We shall overcome: to what extent can musicians influence the process of desecuritization (original) (raw)
Related papers
This volume brings together for the first time book chapters, articles and position pieces from the debates on music and identity, which seek to answer classic questions such as: how has music shaped the ways in which we understand our identities and those of others? In what ways has scholarly writing about music dealt with identity politics since the Second World War? Both classic and more recent contributions are included, as well as material on related issues such as music's role as a resource in making and performing identities and music scholarship's ambivalent relationship with scholarly activism and identity politics. The essays approach the music-identity relationship from a wide range of methodological perspectives, ranging from critical historiography and archival studies, psychoanalysis, gender and sexuality studies, to ethnography and anthropology, and social and cultural theories drawn from sociology; and from continental philosophy and Marxist theories of class to a range of globalization theories. The collection draws on the work of Anglophone scholars from all over the globe, and deals with a wide range of musics and cultures, from the Americas, Australasia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This unique collection of key texts, which deal not just with questions of gender, sexuality and race, but also with other socially-mediated identities such as social class, disability, national identity and accounts and analyses of inter-group encounters, is an invaluable resource for music scholars and researchers and those working in any discipline that deals with identity or identity politics.
Changing the Tune: popular music and politics in the XXIst century
Volume ! The French journal of popular music studies, Elsa GRASSY, Jedediah Sklower, Naomi Podber, Noriko Manabe, Ana Hofman, Olivier Bourderionnet, Marc Kaiser, alenka barber-kersovan, Bruno Agar, Anthony Kosar
Published: http://www.lespressesdureel.com/ouvrage.php?id=4483&menu=2 "Conference organizers Alenka Barber-Kersovan, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Arbeitskreis Studium Populärer Musik, Germany Elsa Grassy, Université de Strasbourg, International Association for the Study of Popular Music-branche francophone d’Europe, France Jedediah Sklower, Université Catholique de Lille, Éditions Mélanie Seteun / Volume! the French journal of popular music studies, France Keynote speakers Martin Cloonan, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom Dietrich Helms, University of Osnabrück, Germany Provisional scientific committee Ralph von Appen, University of Giessen, Germany Esteban Buch, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, France Hugh Dauncey, University of Newcastle, United Kingdom André Doehring, University of Giessen, Germany Gérôme Guibert, University of Paris III, Sorbonne Nouvelle, France Patricia Hall, University of Michigan, United States Olivier Julien, University of Paris IV, Sorbonne, France Dave Laing, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom David Looseley, University of Leeds, United Kingdom Rajko Muršič, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Rosa Reitsamer, University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, Austria Deena Weinstein, DePaul University, United States Sheila Whiteley, University of Salford, United Kingdom The Conference Popular Music scholars have devoted considerable attention to the relationship between music and power. The symbolic practices through which subcultures state and reinforce identities have been widely documented (mainly in the field of Cultural, Gender and Postcolonial Studies), as has the increasingly political and revolutionary dimensions of popular music. Most studies have focused on the genres and movements that developed with and in the aftermath of the 1960’s counterculture. Yet little has been written about how the politics of popular music has reflected the social, geopolitical and technological changes of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, after the fall of Communism. Still, the music of the Arab Spring or of the Occupy and Indignados movements have been scarcely commented upon while they attest to significant changes in the way music is used by activists and revolutionaries today. This international conference therefore aims to explore the new political meanings and practices of music and to provide an impetus for their study. Broadly the themes of the conference are divided into five main streams: 1. Music as a Political Weapon The history of popular music cannot be divorced from that of social, cultural and political movements, and yet the question remains: if music is politically efficient, how can we measure its impact? It is not clear what role music plays in the struggle for political, ideological and social change. While musical practices and the writing of songs can strengthen existing activist groups, can it also