1) The Chrysler Building

The Chrysler Building was built in 1930 by the head of the Chrysler Corporation, Walter P. Chrysler, to serve as the headquarters of the Corporation. So impressive was the project from the very beginning that just the announcement of the building project earned him the 1928 Time’s Man of the Year. From its conception, it was embroiled in the race for the tallest skyscraper. Eventually, it did win out but the victory was short-lived; just 11 months later, the construction of the Empire State Building was completed, narrowly surpassing the Chrysler Building. The Chrysler has come to represent that valiance of man, from its tapered tip to the gargoyles overlooking the City to the mural on the ground floor. It was a representation of the success of man over all forces, which is why it has taken the number 1 spot on this list.

2) Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”

The history of Billie Holiday’s most popular and definitely most engaging song “Strange Fruit” is surprisingly kooky. It originated as a poem by Abel Meeropol, a white Jewish teacher from DeWitt Clinton School in the Bronx. He saw a picture of a lynching and was so moved that he wrote a poem about the picture, which was published and later given to Billie Holiday. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it is about her voice that works but whatever it is, it paints a very chilling picture of the racial injustices embedded in American history. Both the poem and the song were intensely brave pieces of work considering their time. The song was seen as so instrumental that Times gave it the title of the “song of the century” in 1999.

3) John Cage’s “4′ 33″ ”

It wouldn’t be a complete Top Tens list without John Cage’s 4′ 33″. This piece embodied one of John Cage’s sayings, “Everything we do is music.” The piece is a three-movement composition in which the score indicates to the musicians that they are not to play during any of the three movements. The reasoning behind this piece is that the audience should be listening to the music all around them. For example, if someone were to sneeze during the 4 minutes and 33 seconds of its duration, John Cage would say that this was part of the piece. The piece pushes the envelope as much as it can, bringing to question what is art and what isn’t. Literally anyone could have made the piece; all it would have required was a blank sheet of paper to act as the score. Yet, John Cage is still branded a genius and an artist for his work while someone of lower status would be shunned from artistic communities everywhere.

4) Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer”

Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” is among the list of musical works that are known by everyone but whose name isn’t recognized as it should be. The song was sub-titled “A Rag Time Two Step”, indicating the origins of the music. The Two Time was a popular dance until 1911 while ragtime was the style of music that “The Entertainer” fell in. Considering it received its popularity, it is hard to find out why it’s still ingrained in everyone’s minds nowadays even when taking into consideration the fact that it was used by the Oscar-winning 1973 film The Sting. It is so ubiquitous that it earned itself the 10th place on the Recording Industry Association of America’s “Songs of the Century” List for the 20th Century.

5) Jacob Riis’s Lodgers in Bayard Street Tenement, Five Cents a Spot

Though looking at any of Jacob Riis’s photos would allow one to understand Riis’s ability to eke emotions out of his audience and have them feel for his subjects, there is one specific photo that is possibly the strongest: Lodgers in a Bayard Street Tenement, Five Cents a Spot (1889). This photograph shows the state of living in a tenement. There are 6 people in what seems to be only 3 tiny makeshift beds. The living space is taken up by the beds, cooking utensils, shoes, etc.  There is so little space, in fact, that Jacob Riis actually couldn’t take the picture from inside the tenement apartment. He had to step outside into the hallway of the building and set up his camera there. This fact alone speaks to the cramped nature of tenement housing projects. Looking at the photograph, it is evident that the people in the room are uncomfortable and have been that way for a long time. Many of the workers are taking a break on the messy floor while one of their companions is sleeping while sitting up (a practice that people only commit to once all other options are exhausted). This is a testament to the greedy nature of the tenement owner as well as to the mission of Jacob Riis to bring light to an often overlooked part of the City. Jacob Riis went on to become a journalist as well. This allowed him to truly expose the social injustices that were widespread at the time.

