The Power of Strange Fruit

Ever since it was famously performed by the late, great Billie Holiday in 1939, "Strange Fruit" has held its own. Since her rendition, the song, originally written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish high school teacher, has been covered and sampled countless of times. How could such a melancholy tune carry on with musical progression through the years?

After hearing the classic's lyrical content, it's hard for one to simply forget about it or pass it off as just another single. How can one simply forget a song in which the lynching of African Americans in the South is described so vividly and clearly? The black lynched bodies are painted as fruits hanging from blood-stained trees, just another "pastoral scene of the gallant south." The song not only attacks the listener's sense of hearing, but also his/her sense of smell; "scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh, then the sudden smell of burning flesh." It is a terrifying piece of art that draws one into the scene at hand, leaving a lasting impression.

The melody is still capable of terrifying its listeners because it resonates with the struggles some communities, faced in a grim time of American history whose effects still linger today. The underlying theme of "Strange Fruit" is violent racism, which continues to be a problem. Since the time it was penned, much has changed in the fact that blacks gained rights in the 60's via the Civil Rights Movement and with lynching not being a norm anymore. But as times have gotten difficult with rising poverty levels and discrimination, African American artists have sampled "Strange Fruit" in their own work to connect the strand of the problems of now to its origins.

"Strange Fruit" has had so much staying power due to not only its shocking lyrical content (shock value) , but also its depiction of the extreme racism of the past. It resonates with artists, precisely African American artists today because the effects of the lynching described in the song still affect them nowadays.