truly change minds or upset the established order and destabilize it? If there are such things as soundtracks for rebellions and revolutions, do they merely accompany fights or can they quicken the pace and bring about change themselves? Of course it would be naïve to think of the political impact of music only in progressive terms; participants are encouraged to pinpoint the ambiguities and contradictions at work in the relationship between music and power. Popular music artists and whole genres can refuse to meddle in politics – and the non-referentiality of music makes it an ill-suited medium for the diffusion of clean-cut messages. It would therefore be ill-advised to consider popular music genres and artists as falling either into the political or apolitical categories. Music can also be violent in less political ways, and even carry nihilistic undertones – it can ignore or even mock its own alleged political power. This should lead us to a re-evaluation of subcultural politics. 2. Political Change, Musical Revolution? The Question of Artistic Legacy The musical styles that accompany social and political change are part of a musical continuum. This prompts the question of originality and relation to tradition. Has the new historical context shaken up the old codes for protest music? What are the new politically conscious forms and genres of today, and how do they relate to older protest movements? The covering of songs from the Civil Rights era and the Great Depression in the aftermath of Katrina and the participation of singers from the 1960s counterculture in the Occupy Wall Street movement raises the issue of correspondences between groups of artists and activists. We will also look at how contemporary movements connect with one another. Can it be said that protest music is globalized today? How does the music of the Arab Spring compare to the songs of the Occupy Wall Street movement or of the Maple Spring protesters? 3. Music, Identity and Nationalism Popular music has a hand in the building and solidification of (sub)cultural communities. Songs have expressed the emergence of new group identities in fall of Communism, the breakup of Yugoslavia and during other political schisms in Latin American countries more recently. People sing and play the old regimes away, or they use music to connect with fellow migrants or refugees in an upset political landscape. Songs serve as a bridge between past and present by pairing traditional patterns to new instruments, new technology, and new media – by associating nostalgia with the wish for change. They can also smooth out the transition to a new life and a new identity as individuals and groups assimilate into another culture. Reversely, they can reflect new cultural antagonisms and class conflicts and follow the radicalization of group identities. In the Balkans, Eastern Europe and Russia, nationalist movements have their own anthems, too. 4. Aesthetics, digital practices and political significations The increased use of computing technology in musical practices as well as the advent of social networks has opened new aesthetic vistas (with the increasing use of sampling, mashups, or shreds), as well as changed the way music is shared, advertised and composed. How do those technical changes affect the political uses of music and its weight? Of course while these changes have led to a wave of increased artistic creativity, they might also obliterate symbolic legacies and political meanings. When do reference and reverence turn into betrayal? New technologies might have opened a new battleground where political awareness competes with cultural emancipation. 5. Marching to a Different Beat? Censorship, Propaganda and Torture The political weight and the mobilizing capacities of popular music can be gauged by how authorities react to them. Some states consider them a threat to their stability and to an established order in which the voice of the people is seldom heard – and never listened to. In the 21st century, popular music is still censored and repressed all over the world. From the ban of irreverent songs after 9/11 to the violence directed against emos in Iraq and the trial against Pussy Riot more recently, the regimes contested by deviants and/or protesters can take musical criticism and anticonformist artists very seriously. Political and moral authorities with a sense of how powerful music can be may also use it for their benefit, as propaganda. Soldiers’ moral and psychological states can also be altered by listening to aggressive playlists during military operations. Music is never further away from its role in political struggles than when it is meant to numb the will of individuals, subdue or even torture. This might constitute the most extreme way in which its emancipatory power can be subverted." Schedule Friday 7 June 2013 12:00: Lunch 13:00-13:30: Conference opening, MISHA conference hall: Alenka Barber-Kersovan, Elsa Grassy, Jedediah Sklower 13:30-14:15: Dietrich Helms intervention 14:15 -14:30: Coffee break 