Music and politics
Encyclopedia
The connection between music and politics, particularly political expression in music, has been seen in many cultures. Although music influences political movements and rituals, it is not clear how or even if, general audiences relate music on a political level. Time has shown how music can be used in anti-establishment
or protest themes, including anti-war songs, although pro-establishment ideas are also used, for example in national anthems, patriotic songs, and political campaigns. Many of these types of songs could be described as topical song
s.
Unlike many other types of music, political music is not usually ambiguous, and is used to portray a specific political message. Even in the case of overtly political pop acts like U2, the Clash, or Rage Against the Machine, while political message in their music is apparent, it is usually in the political context of the time it was made. This makes understanding the historical events and time that inspired the music essential to fully understanding the message in the music. Since political music is meant to be heard by the people, it is often meant to be popular.
Furthermore it is extremely difficult to predict how audiences will respond this kind of music, sounds, or even visual cues. For example, Bleich and Zillmann found that “counter to hat people have said, highly rebellious students did not enjoy defiant rock videos more than did their less rebellious peers, nor did they consume more defiant rock music than did their peers. The difficulty in predicting and understanding an audience is partly due to the fact that there is an extremely diverse range of styles, and structure involved in musical production, and marketing.
's third symphony
was originally called "Bonaparte". In 1804 Napoleon crowned himself emperor, whereupon Beethoven rescinded the dedication. The symphony was renamed "Heroic Symphony composed to Celebrate the Memory of a Great Man".
Verdi
's chorus of Hebrew slaves in the opera Nabucco
is sometimes considered to be a kind of rallying-cry for Italians to throw off the yoke of Austrian domination (in the north) and French domination (near Rome) - the "Risorgimento". Following unification, Verdi was awarded a seat in the national parliament.
RAPM (The Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians) was formed in the early 1920s. In 1929 Stalin gave them his backing. Shostakovich had dedicated his first symphony to Mikhail Kvardi. In 1929 Kvardi was arrested and executed. In an article in The Worker and the Theatre, Shostakovich's The Tahitit Trot (from the ballet The Golden Age) was criticised. "Can one actually dance to such music", said Ivan Yershov. the article claimed it was part of "ideology harmful to the proletariat"". Shostakovich's response was to write his third symphony, The First of May (1929) to express "the festive mood of peaceful construction".
Prokofiev wrote music to order for the Soviet Union, but managed to keep his musical standard high. Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution (1937) is far from banal. Khachaturian's ballet Spartacus (1954/6) concerns gladiator slaves who rebel against their former Roman masters. It was seen as a metaphor for the overthrow of the Czar. Similarly Prokofiev's music for the film Alexander Nevsky
concerns the attack of Teutonic knights into the Baltic states. It was seen as a metaphor for the Nazi invasion of the USSR. In general Soviet music was neo-romantic while Fascist music was neo-classical.
"I don't believe anyone venerates Mussolini more than I" said Stravinsky
in 1930 to a Rome newspaper. By 1943 Stravinsky was banned in Nazi Germany because he had chosen to live in the USA. Beginning in 1940, Orff
's cantata Carmina Burana
was performed at Nazi Party functions, and acquired the status of a quasi-official anthem. In 1933 Berlin Radio issued a formal ban on the broadcasting of jazz. However, it was still possible to hear swing music played by German bands. This was because of the moderating influence of Goebbels, who knew the value of entertaining the troops. In the period 1933-45 the music of Mahler
, a Jewish Austrian, virtually disappeared from the concert performances of the Berlin Philharmonic.
Richard Strauss
's opera Die Schweigsame Frau was banned from 1935–1945 because the librettist, Stefan Zweig, was a Jew. In the Trblinka death camp, new arrivals were presented with a deceptive scene. A ten-piece orchestra played jazz and Jewish folk tunes Shloyme Klezmer stood by the entrance of the gas chambers and played with the orchestra as the bodies were gassed. He saw his son being led in and pulled him out of the line. As SS officer saw this and laughed. Shloyme smashed his violin over the SS officer's head and marched with his only child into the gas chamber
's War Requiem (1962) emphasised the futility of war, by quoting poems by Wilfred Owen. He had previously written a "Pacifist March" in 1937. He had been a conscientious objector
during the Second World War.
Adams' opera The Death of Klinghoffer
(1991) concerns the killing of an American Jew by Palestinian terrorists. The audience had expected to see the demonisation of the terrorists, but instead saw an even-handed treatment of the Palestine Liberation Front
. Richard Taruskin of the University of California accused Adams of "romanticizing terrorists."
