Throughout this podcast assignment, I’ve acquired a substantial amount of knowledge regarding the context, critique, and lineages of “What About Us” by Pink. For the last listening post, I want to illustrate how this song serves as an anthem for music protest through visuals and performances in the media. 

 

The Brit Awards invited Pink to perform “What About Us” in 2019. The rest of Pink’s performance included a variety of her other popular songs such as “Just Give Me a Reason’, and “Try”. She ended the performance with “What About Us” purposely to deliver the political message to her audience. In her performance, Pink is dressed in newspaper clothing alongside her background dancers. While they were performing footage of protests were filling the screen behind them. What also struck me when watching this performance was the amount of X’s displayed all over the stage and screen. This is not talked about in articles but I believe it signifies all of the people who are unheard in today’s society. As the performance ends, everyone comes together throwing their fists up in the air while holding candles as a powerful closing sentiment to the song. 

 

Pink’s performance at the Brit Awards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAo8y19e-mc

 

The second text that helped me advance my understanding of the song was the children’s choir interpretation of “What About Us” which was released in 2019. The music video depicts the children’s choir singing together as a whole. I noticed in the music video that each child looked rather somber and upset which fits with the context of the song. The video also shows solo’s of each child’s verse in the song. I found this video to be a great example for this assignment because it shines the importance of the context through children. That’s what makes the video more intriguing because children are our future. It shows that the children care about their future and that we as people need to take initiative to try to fix the current issues we face today.

 

Cover by One Voice Children’s Choir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWrHHxksbLY