Music 325, or “Music as an Agent of Change,” is an intermediate-level music education course offered at Longwood University. The class focused heavily on the impact of popular music on American life shortly before and during the Vietnam War (approximately 1950 to 1975). My artifact from this course is my end-of-term paper, focusing on the impacts of five popular songs from that time: “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag,” “Fortunate Son,” “Chain of Fools,” “Lean on Me,” and “Imagine.” As such, this represents my complete understanding of the class, as I effectively conclude the impact of these songs on American culture, primarily through their encouragement of the hippie and anti-war countercultures.

I found this class to be very insightful. Before taking this class, I never paid attention to how music can affect one’s day-to-day life. I only thought of it as a pleasant thing to listen to without any real implications for society as a whole. I now realize just how wrong I was. Music has the power to change culture through encouraging or discouraging ideas and promoting the newest fads. I can see this class applying to my career as a social worker in several ways. Primarily, though, as I age, I can use this knowledge to more fully understand how the world is changing through listening to the music of the times. I know now how much can be said through music, and by doing this, I can more easily connect with a client.

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