A range of contemporary classical composers of socialist or Marxist sympathies have attempted in often quite radically different ways to relate their politics to their work. Primary amongst those from the earlier 20th century are Kurt Weill
and Hanns Eisler
, both of whom moved away from atonal idioms that had become prominent in their time, feeling these to alienate audiences, towards music and music-theatre that had roots in popular musics (for example cabaret songs), though with sophisticated harmonies that reflected their musical background. Of post-war composers, the most significant of the earlier generations were Luigi Nono
and Hans Werner Henze
, both of who wrote a wide range of works that combined music with texts, theatre, and electronics relating to political issues viewed from a Marxist perspective (for example to do with events in Cuba, Vietnam and Chile in Nono's work). Nono brought this subject matter into a dialogue with a relatively abstract music derived from his own earlier serial compositions, from his pioneering work Il Canto Sospeso (1956) onwards, whilst Henze relaxed his earlier formalism in favour of a more eclectic approach to musical style, as for example in his large scale cabaret-like work Voices (1973).
A range of slightly later composers in West Germany, including Helmut Lachenmann
, Nicolaus A. Huber
(both of whom were students of Nono), and Mathias Spahlinger responded to political concerns in a more abstract fashion, reflecting to some extent the ideas of Theodor Adorno and writing in opposition to the perceived demands made upon music (in terms of passive listening, audience pleasing, and so on) made by the culture industry. Lachenmann and Spahlinger explored a musical vocabulary derived in large measure from unusual techniques upon instruments, to offer expressive possibilities outside of the boundaries of what Lachenmann called the 'philharmonic tradition'. Huber for a while in the 1970s withdraw from the contemporary concert circuit, instead writing Politische Revuen. Other German composers whose works relate to this tradition, though with a more eclectic use of idiom, include Dieter Schnebel
, Konrad Boehmer
and Gerhard Stabler
. Marxist ideas on aesthetic matters could be found in the writings on music by Hans G. Helms
and Heinz-Klaus Metzger
.
A thoroughly different approach characterised the late work of the British composer Cornelius Cardew
who, influenced by the writings of Christopher Caudwell
(also alluded to by Lachenmann in his work for two guitars Salut für Caudwell (1977)) and Mao Tse-Tung, famously denounced the work of the post-war avant-garde with which he had previously been associated, in his book Stockhausen Serves Imperialism (in which he attacked not just Karlheinz Stockhausen but also the music of John Cage and others). Cardew argued that the atonal music of the avant-garde served to exacerbate the fragmentation of society rather than bringing the masses together; with this in mind he turned to the composition of didactic settings of revolutionary song
s from Ireland, China, and elsewhere. Other composers influenced by Maoism include the Americans Christian Wolff
and Frederic Rzewski
and the Japanese composer-pianist Yuji Takahashi
, all of whom also incorporated political song material into their compositions, though without wholly surrendering the other more abstract musical concerns of their earlier work, whilst the British composer Dave Smith
continued to some extent in the tradition established by Cardew, as well as frequently making use of the medium of the nineteenth-century melodrama for speaker and piano, with a wide variety of texts relating to issues in Ireland, Palestine, and elsewhere.
The British composer Richard Barrett
stands apart from other tendencies in that country, working within a radical atonal avant-garde idiom a little in the manner of the German composers mentioned earlier, but equally influenced by other figures including Stockhausen, Hans-Joachim Hespos
, Xenakis
, Kagel, Michael Finnissy
and others. Barrett is concerned to marry together sophistication of musical content with a degree of surface immediacy, thus developing a musical language from fundamental parameters of register, density, dynamics, texture and timbre so as to facilitate the music's surface accessibility to the uninitiated listener. Finnissy himself has alluded to politicised topics in various works, especially in his English Country-Tunes, a ravaged musical landscape tinged with moments of nostalgia (not unlike the films of Derek Jarman
), intended as a comment on the hypocrisy and falseness of English pastoralism. The British composer Gordon Downie writes in a highly abstract modernist idiom and in writings links this type of modernism with Marxist concerns. The British arts journal EONTA, under the editorship of Steven Holt, featured a range of writings on music and other arts from various Marxist perspectives.
Melissa Dunphy
's best-known works take American politics as a theme: the Gonzales Cantata, while not partisan, sets the words of the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy hearings
to neo-Baroque music, and What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach? is a choral setting of testimony in support of same-sex marriage in Maine
.
Other composers identify with a non-Marxist left, which may embrace non- or anti-authoritarian, left-liberal, Green, or even Anarchist politics. John Cage
, for example, was influenced by ideas of Henry David Thoreau
and other anarchist writers. Cage's concept of an "anarchic harmony" has been taken up by younger composers, including Andrew Culver and Daniel James Wolf
. Many composers are engaged with environmental issues and may be usefully identified with Green politics.
