River by Leon Bridges - Stasis Theory

In the song "River", by Leon Bridges ,the main stasis is cause and effect. I believe that in this song police brutality has caused the degradation of the human spirit among the African-American community. This is first evident in the fact that throughout the music video there is a T.V. playing in the background with scenes that display police brutality. This shows that the issue of police brutality is always instilled in the minds of the African-American community and that they cannot escape this reality. They also in a sense have become paranoid because they are constantly thinking about this issue, and they have to face the reality that one day one of their own family members or friends could become a victim of police brutality. Another way that this song shows the degradation of the human spirit is when we see the young girl sitting at the door with a somber expression. This shows that her witnessing the continuous acts of police brutality, among African-Americans, has made her lose hope of seeing herself having a better future because of the color of her skin. She just sees herself as a target in society and nothing more. Also, in the music video an African-American man is laying on the floor breathing heavily as his child is crying in the other room. The man doesn't get up to attend to the crying baby like most parents would do as soon as they heard their child crying. Instead, he just lays there breathing heavy. This shows that police brutality, he being a direct victim of, has left him out of energy and is something he can't experience and just be able to continue to live his life with the same kind of drive and happiness.  We see the degradation of the human spirit continuously throughout the music video as everyone has somber expressions because of the constant news of an African-American dying under the actions of the police. This has made them lose hope in society, and  has made them feel like targets, one by one being taken down. The main argument would be that police brutality is causing the degradation of the human spirit among the African-American community.

~Kim Cerritos

Bob Dylan’s “The Death of Emmett Till” – Ethos

Bob Dylan is a folk rock singer-songwriter. He began performing folk and country songs in college and by 1961 Dylan had signed his first recording contract. While attending college, he began performing folk and country songs, taking the name "Bob Dylan." His release in 1963 “The Freewheelin” brought upon rise to fame as the most “original and poetic voices in history of American popular music.” His preceding albums asserted Dylan as the “definitive songwriter of the 60s protest movement.” Dylan achieved extreme fame playing around 200 concerts annually. He continued to reinvent himself in different way through music by recording songs with a half-acoustic and half electric tunes. “With his unmistakable voice and unforgettable lyrics, Dylan brought the worlds of music and literature together as no one else had.” In 1989 Dylan was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Bruce Springsteen quoted saying, "Bob freed the mind the way Elvis freed the body ... He invented a new way a pop singer could sound, broke through the limitations of what a recording artist could achieve, and changed the face of rock and roll forever." In 1997 he became the first rock star to receive Kennedy Center Honors award which is  considered the nation's highest award for artistic excellence. He also went on to win many grammys. During the height of the protest music movement Bob Dylan created the song “The Death of Emmett Till” surrounded around the event of a young black boy unjustified death. The song describes the horrible events that occurred leading to Emmett Till’s death and comments on the disturbing injustices that occurred in the 1960s society. The main message of his song is that the people in the end could change their society and be the hope in the world. Bob Dylan has enormous credibility as an artist and wrote wonderful ground breaking pieces. He also obtains assertiveness about the events of the 1960s as it occurred during his time period.

 - Gabriella Boozer

Leon Bridges "River"- Kairos

In April 2015, Freddie Gray, a black man from Baltimore, was killed while being arrested for possessing an illegal switchblade. There was great controversy over the subject because many believed that the policemen used unnecessary force to subdue Gray. Protests and riots sprung up everywhere, most notably at Gray's funeral in Baltimore. About four hours after his funeral, the riots started and they continued to enlarge for about three hours. This included throwing bottles and bricks at police officers, wrecking a police car, and starting fires. Baltimore Governor Larry Hogan announced a state of emergency and activated the National Guard.  
This song and video came out in February 2016, about a year after the incident, however it is very clear that it was a tremendous influence on Bridges. In the music video, videos of the Baltimore riots are seen on the television and the rest of the video was shot in Baltimore. Even after over a year, the effects are being felt by all and the Black Lives Matter movement is as strong as ever. This type of song is one that pushes people towards action and towards peace as it reminds us of the evils in this world. Bridges embraces the challenges of our time and seeks to help find the solution through his platform.