6) Ornette Coleman’s “Turnaround”

Ornette Coleman’s “Turnaround” is one of the last songs on his album “Sound Grammar”, which won a Pulitzer Prize. It showcases how the melody and other aspects of his work do not need to be altered imitations of conventional jazz music structures, but that they can be completely free on their own. This is not only shown by the music itself, but by the fact that the music was recorded by two different quartets that were improvising simultaneously. This is ultimately Ornette Coleman’s entire purpose, to dismantle the restrictions set upon jazz and to create a new era of jazz much like Charlie Parker brought about bebop. Coleman’s ability to deviate from the set path is admirable and produces quite an interesting result. This, I can testify myself as I listened to it multiple times in the making of many of my posts on this site, alongside the next entry on this list.

7) Scott Joplin’s and Louis Chauvin’s “Heliotrope Bouquet”

I fell in love with this composition the first time I heard it. It produces the same type of aura as “The Entertainer” as well as the underlying sense of familiarity. This seems to be a common because of the fact that this piece was also composed by Scott Joplin. The piece is a tantalizing testament to the times of a century ago when it would have been played regularly at houses and at clubs. If you have had any trouble in the past with getting past the initial hill of actually starting a project, I would definitely recommend that you give this a listen. In my opinion, it is a calm and gentle nudge and a call to action even though it might not have been intended to be that way at the time of its creation.

8) Kehinde Wiley’s “Napolean Leading the Army over the Alps”

Historically, portraiture was not just used to create something that looked like something or someone. The arts were used to represent social status, wealth, and, ultimately, power. One painting that really exuded that power was “Napoleon Crossing the Alps” by Jacques-Louis David, a painting that showed Napoleon on horseback preparing to cross the Alps to continue his conquest. Kehinde Wiley flips the original portrait by replacing the image of Napoleon with that of a black man in modern clothes. This serves a social critique of the negligence paid towards the Black cultural experience and impact. Indeed, Kehinde Wiley has the following to say about the topic: “Painting is about the world that we live in. Black men live in the world. My choice is to include them. This is my way of saying yes to us.” Kehinde Wiley lives on today and he is expected to paint former president Obama’s portrait, which I’m excited to see.

9) Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives

With great effort and an innate capacity for photography, Riis got a job as a police reporter for the New York Evening Sun and the New York Tribune and gained a deeper insight into the injustices occurring right under his nose. He subsequently resolved to take a stance on protecting the lower class, assuming the position of a muckraker. Among Riis’ works, his initial publication How the Other Half Lives was perhaps the most influential in ameliorating the living conditions of the lower class. Released in 1890, this social criticism detailed the sordid state of the accommodations for immigrants who endured toxic environments in the workplace as well as the slums they called home. Riis acknowledged the benefits of building public parks to alleviate the overcrowding and fostering of crime, proposing the notion that bad children are a product of bad environments. This most certainly is an idea that Maggie: Girl of the Streets seems to agree with. In an attempt to appeal to the philanthropic higher-class citizens, Riis provided distressing statistics and captured snapshots of the immigrant communities characterized by congested tenements, filthy streets, and criminal activity. The book’s overwhelming success was a turning point for the lower-class, arresting the attention of New Yorkers who were appalled at the inadequate living conditions, as well as police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt. According to Roosevelt, Riis employed his “great gift of making others see what he saw and feel what he felt.” Moved by the severity of the unembellished truth, the future president shut down the lowest quality residences and prompted the city officials to implement refined housing policies. Thus, Jacob Riis was very successful in his attempt at curbing social injustice and improving the lives of the disenfranchised, which is very respectable and admirable.

10) Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather

While on the topic of social justice, it must be noted that not all methods of achieving such justice arise from legal pathways. In Francis Ford Coppola’s 1971 film, The Godfather, social justice is one of the most evident and key themes on which the American mafia revolve around. All throughout the film, specifically during the opening scene of the film, we see how Don Corleone’s “friends” come to see and speak to Don Corleone himself. They visit “The Godfather,” Don Corleone, in order to ask for his help in such acts as robbery, violence, or political action. His friends do not ask for these favors out of anywhere; they ask for his help because an illegal action was taken against them and when they went to the U.S. court of justice or the police force, they were provided very little or no help at all. Don Corleone and the mafia are an example of social justice present in New York City during the 1960’s. They are a form of help and salvation, regardless of economic class, coming from a friend in need.