" is perhaps the best-known example of political folk music
, in this case a rallying-cry for the Civil Rights Movement
. Pete Seeger
was involved in the popularization of the song, as was Joan Baez
. During the early part of 20th century, poor working conditions and class struggles lead to the growth of the Labour movement
and numerous songs advocating social and political reform. The most famous songwriter of the early 20th century "Wobblies" was Joe Hill
. In the 1940s through the 1960s, The Weavers
as well as Woody Guthrie
were influential in this type of social and political music. Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
", was a popular anti-war protest song. Many of these types of songs became popular during the Vietnam War era. Blowin' in the Wind
, by Bob Dylan
, was a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary
, and suggested that a younger generation was becoming more aware of global problems than many of the older generation. In 1964, Joan Baez had a top-ten hit in the UK with "There but for Fortune
" (by Phil Ochs
). It was a plea for the innocent victim of prejudice or inhumane policies. Many topical songwriters with social and political messages emerged out of the folk music revival
of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton
, Buffy Sainte-Marie
, Judy Collins
, Arlo Guthrie
, and many others.
These folk protest traditions are still being carried on today by many old and new topical songwriters and musicians of all types and varieties. Today's socially conscious musicians not only sing at rallies, demonstrations and on picket lines, but typically have professional web sites and post videos on YouTube
and other popular internet sites. Examples of such activist musicians include Ray Korona
(environmental, labor, peace, social justice), Charlie King
(labor, social justice) and Anne Feeney
(labor, protest), among many others. Although these musicians each have their own followings and performance circuits, good sources for finding many of them include the Peoples Music Network
for Songs of Freedom and Struggle and the Labor Heritage Foundation
.
Blues songs tend to be resigned to fate rather than fighting against misfortune, but there are a few exceptions. Josh White
recorded "When Am I going to be Called a Man" in 1936. At this time it was common for white men to address black men as "boy". He also wrote "Silicosis is Killing Me" in 1936. Billie Holiday
recorded "Strange Fruit
" in 1939. With great sophistication, it draws a comparison between fruit on the trees and the rotting corpses of lynched black men.
Paul Robeson
, singer, actor, athlete, and civil rights activist, was investigated by the FBI and was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee
(HUAC) for his outspoken political views. The State Department denied Robeson a passport and issued a "stop notice" at all ports, effectively confining him to the United States. In a symbolic act of defiance against the travel ban, labor unions in the U.S. and Canada organized a concert at the International Peace Arch
on the border between Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia
on May 18, 1952. Paul Robeson stood on the back of a flat bed truck on the American side of the U.S.-Canada border and performed a concert for a crowd on the Canadian side, variously estimated at between 20,000 and 40,000 people. Robeson returned to perform a second concert at the Peace Arch in 1953, and over the next two years two further concerts were scheduled.
In Communist China, exclusively national music was promoted. A flautist named Zhao Songtime, a member of the Zhejiang Song-and-Dance Troupe, attended an Arts festival in 1957 in Mexico. He was punished for his international outlook by being expelled from the Troupe. From 1966 to 1970 he underwent "re-education". In 1973 he returned to the Troupe but was expelled again following accusations.
is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in Los Angeles in 1990 by Jeff Ayeroff for the purposes of political advocacy. Rock the Vote works to engage youth in the political process by incorporating the entertainment community and youth culture into its activities. Rock the Vote's stated mission is to "build the political clout and engagement of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country."
Some rock groups, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
, Living Colour
, Rage Against the Machine
, Manic Street Preachers
, Marilyn Manson
, Megadeth
, Anti-Flag
, Scars on Broadway
, and System of a Down
have openly political messages in their music.
Detroit, Michigan
's MC5
(Motor City 5) came out of the underground rock music scene of the late 1960s, and displayed an aggressive evolution of garage rock
which was often fused with sociopolitical and countercultural lyrics of the era, such as in the songs "Motor City Is Burning" (a John Lee Hooker
cover adapting the story of the Detroit Race Riot (1943)
to the Detroit Insurrection of 1967
), and "The American Ruse" (which discusses U.S. police brutality
as well as pollution
, prison
, materialism
and rebellion
). They had ties to radical leftist
organizations such as Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers
and John Sinclair
's White Panther Party
(composed of white American socialists seeking to assist African Americans in the fight for racial equality - it was not, as the title may suggest, a white supremacist group). MC5 performed a set before the 1968 Democratic Convention held at International Amphitheatre
in Chicago
, Illinois
where an infamous riot
subsequently broke out between police and students protest
ing the recent assassination
of The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
and the Vietnam War
. During the counterculture era, acts like John Lennon
commonly protested in his music, with latter devoting an entire album
to politics and the song Imagine
, widely considered to be a peace anthem. In 1965, Bob Dylan
sang to his fans about the evils of war and the emptiness of consumerism when he released his trade mark album “The Times They are A-Changin’” which became one of his number one albums containing one of his number one songs. This song was articulating the movement of social change and that history will always repeat itself. When he sang the lyrics “Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen and keep your eyes wide, the chance won’t come again. And don’t speak too soon, for the wheel’s still in spin.” He achieved the attention of the civil rights movement which helped in the transformation of the American political landscape.
