Music & Barriers

For as long as music has been around, people have found many different uses for it. They have used it to express themselves, relax, or just simply enjoy.But music can also be used as a great tool to bring people together and break down social barriers. A great example of this occured in 1986 when the song "Walk This Way" by Run-D.M.C., featuring Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry was released. At the time rap music was largely still underground and had never been included in what most people would consider popular mainstream music. It was not until the release of this song which peaked at number 4 on the Billboard top 100, that people started to look more closely at hip hop music. But more important then the ranking on the charts was the idea that rap music, which had predominantly been thought of as only part of black culture could be enjoyed by all people. In a sense, "Walk This Way" was a way of not only bringing different music genere's together, but also different ethnic groups.
The music video for the song symbolically placed Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C. in a musical duel in neighboring studios before Steven Tyler literally breaks through the wall that separates them. It appears as if the director of the video was trying to symbolically display the barrier between black and white communities being broken through by using music. Not to mention the fact that "Walk This Way" practically paved the way for other hip hop artists and groups to break onto the music scene, and create the great variety of music that can now be heard playing everyday in America and around the world.Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8A0rhVG91U to watch this great landmark video and see musical and cultural barriers being broken down for yourself.