Riding The Rails Essay

Art Imitates Life Throughout history and all around the world, the popular music of any epoch has always reflected the social climates of the time. Music can be seen as a pure and undoctored documentation of the social, political, and cultural shifts or events happening at any given time. The music of the time can be seen as a history book that has been written by those who have lived during a certain age of cultural shifting which makes it a primary source for the attitudes of the general public in times of change. The music of an age must reflect the climate of that age in an honest way because, otherwise, the music would not be purchased by those living through these times of massive change. Throughout history music has reflected the ideals

During this period in American History, teenagers would often jump on slow moving or stopped trains in pursuit of fast transport to places where they could potentially make money to send home to their families. In Riding the Rails, people described the excitement of hopping these trains, and the freedom it brung; they had an almost wistful memory of the experience. In fact, one of those interviewed in the film is seen throughout the film currently hopping freight trains in his old age because he misses that freedom. In Hard Times this riding of the rails is described by Louis Banks when it is stated that he “would lay on the side of the tracks and wait until I could see the train comin’...I would ride all day and all night long in the hot sun.” People would quite literally hop a train just to find themselves work and food. The appeal of this freedom is clearly seen in the lyrics to the song Tumbling Tumbleweeds by the Sons of the Pioneers where they say “Lonely, but free, I'll be found, drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.” Although this life of hoboing and riding rails was dangerous, difficult, and painful, it was a level of freedom that had not been experienced before this depression and has not been experienced

During an age of sexual liberty and massive change in regards to women’s role in culture, the music heard by the people of the United States reflected ideas of loose women and morals. The 1920s also showed a time in which alternate sexualities were being almost openly embraced. This lead to a music that, somewhat subtly, described the emergence of non-hetero sexualities in conjunction with the rise in women’s rights. In the 1930s, the United States felt a time of economic draught which prompted a migration of workers who moved around through riding trains to find odd jobs. The music of this time demonstrated, very clearly, the sense of freedom associated with this age while maintaining the economic suffering. The 1930s and it’s music also demonstrated political ideals rooted in replacing the Republican president of the time with his Democratic successor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The 1950s moved away from the freedom of past decades and into a massive age of fear and anxiety regarding Communism and the Cold War. Songs of this decade reflected the fear in the hearts of the American people while providing a comforting satire. Music is the ultimate first hand source as it is undoctored by the hands of time or by the hands of those attempting to manipulate the past. Music was created in the time it was