-Sammy Turk Tolub

The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan- Stasis Theory

Bob Dylan’s song “The Death of Emmett Till” utilizes stasis theories cause and effect, evaluation and ethical arguments to talk about the value of Emmett Till’s death. In the song, Bob Dylan described the brutal death of Emmett Till due to an unjust trial, crying that this type of trial “was a mockery,” and would consequently “let this human race fall down so God-Awful low.” With his publicity, Bob Dylan talks about the cause and effect of Emmett Till’s trial in order bring awareness to the awful crime and call everyone “[give] all [s/he] could give, [s/he] could make this great land… a greater place to live.” The Death of Emmett Till also uses the stasis theory evaluation and ethical arguments to talk about the value of this issue. Bob Dylan indicates that Till’s death is both terrible and disturbing which reveals a serious underlying issue that needs to be addressed to the nation. At the time, the diverse opinions between the North and South made the topic very controversial, but today, his death is viewed as both a good and bad. This death was bad in ways in that he did not deserve to be so viciously murdered, and for the ruthless murderers to be declared innocent. However, it is good that Till’s death acted as an catalyst to the Civil Rights movements, enraging Americans to take matters into their own hands and prevent this form of racism and favoritism towards one race from happening again.

-Ruoping Li

Leon Bridges "River" - Ethos

Leon Bridges is an American gospel, soul singer and songwriter from Fort Worth, Texas. He began his music career with song writing and eventually learned to play the guitar; ultimately leading him to become the musician he is today. In 2014 he signed by Columbia Records and is best known for the song “Coming Home” which has become a sensational pop hit. His music style is largely based on the sounds of the 60s as each song “draws on a crisply appointed, pure, decades-old sound.” His song “River” has become a major song of the artist’s platform. The purpose of Bridge’s song was to right about his personal struggle with spirituality, depression, and being an African American man in today’s society. Bridges recalls “sitting in [his] garage trying to write a song which reflected this struggle. [He] felt stuck working multiple jobs to support [himself] and [his] mother.” He talks about how the song paints the emotions he felt when he had no hope and felt as if there was no way out of his condition. Leon centers the song around the aspect of a river because they have historically been gospel music as a decan for change and redemption and “the only thing [he] could cling to in the midst of all [the struggles] was [his] faith in God and [his] only path towards baptism was by way of the river.” In his video Leon want to represent the battle that black communities are on a daily basis. He wanted to visually present the struggles African American women and men face in a which encaptivated his audience and placed them into their shoes. Constantly filling his video with clips and images of such riots as the BaltimoreUprising. Though Leon’s main message throughout that even through the injustice there is hope. He wants “this video to be a message of light. [He] believes it has the power to change and heal those that are hurting.” Leon constantly asserts his authority and expertise of the subjects he speaks upon, having firsthand experienced personal struggle as an African American. And asserts his expertis within the music field through his years of experience and his popularity and fame.

- Gabriella Boozer

The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan- pathos

In the song The Death of Emmett Till, American musician Bob Dylan appeals to an audience's pathos with concrete descriptive language, and a melancholy music tone to evoke viewers' emotions. Through concrete and descriptive lyric, Bob Dylan sung about the death of Emmett Till with animated details, going as far to include the events that occurred after his death. Bob Dylan's detailed description of the "screaming sounds [of Emmett Till] inside the barn...[and] laughing sounds out on the street," creates an imagery of the Till's painful death, and suggests that Emmett Till's tortured death was purely for the killers' enjoyment. Bob Dylan also illustrates the death of Emmett Till, singing that the killers "rolled his body down a gulf amidst a bloody red rain," and "they threw him in the water wide to cease his screaming pain." These vivid details and imagery of how Emmett Till was murdered inflicted the emotion of pain and sorrow in the audience and cried for the unjust of the trial when the killers were later declared innocent. The music tone also buttressed the song's effort to evoke the viewer's emotions by allowing the viewer to fully engage in the lyric with the flowing tone. The background beats are fast but not overwhelming, which brings out the slower singing and permits the viewers to focus more on the lyrics. The whole song is in a minor key, which has a more sorrowful sound and induces similar glum emotions in the viewers. Bob Dylan's appeal to pathos in his song allowed him to steer his audiences' emotions and allowed him to appeal specifically to his audiences' imaginative sympathies, letting them glimpse into the same emotions that he had when composing this song.

