. But then the song began cropping up in videos from countries in political turmoil. One came from the Philippines, a country still picking up the pieces from Typhoon Haiyan. Soon, one followed from Tunis, still reeling from the aftershocks of the Arab Spring. And then another from Moscow. While not a "protest" song in its traditional sense, Pharrell's "Happy" has taken on a politically charged meaning as an anthem of international resilience...

...Pharrell's unironic and unequivocal call to positivity makes it a strange member of the protest music genre, which mostly targets specific injustices. The 1960s is teeming with examples. Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddam," for instance, seethes at the killing of civil rights activist Medgar Evers and the bombing of an Alabama Church..."

There's more, so seriously, read the whole post. It includes many of the Happy-turned-protest-song You Tube videos and you need to watch them. Here's one, from Kiev.

Amazing. Wang says, rightly, "It is haunting to see protesters in Kiev dancing among barricades and answering frankly what would make them happy. "To be happy I need the Ukraine to be free," one woman answered."

I came of age with the protest songs of the anti-Viet Nam war and civil rights movements. So, so many amazing songs. Here's a post of a couple of protest playlists I made. And here is my favorite song from then, What's Going On, from Marvin Gaye.

It's theme of course is only love can conquer hate, and while it's a very deep song, the music is uplifting, even, yes, happy. We still dance to it after all these years.

It's a evolution across the generations. We protest the injustice, inequity, and hate around us. And a powerful weapon is rising above it all, with love and happiness. And, always, with dancing.

I'm not sure Happy could have made the leap a generation ago. But today, this generation can and does use social media, including You Tube, to spark a revolution, or to turn a sweet, silly song written for a kids' animated movie into a protest anthem.

Again, Shan Wang says it best:

..."that's the magic of this global music culture. Pharrell perhaps never intended "Happy" to be more than a catchy summer hit, but even a perfectly-oiled pop machine can't account for the creative capacity of the whole world. "Happy" came into the world apolitical, but it's something more now — it's a song of resilience and resolve under incredible hardship."

April 15 update: Check out Pharrell's reaction to watching the global You Tube videos made from his song on a recent interview with Oprah - happy tears!