"I'll Rise": Rememory, Hope and the Creation of a New Public Sphere in Ben Harper's Music (Report‪)‬

Recent studies about resistance music in the United States primarily focus on the hip-hop movement. However, it does not offer the only musical discourse contesting contemporary injustices. Even though the debate about hip-hop is a crucial one that deserves full attention, it seems necessary to widen the current conversation on music to take into account a wider array of musical genres and artists. This will in turn allow us to see the revolutionary power of music in its full force. In the United States, black music, from the Spirituals to Rhythm and Blues, has undeniably been a potent agent for social change. Because they enable strangers to identify with each other through a common discourse, songs from many different genres have fostered what Benedict Anderson calls "imagined communities." As a starting point to this invitation for further studies on contemporary music as a powerful counter-discourse, I will be looking at Ben Harper, in order to see how he upholds the social power of music and promotes diversity. With Martin Luther King Jr. and Bob Marley for inspiration, Ben Harper is one of the many artists who pursue the fight for a more egalitarian society, while at the same time refusing labels. Exploring a variety of genres, he seeks to express his diverse origins, thus debunking classifying systems like census or musical categories. Indeed, his paternal grand-mother is half Cherokee, half African-American, while his maternal great-grand-mother is of Russian-Jewish descent. Harper celebrates a variety of influences: from black diasporic music to the many musical American traditions. His refusal of categories and his powerful discourse offer a means to expand the contemporary public sphere.