A change is gonna come research

Background "A change is gonna come" is a social-political song made by American singer Sam Cooke, released in December 22, 1964. The song is created to express how is experiencing struggles just like the rest of the African Americans. Struggles mentioned includes feeling unsure because the future kept changing, feeling frustrated about being mistreated.

Historical background: During 1940 and 1960s, African Americans made a revolution called the civil rights movement after they are constantly treated unfairly and discriminated for being black. The movement is intended to fight racism and make the society more peaceful. "A change is gonna come" become the anthem of the civil rights movement as it spreads hope and tells people the real problems.

The structure of the song is made of a intro, verse 1, chorus, verse 3, chorus, verse 4, and ends in a outro. It is written in b flat major. Because of the genre of the song is classic soul, it contains many complex change of chords, similar to jazz.

The chord progression is a pattern of I-II-VI for the verse but have variations with some times the III chord added, and I-VI-II-VI for the chorus. The melody have the consistant pattern of F-G-B♭-G-F-G--B♭,aligned with the Major-Minor-Major-Minor progression.

The song is written in a rhytm of 12/8 and uses instruments like guitar, bass guitar, drums, piano, French horn, marimba, timpani and human voices.

Many lyric suggests how Sam Cooke faces shared struggles like other black Americans during the era. Struggles like feeling unsure about the future (Oh, and just like the river, I've been running), fear of dying or feeling vulnable (fear of dying (It's been too hard livin, But I'm afraid to die) , feeling frustrated because of raciest people "And somebody keep telling me "Don't hang around""hoping a change would come "A change gon' come Oh yes, it will" repeated in every verse and chorus.