The artists of the 1960s incited social change and inspired youth

They just don’t make artists like Bob Dylan anymore, and I’m not talking about the music.

There are still musicians out there whose creativity and talent matches, if not surpasses, Dylan. What I’m talking about is depth – not charisma or intellect, but true human deepness.

Dylan had a mind many people couldn’t easily access or understand, but he had ideas and passions which he managed to dredge from the great expanses of his soul, mind and body and turn into lyrics and poetry.

They touched people on such a personal level that he became legend almost as soon as he achieved stardom. Let’s face it, he certainly didn’t get famous from his voice, but his message.

I don’t see this happening much anymore. Few of the stars that frequent radio and television are capable of producing songs that carry as much weight as a Dylan song. Or is it something else?

Just because we do not hear such songs, does not mean popular artists are unqualified to generate them. Perhaps those artists, the Rihannas and Justin Timberlakes of the world, can produce lyrics and music that drip with profoundness and reach into caverns of every person’s heart. Perhaps they can wreak havoc with their words and cause riots with their verse, but the world – at least America – is no longer a place of riots and revolutions.

Our artists, singers and authors and poets, more often than not succeed in only skimming the surface of human emotion and consciousness. But is this their fault? If their works were to achieve great depth, who would their audience be? My guess is their words would fall hard upon the floor of an empty auditorium.

Here we see our question and paradox: Are artists a product of their time, or is our time a product of the artists?

When you boil it down, it is the age-old question of the chicken and the egg – which came first?

Let’s revisit 1960s America – a time that spawned some of the greatest musicians we’ve ever seen, such as Bob Dylan (of course), Joan Baez, Tom Rush, John Lennon and many others. The music movement amplified the need for truth and raw feeling and understanding during a time when everything was seemingly saturated in lies – the Nixon administration, the Vietnam War and continuing segregation.

The people demanded truth, and when they could not find it in their leaders or their politics they turned to music to express their frustration and their anger.

So why, may I ask, has today’s generation not created such a movement? Why do we not cry out for truth and justice? The youth of the 1960s demanded world peace, though they knew this to be an unrealistic goal. They cried for love and humanity, though these emotions are just as innate as hate and violence.

So has this generation become more realistic, or just apathetic?

In an Oct. 2007 column in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman wrote, “I am baffled because they [today’s youth] are so much less radical and politically engaged than they need to be.” He calls our generation, “Generation Q,” for quiet. Friedman argues this generation is “Asking people to join their Facebook crusades, or to download their platforms,” unwilling to get up off the couch in the name of peace and justice, much less march for it.

So by saying, “they just don’t make artists like Bob Dylan anymore,” I am not criticizing artists, it is a criticism of the times, culture and people who sculpt the artists. I am criticizing the “they.”

I am also answering my question and saying artists are a product of their time.

“Generation Q” is a quick generation, self-absorbed, fast-paced, too busy to cry out for justice. But we need to.

We need to start screaming at the top of our lungs for this world to change. We need to march in the streets, and plaster the town with flyers. We need to write letters to the editor, speak our minds and get angry.

And if you aren’t compelled to do these things in the name of peace and justice, then please, do it for the sake of the music.

Emma Ambrose is a senior at Poland Regional High School.