Like any other musical artist, Dylan was influenced by other radical groups such as the Wobblies- the popular group of the thirties and forties, the Beat Anarchists of the fifties, and above all, by the political beliefs of young people during the civil rights movement. In his songs, he included the terror of the nuclear arms race, poverty, racism, prison, jingoism, and war. With his songs, he helped with the political revolution of America in the 1960’s.
has been associated with various left-wing and/or anti-establishment
ideologies, including anarchism
and socialism
: punk's culture of DIY and disregard for musical virtuosity held an obvious attraction for those on the left - mirroring as it does workers' control of the means of production, and empowerment of the powerless (though some leftists, it can be argued, may see the DIY ethic
as just another form of private enterprise) - and the genre as a whole came, largely through the Sex Pistols
to be associated with anarchism. The sincerity of many of these bands has been questioned - many saw the use of anarchism in early punk as a fashion statement more than an ideology - but over time bands such as Crass
in the UK and Dead Kennedys
in America emerged who held strong anarchist views, and over time this association strengthened. New Wave
, however, and many punk bands who were a major influence on its development, such as Blondie, Television, and XTC eschewed this political aspect of punk.
Notable punk rock artists such as The Clash
, Crass
, Discharge
, Dead Kennedys
, Millions of Dead Cops, Aus-Rotten
, Anti-Flag
, and Leftover Crack
have been known to use political and sometimes controversial lyrics that attack the establishment, sexism, capitalism, racism, colonialism, and other social conflicts they see as problems in society.
The Sex Pistols song "God Save the Queen" was banned due to perceptions that it was anti-monarchy. The Crass album The Feeding Of the 5000 almost was not released because workers in the plants refused to release it due to sacrilegious lyrical content, and later Crass albums were banned. Crass eventually even ended up in court on charges of obscenity, similar to what later happened in the USA to the Dead Kennedys over their Frankenchrist
album artwork.
Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra
, as well as TSOL
frontman Jack Grisham
, have even ran as candidates for public office under left-wing platforms. Also, several musicians such as Joey Ramone
, Fat Mike, Ted Leo
, Crashdog
, Hoxton Tom McCourt
, Tim McIlrath
, Bad Religion
, and the Dropkick Murphys
were politically center-left and liberal.
An extremely small minority of punk rock bands, exemplified by Skrewdriver
and Skullhead
, held right-wing and anti-communist
stances, and were often dismissed or reviled in the broader, largely leftist punk subculture.
is music associated with and promoting neo-Nazism
and white supremacy
ideologies. Although musicologists
point out that many, if not most early cultures had songs to promote themselves and denigrate any perceived enemies, the origins of Racist music is tied to the early 1970s. By 2001 there were many music genres with 'white power rock' the most commonly represented band type, followed by National Socialist black metal
. 'Racist country music' is mainly an American phenomena while Germany, Great Britain, and Sweden have higher concentration of white power bands. Other music genres include 'fascist experimental music' and 'racist folk music'. Contemporary white-supremisist groups include "subcultural factions that are largely organized around the promotion and distribution of racist music." According to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
"racist music is principally derived from the far-right skinhead movement and, through the Internet, this music has become perhaps the most important tool of the international neo-Nazi movement to gain revenue and new recruits." The news documentary VH1
News Special: Inside Hate Rock (2002) noted that Racist music (also called 'Hate music' and 'Skinhead rock') is "a breeding ground for home-grown terrorists
." In 2004 a neo-Nazi record company launched "Project Schoolyard" to distribute free CDs of the music into the hands of up to 100,000 teenagers throughout the U.S., their website stated, "We just don't entertain racist kids … We create them." Brian Houghton, of the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism
, said that Racist music was a great recruiting tool, "Through music ... to grab these kids, teach them to be racists and hook them for life."
and inequality
are common themes in hip hop music
. Sub-genres of hip hop centered around political messages have emerged, including political
and conscious hip hop.
Rap
artist Sean "P Diddy" Combs led "Vote or Die", a not-for-profit organization, arose the 2004 elections that was geared to draw more youthful voters into the polls. The "Vote or Die" campaign may have helped directly contribute to increased youth vote demographic (age 18-29) which saw an increase in participation to 20.9 million votes - up from 16.2 million in 2000. The overall turnout for the age group increased as well. 51 percent of citizens ages 18 to 29 voted in 2004. 42.3 percent voted in 2000.