14:30-16:00: Panels I 1. The democratic agency of protest music I: music, society & political change 2. Scenes I: the politics of indie music 3. Hijacking popular music I: persuasion & propaganda 16:00-16:15: Coffee break 16:15-17:45: Panels II 4. The democratic agency of protest music II: performing activist soundscapes 5. Scenes II – racial and postcolonial issues in glocal popular music 6. Hijacking popular music II: Star politics, influence & the masses 18:00-20:00: Visit of Strasbourg’s historical center 19:00-20:00: Visit of Strasbourg by “bateau mouche” 20:30: Dinner at the Maison Kammerzell Saturday 8 June 2013 9:30-11:00: Panels III 7. The democratic agency of protest music III: struggling with commitment 8. Scenes III: glocal hip-hop & the politics of authenticity 9. Identity polemics I: assessing the political past 11:00-11:15: Coffee break 11:15-12:45: Panels IV 10. The democratic agency of protest music IV: political movements & strikes 11. Hijacking popular music III: State policies & propaganda 12. Identity polemics II: the polysemic recycling of popular music 12:45-14:30: “Buffet” at the MISHA conference hall, and short concert within the Jazzdor Strasbourg-Berlin festival 14:30-15:15: Martin Cloonan presentation 15:15-15:30: Coffee break 15h30-17:00: Panels V 13. The democratic agency of protest music V: revolutionary soundtracks? 14. Scenes IV: politics, ethics & aesthetics 15. Identity polemics III: tributes & national myths in the United States 17:00-17:15: Coffee break 17:15-18:00: Conference conclusion & debate Abstracts
Singing our own song: Navigating identity politics through activism in music
Research Studies in Music Education, 2018
This work builds upon considerations of musicking that suggest processes of performing, creating, listening, and producing of music are sites for identity formation and meaning-making activities. In this project, I interviewed 20 activist-musicians about the following dimensions of identity and meaning-making in their work: (a) how they view the role of (their) music; (b) how they situate themselves in their work; and (c) what they believe are the implications of their work for music education, based on (d) their own experiences of music. I draw on Said’s counterpoint as an analytical tool to hold conflicting identities and issues in tension without false resolution. Significantly, the majority of the activist-musicians who participated in the study saw music not only as a means of identity formation, but also as a site to engage in, express, and formulate identity politics. Together, these elements have substantive implications for music education. In imagining an activist school m...
This is America: Music and Image in the Black Lives Matter Movement
2021
The U.S. Civil Rights Movement has a long history and directly relates to the current Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Music has long played an important role in BLM and earlier related movements in building community and promoting racial justice. Some contemporary scholars focus narrowly on the importance of social media in BLM, centering its significance in the same way that others have seen music as essential in studying earlier movements. Though its use of social media sets Black Lives Matter apart from the past and fundamentally changes BLM's trajectory and nature, so too does the movement's music. Together, both have played an essential role in linking image and message through music video and viral hashtags and posts. This thesis analyzes key differences and similarities between Black Lives Matter and past U.S. movements of racial reckoning through the use of music and image. The longevity and global reach of the contemporary movement are aided by social media and i...
Unveiling Power Dynamics and Identity through Music in Cultural Studies
Cultural studies serve as a vital lens through which to analyze the complex interplay between music and society. This research paper explores how cultural studies offer critical insights into the power dynamics and ideological dimensions of music. By examining music through the intersecting lenses of gender, race, class, and power, we uncover underlying structures of privilege, marginalization, and resistance. Moreover, this paper investigates how music intersects with broader social movements, shapes political discourse, and challenges dominant narratives. Through a nuanced exploration of the socio-political dimensions of music, cultural studies illuminate its role in shaping collective identities and fostering social change. Drawing from interdisciplinary scholarship and case studies, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the dynamic relationship between music, culture, and society.
Racism: Music's Powers of Change
This paper examine the purposes and abilities of protest music and events with a strong emphasis on Rock Against Racism. It has been written in accordance with the Cardiff University Music School's MHRA referencing system and aims to be Masters level.
Chapter 1. When is Music Political?
