Before the song
1. These news headlines refer to the socio-historical context in which the song “Shock” by Ana Tijoux was released. What political and social situation do the headlines describe? Who are the protagonists? What kinds of actions are mentioned? What is the tone of the news?
| Chilean student protests explode into violence
Riot police clash with protesters calling for education reform as anger with Sebastián Piñera´s government boils over. The Guardian (UK), 5 Aug 2011: news |
Chilean students protest after ‘failed talks’
Thousands march through the streets of Santiago after their demands for education reform go unmet. Al Jazeera (Qatar), 6 Oct 2011: news |
|
| Photos: Chilean students stage kissing protest
To express their anger, hundreds of Chilean students made out in public. Yesterday’s mass makeout session-dubbed a “Kiss Party”- was part of ongoing protests against Chile’s education system. The World (US), 7 July de 2011: news |
In Chile Protests, A Teenager Is Dead, 1,400 Arrested
A two-day strike culminated in a massive march that left a 16-year-old dead and close to 1,400 arrested in Chile, yesterday. NPR (Chile), August 26, 2011: news |
2. The song refers to the book The Shock Doctrine (2007), written by well-known Canadian journalist and activist Naomi Klein. Watch this video by Mexican directors Alfonso and Jonás Cuarón that summarizes the book. Then, in small groups, read the excerpt from Klein´s book. Discuss those ideas in the video and the text that you find more relevant and define what the “shock doctrine” is using your own words.
[Milton] Friedman first learned how to exploit a large-scale shock or crisis in the mid-seventies, when he acted as adviser to the Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet. Not only were Chileans in a state of shock following Pinochet’s violent coup, but the country was also traumatized by severe hyperinflation. Friedman advised Pinochet to impose a rapid-fire transformation of the economy—tax cuts, free trade, privatized services, cuts to social spending and deregulation. Eventually, Chileans even saw their public schools replaced with voucher-funded private ones. It was the most extreme capitalist make-over ever attempted anywhere, and it became known as a “Chicago School” revolution, since so many of Pinochet’s economists had studied under Friedman at the University of Chicago. Friedman predicted that the speed, suddenness and scope of the economic shifts would provoke psychological reactions in the public that “facilitate the adjustment.” He coined a phrase for this painful tactic: economic “shock treatment.” In the decades since, whenever governments have imposed sweeping free-market programs, the all-at-once shock treatment, or “shock therapy,” has been the method of choice. (7)
3. Ana Tijoux is a well-known rap and hip-hop singer in Spanish. Watch the interview she did for the US newscast Democracy Now, in which she also sings live some of her songs, including “Shock.” You can read the interview transcript on the same website. After watching the interview, answer the following questions:
3.1. Where is Ana from? And her family? Where did she grow up? What does she tell about her children and motherhood?
3.2. What kind of music does she create? What are her influences? What other artists does she collaborate with?
3.3. What are the topics she talks about in her songs? Give some examples from the songs she sings live on the show. Why is it important for her to address these topics in her music?
Song and music video
4. Listen to the song and watch the music video on YouTube.
5. Below you have the lyrics of “Shock”[1]. Click on the links to know more about the references in the text.
Poisons, your monologues.
Your speeches, colorless.
Don’t you see that we are not alone,
Millions from pole to pole.
To the beat of a single drum,
We will march with the rhythm,
With the conviction that this theft must stop.
Your state of control,
Your rotten throne of gold,
Your politics and your wealth,
And your treasure, no.
The time has come, the time has come.
We will not allow anymore your doctrine of shock.
The time has come, the time has come (doctrine of shock).
The time has come, the time has come (doctrine of shock).
The time has come, the time has come (doctrine of shock).
The time has come, the time has come.
No countries, only corporations.
Who owns the most, (has) more stocks.
Fat slices, powerful people, decisions by very few.
Pinochet-esque constitution,
To the right of the Opus Dei, fascist book.
Coup supporter disguised as a pardoned elitist.
The last straw falls, the stocks fall, the occupation,
takes the broken machine.
The street won’t shut up, the street goes crazy,
The street won’t shut up, a debate that ignites.
Now everything is taken, everything sold.
Everything becomes profit, life, death,
Everything is business; life you, everyone.
Seeds, peace, what, methods and choirs.
Poisons, your monologues.
Your speeches, colorless.
Don’t you see that we are not alone,
Millions from pole to pole.
To the beat of a single drum,
We will march with the rhythm,
With the conviction that this theft must stop.
Your state of control,
Your rotten throne of gold,
Your politics and your wealth,
And your treasure, no.
The time has come, the time has come.
We will not allow anymore your doctrine of shock.
The time has come, the time has come (doctrine of shock).
The time has come, the time has come (doctrine of shock).
The time has come, the time has come (doctrine of shock).
The time has come, the time has come.
Punch by punch, verse by verse,
With force of will and spirit,
With ashes, with the flame of the present, with remembrances,
With certainty and with boldness, with the objective clear,
With memory and with history, the future is now!
All this is a test tube,
All this is a laboratory of everyday,
All this failure,
All this a damned economic model from the dinosaur era.