Public Enemy was known for their politically charged lyrics, especially for their album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
, and the song "Fight the Power
". Frontman Chuck D
is the main advocate for political awareness in the group.
Immortal Technique
, Chamillionaire
, Flobots
, Dead Prez
, and The Coup
are all noted for their left-wing
views and lyrics. Right-wing
influenced rap is far less common, although it is not entirely unheard of.
To a certain extent, the emphasis of making money and the right to bear arms can be considered right-leaning stances
, which are prevelent throughout hip hop, especially in gangsta rap
, although these subjects are probably not meant to be political, but rather the artist bragging about his or her street credibility.
Tupac Shakur
's debut album 2Pacalypse Now
generated significant controversy stemming from then Vice President Dan Quayle
's public criticism after a youth in Texas shot a state trooper and his defense attorney claimed he was influenced by the album and its strong theme of police brutality. Quayle made the statement, "There's no reason for a record like this to be released. It has no place in our society."
contains numerous images of "tradition
al" life, family life, religious life, as well as patriotic themes. Songs such as Merle Haggard
's "The Fightin' Side of Me
", and "Okie from Muskogee
" have been perceived as patriotic songs which contain an "us versus them" mentality directed at the counterculture
"hippie
s" and the anti-war
crowd, though these were actually misconceptions by listeners who failed to understand their satirical nature. In more recent years, Haggard has become more openly critical of "the establishment
", and even disagreed with the Iraq War. Other country musicians, such as Charlie Daniels
, openly supported George W. Bush, the Iraq War, and conservative
politics in general. When Natalie Maines
, lead singer of the Dixie Chicks
, made negative comments about George W. Bush and publicly spoke out against the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, boycotts by country music radio stations and death threats hindered the band's continued success. In 2006, with Maines still acting as lead singer, the Dixie Chicks released a "comeback" album, Taking the Long Way
. The album subsequently won five Grammys
.
. Tenacious D
also features several songs with political themes.
is the cultural study
, analysis, and criticism of music. It is often based on the work of Theodor Adorno (and Walter Benjamin
) and feminist, gender studies
, or postcolonial hypotheses. As Susan McClary
says, "musicology fastidiously declares issues of musical signification off-limits to those engaged in legitimate scholarship", including politics.
Anti-establishment
An anti-establishment view or belief is one which stands in opposition to the conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society. The term was first used in the modern sense in 1958, by the British magazine New Statesman to refer to its political and social agenda...
or protest themes, including anti-war songs, although pro-establishment ideas are also used, for example in national anthems, patriotic songs, and political campaigns. Many of these types of songs could be described as topical song
Topical song
A topical song is a song that comments on political and/or social events. These types of songs are usually written about current events, but some of these songs remain popular long after the events discussed in them have occurred...
s.
Unlike many other types of music, political music is not usually ambiguous, and is used to portray a specific political message. Even in the case of overtly political pop acts like U2, the Clash, or Rage Against the Machine, while political message in their music is apparent, it is usually in the political context of the time it was made. This makes understanding the historical events and time that inspired the music essential to fully understanding the message in the music. Since political music is meant to be heard by the people, it is often meant to be popular.
Furthermore it is extremely difficult to predict how audiences will respond this kind of music, sounds, or even visual cues. For example, Bleich and Zillmann found that “counter to hat people have said, highly rebellious students did not enjoy defiant rock videos more than did their less rebellious peers, nor did they consume more defiant rock music than did their peers. The difficulty in predicting and understanding an audience is partly due to the fact that there is an extremely diverse range of styles, and structure involved in musical production, and marketing.
Art music
BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's third symphony
Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E flat major , also known as the Eroica , is a landmark musical work marking the full arrival of the composer's "middle-period," a series of unprecedented large scale works of emotional depth and structural rigor.The symphony is widely regarded as a mature...
was originally called "Bonaparte". In 1804 Napoleon crowned himself emperor, whereupon Beethoven rescinded the dedication. The symphony was renamed "Heroic Symphony composed to Celebrate the Memory of a Great Man".
Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's chorus of Hebrew slaves in the opera Nabucco
Nabucco
Nabucco is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the Biblical story and the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornue...
is sometimes considered to be a kind of rallying-cry for Italians to throw off the yoke of Austrian domination (in the north) and French domination (near Rome) - the "Risorgimento". Following unification, Verdi was awarded a seat in the national parliament.