The idea of ‘political music’ is problematic and calls for clarification from the outset. In the context of popular music and folk music, the term is most usually associated with what became known in the 1950s and 1960s as ‘protest music’, particularly as protest songs in relation to the protest movements of the time. In the case of art music, however, the idea of a specifically ‘political music’ is usually understood as politically committed or politically engaged music, in the way often associated with composers like Hanns Eisler in the period from the 1920s to the 1950s, and in the 1950s and 1960s with composers like Luigi Nono. In addition to these, there is the association of music—both art music and popular music—with political propaganda, especially in the Second World War and in the Cold War that followed. However, whilst all of these notions of ‘political music’ need to be addressed early on in this chapter, a further important issue is raised as a result: what about musics that do not easily fit into any of these categories, but which nevertheless came to be regarded as ‘political’ or politically provocative and critical in their implications, even though not obviously or directly political in their content or their function? The purpose of this chapter is therefore not only to explore the problematic notions of ‘protest music,’ ‘politically engaged’ music, and the political use of music as propaganda, but also to discuss the ‘politically mediated’ character of so-called autonomous music in order to clarify concepts that are fundamental to the rest of this dissertation. Beginning with a cursory examination of definitions of protest music and politically engaged music that foregrounds the role of song text in determining the political meaning of music, I then move on to consider ways in which supposedly ‘apolitical’ music can be considered political when it is used in a political context. Finally, I turn attention to the political implications of so-called ‘autonomous music’, arguing that it is through its critical relation to its material, which is itself of a collective and socially mediated character, that such music can be understood as radical and politically critical.
"This Machine Kills Fascists": Contemporary Narratives of Popular Music and Racism
Writing on rock music, Martin and Segrave claim that “[i]t represents the idealistic, spontaneous, and nihilistic tendencies of youth versus the hypocritical, repressive, and traditional tendencies of adult society.” (79) Such idealism has accompanied popular music throughout its history, leading to the impression that it lends itself to left-wing values. Following on from the work of Sabin on punk and “Rock Against Racism,” this paper considers the narratives of music and race promoted by contemporary organisations such as “Love Music Hate Racism” and “Folk Against Fascism.” These groups believe that music, as a product of converging cultures and traditions, can and should be used to bring people together. Yet, this ideology faces opposition from groups such as the British National Party, who are attempting to wrest ideological ownership of certain genres—most notably folk, but also pop and rock—to promote an ideal of authentic British music. As well as considering the ways these disputes are played out in popular media, this paper examines the ideological soundness behind the arguments, concluding that the contradictions within many of the genres in question leave them open to appropriation by both left and right.
Politics in the Key of Life: Black Music as Black Activism
National Review of Black Politics, 2022
Black Art, namely Black music, embodies the most influential and ubiquitous political socialization agent among average citizens. As Walton (1985) contends, the “African American political socialization was different from that of whites and that the process has at least three steps, including resocialization as well as counter socialization” (55). The existing literature suggests that music functions as a vehicle of expression in Black culture, public opinion, race, identity, and gender (Rose 1994; Ibrahim 1999; Bennett 2000; Bonnette 2015). Such an assumption can lead to critical questions regarding the relationship of Black music to politics: (1) Does Black music also influence political attitudes and preferences? (2) Can Black artists engage in activism to shape policy outcomes? If so, then the influence of Black music and artistry on political behavior appears to have been more significant than what Holden (1966), Walton (1985), and Walker (1991) believed. In this study, I utilized a descriptive textual analysis and archival documents of the song “Happy Birthday,” written by Stevie Wonder, his subsequent tour, rally, and testimony that aided in the passage of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr holiday. In addition, I explored the origins of artists who engage in activism by examining literature that connects Stevie Wonder’s efforts to Black social movements. Finally, this study provides insights into the future intersection of musical genres found within the Black community (e.g., rap and pop music) and social movements.