Everything is criminalized, everything is justified on the news,
Everything is taken, everything is stepped on,
Everything is indexed and classified,
Your politics and your tactics,
Your general laughter and ethic.
Your manipulated press release,
How many did you silence?
Cops, hoses, clubs,
Cops, hoses, clubs,
Cops, hoses, they don’t add up.
How many made off with the fortune?
Poisons, your monologues.
Your speeches, colorless.
Don’t you see that we are not alone,
Millions from pole to pole.
To the beat of a single drum,
We will march with the rhythm,
With the conviction that this theft must stop.
Your state of control,
Your rotten throne of gold,
Your politics and your wealth,
And your treasure, no.
The time has come, the time has come.
We will not allow anymore your doctrine of shock.
The time has come, the time has come.
The time has come, the time has come.
The time has come, the time has come.
The time has come, the time has come.
After listening to the song
In groups of three or four, answer the questions below to know more about the themes in the song. Share your answers with the rest of the class.
6. The poetic voice (the voice that sings) aligns itself with someone else to form a collective and plural subject (in grammar the 1st person “we”) that emphasizes the solidarity message in the text. That collective subject (“we”) faces someone else (“you” and, occasionally, “they”). Considering the song lyrics, the video and what you have previously read: Who is the “we” with whom the poetic voice identifies? Who is “you”? What do these persons do? Fill out the table below to organize the activities carried out by each person. Discuss your answers with your classmates.
| Person | Actions: what do they do? Or what actions do they carry out? |
| We | |
| You |
The video reinforces the idea in the lyrics to elaborate that “we,” a person that is not “I” but the coming together of many “I’s”, in order to achieve a common goal: How many different people are in the video? Who are they? Are they well-known or common people? What do they look like? What characteristics do they have in common? Which ones are unique? Unlike in most of music videos, the singer does not have a starring role in her own video: Can we see Ana Tijoux in the video at some point? If she does, in what situation or context does she appear?
7. The video begins with two introductions (a written and an oral one): What do they tell the audience? In the middle of the video, the song stops and a group of students speaks: What do they say to the viewer? These are the only sections of the video with subtitles: Why do you think subtitles are included at this point?
8. The different people who appear in the video hold signs in front of their bodies: what do the signs say? Are they all the same? What is the purpose of these signs, in your opinion?
9. In the video we can see several graffiti and banners with slogans. Choose three of them, describe and discuss them with your classmates.
| In this banner/graffiti we can see… | I think that it means/relates to… | |
| Graffiti 1 | ||
| Graffiti 2 | ||
| Graffiti 3 |
Final assignment
10. In groups of three, prepare an interview of Ana Tijoux and one of the students participating in the video. Divide the roles: journalist, singer, Chilean student. Write down the questions you would like to ask. Role play the interview and record it as audio or video. Your answers need to match what we have learned about the student protests in Chile, and Ana Tijoux’s ideas and music about that topic.
References
“Augusto Pinochet.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Feb. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet. 14 March 2021.
“Chilean students protest after ‘failed talks’.” Al Jazeera, 6 Oct. 2011, www.aljazeera.com/news/2011/10/6/chilean-students-protest-after-failed-talks. 18 March 2021.
“Constitution of Chile.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Feb. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Chile. 14 March 2021.
Cuarón Alfonso, Jonás Cuarón and Naomi Klein. “The Shock Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.” Vimeo, uploaded by Foreign Office, vimeo.com/28506536. 15 March 2021.
Franklin, Jonathan. “Chile student protests explode into violence.” The Guardian, 5 Aug. 2011, www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/05/chile-student-protests-violence. 17 March 2021.
Garlow, Stephanie S. “Photos: Chilean students stage kissing protest.” The World, 7 July 2011, www.pri.org/stories/2011-07-07/photos-chilean-students-stage-kissing-protest. 17 March 2021.
Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.Metropolitan Books, 2007.
“Milton Friedman.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Feb. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman. 14 March 2021.
“Naomi Klein.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Feb. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Klein. 14 March 2021.
“Opus Dei.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 March 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_Dei. 19 March 2021.
Peralta, Eyder. “In Chile Protests, A Teenager Is Dead, 1,400 Arrested.” NPR, 26 Aug. 2011, www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2011/08/26/139971164/in-chile-protests-a-teenager-is-dead-1-400-arrested. 17 March 2021.
“The Shock Doctrine.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Feb. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine. 14 March 2021.
Tijoux, Ana. Interview with Amy Goodman. “Chilean Musician Ana Tijoux on Politics, Feminism, Motherhood & Hip-Hop as ‘a Land for the Landless’.” Democracy Now, 10 July 2014, www.democracynow.org/es/2014/7/11/hablamos_con_la_artista_chilena_ana. 18 March 2021.
—. “Shock.” La bala, Oveja negra and Nacional Records, 2011.
—. “Shock.” YouTube, uploaded by Nacional Records, 4 Oct. 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=177-s44MSVQ. 15 marzo 2021.
- Ttranslation by Caraiguas in LiveJournal: songlations.livejournal.com/51479.html. Interesting discussion on translation issues in the comments section. ↵