RAPM (The Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians) was formed in the early 1920s. In 1929 Stalin gave them his backing. Shostakovich had dedicated his first symphony to Mikhail Kvardi. In 1929 Kvardi was arrested and executed. In an article in The Worker and the Theatre, Shostakovich's The Tahitit Trot (from the ballet The Golden Age) was criticised. "Can one actually dance to such music", said Ivan Yershov. the article claimed it was part of "ideology harmful to the proletariat"". Shostakovich's response was to write his third symphony, The First of May (1929) to express "the festive mood of peaceful construction".
Prokofiev wrote music to order for the Soviet Union, but managed to keep his musical standard high. Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution (1937) is far from banal. Khachaturian's ballet Spartacus (1954/6) concerns gladiator slaves who rebel against their former Roman masters. It was seen as a metaphor for the overthrow of the Czar. Similarly Prokofiev's music for the film Alexander Nevsky
Alexander Nevsky (Prokofiev)
Alexander Nevsky is the score for the 1938 Sergei Eisenstein film Alexander Nevsky, composed by Sergei Prokofiev. He later rearranged the music in the form of a cantata for mezzo-soprano, chorus, and orchestra...
concerns the attack of Teutonic knights into the Baltic states. It was seen as a metaphor for the Nazi invasion of the USSR. In general Soviet music was neo-romantic while Fascist music was neo-classical.
"I don't believe anyone venerates Mussolini more than I" said Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
in 1930 to a Rome newspaper. By 1943 Stravinsky was banned in Nazi Germany because he had chosen to live in the USA. Beginning in 1940, Orff
Carl Orff
Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...
's cantata Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana (Orff)
Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana...
was performed at Nazi Party functions, and acquired the status of a quasi-official anthem. In 1933 Berlin Radio issued a formal ban on the broadcasting of jazz. However, it was still possible to hear swing music played by German bands. This was because of the moderating influence of Goebbels, who knew the value of entertaining the troops. In the period 1933-45 the music of Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
, a Jewish Austrian, virtually disappeared from the concert performances of the Berlin Philharmonic.
Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's opera Die Schweigsame Frau was banned from 1935–1945 because the librettist, Stefan Zweig, was a Jew. In the Trblinka death camp, new arrivals were presented with a deceptive scene. A ten-piece orchestra played jazz and Jewish folk tunes Shloyme Klezmer stood by the entrance of the gas chambers and played with the orchestra as the bodies were gassed. He saw his son being led in and pulled him out of the line. As SS officer saw this and laughed. Shloyme smashed his violin over the SS officer's head and marched with his only child into the gas chamber
Contemporary classical music
Benjamin BrittenBenjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's War Requiem (1962) emphasised the futility of war, by quoting poems by Wilfred Owen. He had previously written a "Pacifist March" in 1937. He had been a conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
during the Second World War.
Adams' opera The Death of Klinghoffer
The Death of Klinghoffer
The Death of Klinghoffer is an American opera, with music by John Adams to an English-language libretto by Alice Goodman. First produced in Brussels and New York in 1991, the opera is based on the hijacking of the passenger liner Achille Lauro by the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985, and the...
(1991) concerns the killing of an American Jew by Palestinian terrorists. The audience had expected to see the demonisation of the terrorists, but instead saw an even-handed treatment of the Palestine Liberation Front
Palestine Liberation Front
The Palestine Liberation Front is a Palestinian militant group, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Canada, the European Union and the USA. It is presently led by Dr. Wasel Abu Yousef.-Origins:...
. Richard Taruskin of the University of California accused Adams of "romanticizing terrorists."
A range of contemporary classical composers of socialist or Marxist sympathies have attempted in often quite radically different ways to relate their politics to their work. Primary amongst those from the earlier 20th century are Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
and Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler was an Austrian composer.-Family background:Eisler was born in Leipzig where his Jewish father, Rudolf Eisler, was a professor of philosophy...
, both of whom moved away from atonal idioms that had become prominent in their time, feeling these to alienate audiences, towards music and music-theatre that had roots in popular musics (for example cabaret songs), though with sophisticated harmonies that reflected their musical background. Of post-war composers, the most significant of the earlier generations were Luigi Nono
Luigi Nono
Luigi Nono was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music and remains one of the most prominent composers of the 20th century.- Early years :Born in Venice, he was a member of a wealthy artistic family, and his grandfather was a notable painter...
and Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
, both of who wrote a wide range of works that combined music with texts, theatre, and electronics relating to political issues viewed from a Marxist perspective (for example to do with events in Cuba, Vietnam and Chile in Nono's work). Nono brought this subject matter into a dialogue with a relatively abstract music derived from his own earlier serial compositions, from his pioneering work Il Canto Sospeso (1956) onwards, whilst Henze relaxed his earlier formalism in favour of a more eclectic approach to musical style, as for example in his large scale cabaret-like work Voices (1973).
