Aretha Franklin's Music That Shattered Inhuman Politics

To more than three generations, Aretha Franklin was an icon. Not only was she a monumental musician, she also was an icon in terms of conscience, of freedom, dignity and respect. No wonder her departure from the planet has made an impact across the globe. 

She was a unique, pioneering vocalist. In an assertive essay, Jack Hamilton argues that she was the voice of the 20th century. Actually she was one of the top voicesof the 20th century, alongside Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and others. 

But what distinguished Franklin from all of them was the fact that, while Louis Armstrong showed all the male singers 'to be themselves' in the 20th century, she did it for all the female ones. Be yourself, sing like you feel it, no holds barred, she seemed to be saying. 'Satchmo' and Aretha are therefore different  from all the others, together these two are the voices of the 20th century.

With a life marked by the toughness blacks faced in America with an energy granted only to a few humans, Aretha carried through her mentor Dinah Washington's blues across gospel, and transformed it into a soundtrack of the plight and hopes of the oppressed – blacks and women – turning it into anthems. She unveiled a world where all emotions were out in the open, naked, defiant, rebellious.

She was a daughter of her generation, clearly. Her father, a pastor in Detroit, was very close to Martin Luther King. Two events made her who she is, as we know her. It was Turkish-American Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records, who had seen the 'black tiger' in her, when he signed her, enabling her to find her true self. Then came the shock: When King was assassinated, Aretha turned left, realizing the immense resistance among the whites to grant black Americans their dignity. By that time, her song 'Respect' had become a hit, turning her into an icon of the civil rights struggle. She took it on with great urge.

She was explosive in the music she made, but keenly subtle in her politics.