The 4th of July soundtrack usually includes songs like God Bless America and Lee Greenwood’s God Bless The U.S.A., but we wanted to spotlight songs old and new, that resonate today. Some may not be happy, but we think they are still uplifting and empowering in their own way.
The Schuyler Sisters by the cast of Hamilton
We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal. And when I meet Thomas Jefferson
I’m ‘a compel him to include women in the sequel!
This was first performed back at The White House back in 2016 and is part of Lin Manuel Miranda’s landmark Hamilton musical. The empowering tune is sung by three women just seems to be apropos as women face setbacks in America today.
Immigrants We Get The Job Done by the cast of Hamilton
You know, and it gets into this whole issue of border security. You know, who’s gonna say that the borders are secure? We’ve got the House and the Senate debating this issue. And it’s, it’s really astonishing that in a country founded by immigrants. “Immigrant” has somehow become a bad word. So the debate rages on and we continue.
This is a link to the remix, which was recorded a year ago, but feels like it could have been written today.
This is America by Childish Gambino
This is America. Don’t catch you slippin’ up. Look at how I’m livin’ now. Police be trippin’ now. Yeah, this is America. Guns in my area (word, my area). I got the strap. I gotta carry ’em.
Rolling Stone said this when the song came out last year: “While there are no superheroes here, Glover’s video calls back to the long history of black folks coming up with ways to barter our physical existence for a slice of the pie. It’s meant trafficking in our pain to get paid even a little, a dynamic steeped into our conjoined history with America.”
Power to the People by John Lennon
Say we want a revolution. We better get on right away. Well you get on your feet. And into the street. Singing power to the people. Power to the people.
Let me help you in here. Until women can get equal pay for equal work. This is not my America. Until same gender loving people can be who they are. This is not my America. Until black people can come home from a police stop. Without being shot in the head. This is not my America. Until poor whites can get a shot at being successful. This is not my America.
Don’t wanna be an American idiot. Don’t want a nation under the new media. And can you hear the sound of hysteria? The subliminal mind-fuck America, Welcome to a new kind of tension. All across the alien nation. Where everything isn’t meant to be okay. Television dreams of tomorrow. We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow. For that’s enough to argue.
Back in 2016, lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong changed one lyric to this song while appearing on MTV’s Europe Music Awards. After saying, “Can you hear the sound of hysteria?” He changed the next line to “The subliminal mind Trump America.” For some reason when we hear this song we also always think of Fox News. When a show of the same name came to Broadway, clips from the network flashed on stage as the actors sang.