A range of slightly later composers in West Germany, including Helmut Lachenmann
Helmut Lachenmann
Helmut Lachenmann is a German composer associated with musique concrète instrumentale.-Life and works:...
, Nicolaus A. Huber
Nicolaus A. Huber
Nicolaus A. Huber is a German composer.From 1958 to 1962 Huber studied music education at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München and subsequently composition with Franz Xaver Lehner and Günter Bialas. He pursued his education further with Josef Anton Riedl, Karlheinz Stockhausen and, above...
(both of whom were students of Nono), and Mathias Spahlinger responded to political concerns in a more abstract fashion, reflecting to some extent the ideas of Theodor Adorno and writing in opposition to the perceived demands made upon music (in terms of passive listening, audience pleasing, and so on) made by the culture industry. Lachenmann and Spahlinger explored a musical vocabulary derived in large measure from unusual techniques upon instruments, to offer expressive possibilities outside of the boundaries of what Lachenmann called the 'philharmonic tradition'. Huber for a while in the 1970s withdraw from the contemporary concert circuit, instead writing Politische Revuen. Other German composers whose works relate to this tradition, though with a more eclectic use of idiom, include Dieter Schnebel
Dieter Schnebel
Dieter Schnebel is a composer. From 1976 until his retirement in 1995, Schnebel served as professor of experimental music at the Berlin Hochschule der Künste.-Career:...
, Konrad Boehmer
Konrad Boehmer
Konrad Boehmer is a Dutch composer and writer of German birth.Boehmer was born in Berlin. His music reflects his Marxist political agenda, which is made explicit in many of his writings from the late 1960s and 1970s...
and Gerhard Stabler
Gerhard Stäbler
Gerhard Stäbler is a German contemporary composer.In 1968 he enrolled in the composition program at the Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie in Detmold and continued his education at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, where he studied with Nicolaus A. Huber and Gerd Zacher...
. Marxist ideas on aesthetic matters could be found in the writings on music by Hans G. Helms
Hans G. Helms
Hans G Helms is a German experimental writer, composer, and social and economic analyst and critic....
and Heinz-Klaus Metzger
Heinz-Klaus Metzger
Heinz-Klaus Metzger was a German music critic and theorist.Metzger studied piano under Carl Seemann in Freiburg and composition under Max Deutsch in Paris. Later, attending a summer course for new music in Darmstadt, he met Theodor W. Adorno, Edgard Varèse, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luigi Nono...
.
A thoroughly different approach characterised the late work of the British composer Cornelius Cardew
Cornelius Cardew
Cornelius Cardew was an English experimental music composer, and founder of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected the avant-garde in favour of a politically motivated "people's liberation music".-Biography:Cardew was born in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire...
who, influenced by the writings of Christopher Caudwell
Christopher Caudwell
Christopher Caudwell is the pseudonym of Christopher St. John Sprigg , a British Marxist writer, thinker and poet.He was born into a Catholic family living at 53 Montserrat Road, Putney district, south-west London...
(also alluded to by Lachenmann in his work for two guitars Salut für Caudwell (1977)) and Mao Tse-Tung, famously denounced the work of the post-war avant-garde with which he had previously been associated, in his book Stockhausen Serves Imperialism (in which he attacked not just Karlheinz Stockhausen but also the music of John Cage and others). Cardew argued that the atonal music of the avant-garde served to exacerbate the fragmentation of society rather than bringing the masses together; with this in mind he turned to the composition of didactic settings of revolutionary song
Revolutionary song
Revolutionary songs are political songs that advocate or praise revolutions. They are used to boost morale, as well as for political propaganda or agitation. Amongst the most well-known revolutionary songs are "La Marseillaise" and "The Internationale". Many protest songs can be considered...
s from Ireland, China, and elsewhere. Other composers influenced by Maoism include the Americans Christian Wolff
Christian Wolff (composer)
Christian G. Wolff is an American composer of experimental classical music.-Biography:Wolff was born in Nice in France to German literary publishers Helen and Kurt Wolff, who had published works by Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, and Walter Benjamin. After relocating to the U.S...
and Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...
and the Japanese composer-pianist Yuji Takahashi
Yuji Takahashi
is a Japanese composer, performer, pianist and author.Studied under Roh Ogura and Minao Shibata at the Toho Gakuen School of Music. In 1960, he made his debut as a pianist by performing Bo Nilsson's Quantitaten. He lived in Europe from 1963 to 1966 where he worked with Iannis Xenakis. He gave the...
