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Strange Fruit Billie Holiday (Effective Elements (Music (There is a very…
Strange Fruit
Billie Holiday
Central Idea
To protest against and raise awareness about the wide prevalence of racial inequality during the early half of the twentieth century, especially the lynching of black people by white supremacy groups which was happening very frequently at that time
Explanation & Association
Association
Discrimination was very common in those times and because white supremacist groups, a lot of black people were lynched for no reason. This song talks about those people that were lynched, or hanged, and are hanging on trees and is associated with the civil rights movement during the early 20th century
Explanation
This song is a protest song because it expresses the disgust, of the actions carried out by the white supremacist groups. It is also a protest song because she indirectly conveys her disapproval of the action by demonizing the act.
Discusses sensitive and controversial topics which were not commonly addressed. This makes it a protest song that brought the attention of the people
Fun Facts!
First written as a poem by teacher Abel Meerpool, who wrote it after seeing the gruesome lynching of a black man
Song was released in 1939
Billie Holiday was married three times!
Effective Elements
Emotive Language
Words used to describe the scenes are made to sound gruesome and very gory that makes the listener feel very sad and empathatic towards the people facing this treatment
The song uses very strong words that trigger the emotions of a person in such a way that they can and most likely will feel the true reality that these black communities are facing
This is shown consistently as the predominant concept throughout the whole song. An example includes Billie singing "The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth". This really brings out the feelings and emotions of someone. The phrase uses very strong words to describe the overall situation happening to all the victims of this crime
Symbolic Lyrics
Practically all the lyrics are symbolic in this song because each and every one of the lyrics is filled with intricate details of the issue at hand. This is because the song hits all the main ideas of the problem it is protesting against. The song is considered to have minimal lyrics which means. The song had to pick its lyrics very carefully to make sure that it included all the points.
An example of symbolic lyrics in this song is the phrase "Southern trees bear strange fruit ". When Billie Holiday sings this at the start of the song she is not referring to real fruits but rather the bodies hanging from trees that are caused by the lynching of people orchestrated by white supremacist groups
Rhythm & Rhyming
The song has a jazzy rythm wich illustrates the community that they are talking about as jazz songs were songs that the black community created in order to express their cultural identity
There is an obvious rhyming pattern—when looking at the lyrics—within the song that happens constantly in the pattern of AABB. However, because the song has a slow tempo, the rhyming words are spread out over a long duration making it a little more difficult to hear the rhyme
Note: The rhyming occurred on every line
Examples
Fruit & root
Breeze & trees
South & mouth
Fresh & flesh
Pluck & suck
Drop & crop
Music
There is a very slow and sad melody incorporated
The music catches the mood of the song perfectly which makes the song not only catchy but memorable
The jazzy feeling in the song is what makes the song so good at communicating with the listener
It is very melodic and slow which makes it very appealing to emotions. This theme is shown throughout the whole song
The music carries a very dark and heavy feeling text