'A soundtrack to the insurrection': street music, marching bands and popular protest (original) (raw)

What happens in social movements when people actually move, how does the mobile moment of activism contribute to mobilisation? Are they marching or dancing? How is the space of action, the street itself, altered, re-sounded? The employment of street music in the very specific context of political protest remains a curiously under-researched aspect of cultural politics in social movements.... By looking at the marching bands of different socio- political and cultural contexts, primarily British, I aim to further current understanding of the idea and history of street music itself, as well as explore questions of the construction or repositioning of urban space via 'how the sound of music can alter spaces'; participation, pleasure and the political body; subculture and identity. Bands discussed: * Omega Brass Band of 1950s, and CND marches *northern Irish parade bands, 1970s-, unionist and nationalist parades *Infernal Noise Brigade of 2000s, and anti-capitalism global actions The published article also contains one image, of Ken Colyer's Omega Brass Band at the first Soho Fair, London, c. 1955.