-Ruoping Li

River by Leon Bridges- Pathos

In the song River by Leon Bridges he appeals to pathos in an audience by using powerful visual imagery in his music video that is accompanied by the song. Leon Bridges uses an appeal to pathos in order to demonstrate the continuous police brutality the black community has been facing but emphasizes that there still is hope. In the beginning of the song Leon Bridges is sitting on the bed playing his guitar with the T.V. in the background that is displaying the Baltimore Riots. Throughout the music video it shows the homes of other African-Americans  with the T.V. on in the background displaying scenes of police brutality. It gives the audience a sense of entrapment that emphasizes that black men and women cannot merely go back home and the issue of police brutality is over. It is an issue that is prevalent and will follow them day after day. The music video also shows a little girl looking outside her door with a somber expression as she looks out into the streets and sees an African-American man walking home with blood on his shirt. This gives an audience a sense of guilt and remorse to realize young children are witnessing these cruel acts of police brutality and making them feel targeted and unsafe by the police solely based on the color of their skin rather than on their character. These young African-American children will grow up feeling like they live in a society that will despise them and make them feel inferior to the rest. Later on in the song the music stops and all you can hear is the rain. The silence gives the audience a feeling of unknowing and anticipation for what is to come next. Because of this, the silence also gives a sense of hope that even after the long misery of police brutality there is still hope for African-Americans to prosper. The sense of hope is intensified when the music video shows families embracing and the black community laughing and dancing together. These last few scenes also give the sense of unity and togetherness of the black community, and to emphasize that even after all the struggles they are facing they have to be united as one. Leon Bridges uses the right amount of emotion to match the severity of the injustice that African-Americans are facing by the police.
                     

  ~Kim Cerritos

The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan- Kairos

The song premiered in 1962, a pivotal time for the Civil Rights Movement. This was just after the Civil Rights Act of 1960, and the American citizens could feel change coming. Between the Freedom Riders and the various riots throughout the country, the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing. Bob Dylan was at the very beginning of his career, not yet the cultural icon he is today, and the song was not even released on an album. Dylan performed the song on a radio show and attracted a considerable amount of callers for his controversial rendition. Although it did not spread until 1972 when the live recording was published on the album Broadside Ballads, Vol. 6: Broadside Reunion under the name "Blind Boy Grunt", Dylan knew that this was the time to gain equality and fight for what is right. He wanted to push the American people into action by reminding them of the tragic death of Emmett Till, an event that jump-started the entire movement seven years before. The song is incredibly powerful today, as it reminds us of the horrific events of the past, but in 1962 the impact was even greater as people directly connected with the event.

-Sammy Turk Tolub

River by Leon Bridges- Logos

In addition to strong appeals to pathos and ethos, Leon Bridges also utilized logos as a rhetorical tool to showcase that the black men and women throughout this country face a unique struggle with police brutality but through all the injustice, there is a light shining at the end of the tunnel. Bridges wrote this song to reflect on the Baltimore uprising. Bridges provides detail to educate us on the tragedy of the protests by showing scenes of a man covered in blood walking on an empty street, a child sitting alone looking outside of the window and people banging police cars with cones in the TV in the room. He also presents logos through reason of why we should believe hope trumps injustice. One example of this is when he sings the lyrics “In my darkness I remember Momma’s words reoccur to me, “Surrender to the good Lord and he’ll wipe your state clean.” He shares this personal anecdote to provide a rationale that even after hard times, such as the way police handled Baltimore, God will always be there to help mend your sorrows. Another example of how he use sensible examples to show that hope exists is when towards the end of the video all of the African Americans come together in the rain and dance and play music. He is trying to explain that if we all come together in times like this and keep our spirits alive than the good will surpass evil. Leon Bridges strategically weaves in pathos into his logos by showing scenes of both the brutality and the sense of optimism at the end, and providing lyrics of examples to easily make the audience of the speech more hopeful towards the situation by lifting their sorrows.

-Nidhi Kalaria

The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan- Logos

In addition to strong appeals to pathos and ethos, Bob Dylan also utilized logos as a rhetorical tool to persuade the audience that the death of Emmett Till was unlawful and unpardonable behavior that galvanized the rise of the Civil Rights movement. Although this song does not have statistics as facts, Dylan explains the exact situation of how Emmett Till is murdered. Dylan states that “twas down in Mississippi, not so long ago, when a young boy from Chicago town walk in a southern door…men dragged him a barn and there they beat him up…” By thoroughly explaining that he was dragged into the barn, Dylan opens the public's eyes to the negligent behavior that took place. Dylan also describes the trial by saying “these United States of yelling for a trial, two brothers they confessed that they killed poor Emmett Till. But on the jury there were men who helped the brother commit this awful crime…” He explains the trial to show the unjust jurisdiction of the outcome in hopes that people will speak up more and noticed how unfair it was. Also through these vivid and accurate examples of what happened, Dylan foreshadows how this one discriminatory act gave a rise to many other protests, racial groups and an entire movement. Bob Dylan fortified his argument with tangible evidence, providing detail of how Emmett Till was murdered, to convince the readers that the death of Emmett Till was a despicable course of action.

-Nidhi Kalaria