, all of whom also incorporated political song material into their compositions, though without wholly surrendering the other more abstract musical concerns of their earlier work, whilst the British composer Dave Smith
Dave Smith (composer)
Dave Smith is an English experimental composer and musical performer. After attending Solihull School, he read music at Magdalene College, Cambridge. In the 1970s, Smith was a member of the Scratch Orchestra and a performer/composer in ensembles with John Lewis, Michael Parsons, Howard Skempton,...
continued to some extent in the tradition established by Cardew, as well as frequently making use of the medium of the nineteenth-century melodrama for speaker and piano, with a wide variety of texts relating to issues in Ireland, Palestine, and elsewhere.
The British composer Richard Barrett
Richard Barrett (composer)
Richard Barrett is a British composer.-Biography:Barrett began to study music seriously only after graduating in genetics and microbiology at University College London in 1980 . From then until 1983 he took private lessons with Peter Wiegold...
stands apart from other tendencies in that country, working within a radical atonal avant-garde idiom a little in the manner of the German composers mentioned earlier, but equally influenced by other figures including Stockhausen, Hans-Joachim Hespos
Hans-Joachim Hespos
Hans-Joachim Hespos is a German composer of avant-garde music.Since für Cello solo , he has composed in all genres, including many pieces for unaccompanied solo instruments and theatre works...
, Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...
, Kagel, Michael Finnissy
Michael Finnissy
Michael Finnissy is an English composer and pianist. His music is characterised by the range of extremes often found in his work; opposing binary structures are found commonly, often seen as juxtaposing textures, register and tempi...
and others. Barrett is concerned to marry together sophistication of musical content with a degree of surface immediacy, thus developing a musical language from fundamental parameters of register, density, dynamics, texture and timbre so as to facilitate the music's surface accessibility to the uninitiated listener. Finnissy himself has alluded to politicised topics in various works, especially in his English Country-Tunes, a ravaged musical landscape tinged with moments of nostalgia (not unlike the films of Derek Jarman
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
), intended as a comment on the hypocrisy and falseness of English pastoralism. The British composer Gordon Downie writes in a highly abstract modernist idiom and in writings links this type of modernism with Marxist concerns. The British arts journal EONTA, under the editorship of Steven Holt, featured a range of writings on music and other arts from various Marxist perspectives.
Melissa Dunphy
Melissa Dunphy
Melissa Dunphy is an Australian-American composer of classical music. She is most notable for the Gonzales Cantata, a 40-minute choral piece in Baroque style that sets the text of the parts of the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy hearings in which former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales...
's best-known works take American politics as a theme: the Gonzales Cantata, while not partisan, sets the words of the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy hearings
Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy hearings
The United States House Committee on the Judiciary and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, have oversight authority over Department of Justice . In 2007 it conducted public and closed-door oversight and investigative hearings on the DOJ's interactions with the White House and staff members of ...
to neo-Baroque music, and What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach? is a choral setting of testimony in support of same-sex marriage in Maine
Same-sex marriage in Maine
Same-sex marriage in Maine is currently unrecognized. A bill to allow same-sex marriages in Maine was signed into law on May 6, 2009, by Governor Baldacci following legislative approval, but opponents successfully petitioned for a referendum on the issue, putting the law on hold before it went into...
.
Other composers identify with a non-Marxist left, which may embrace non- or anti-authoritarian, left-liberal, Green, or even Anarchist politics. John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, for example, was influenced by ideas of Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
and other anarchist writers. Cage's concept of an "anarchic harmony" has been taken up by younger composers, including Andrew Culver and Daniel James Wolf
Daniel James Wolf
Daniel James Wolf is an American composer.- Studies :Wolf studied composition with Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucier, and La Monte Young, as well as musical tunings with Erv Wilson and Douglas Leedy and ethnomusicology . Important contacts with Lou Harrison, John Cage, Walter Zimmermann...
. Many composers are engaged with environmental issues and may be usefully identified with Green politics.
Folk music
The song "We Shall OvercomeWe Shall Overcome
"We Shall Overcome" is a protest song that became a key anthem of the African-American Civil Rights Movement . The title and structure of the song are derived from an early gospel song by African-American composer Charles Albert Tindley...
" is perhaps the best-known example of political folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, in this case a rallying-cry for the Civil Rights Movement
African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
The African-American Civil Rights Movement refers to the movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights to them. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South...
. Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
was involved in the popularization of the song, as was Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
. During the early part of 20th century, poor working conditions and class struggles lead to the growth of the Labour movement
Labour movement
The term labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour...
and numerous songs advocating social and political reform. The most famous songwriter of the early 20th century "Wobblies" was Joe Hill
Joe Hill
Joe Hill, born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund in Gävle , and also known as Joseph Hillström was a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World...
. In the 1940s through the 1960s, The Weavers
The Weavers
The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, and selling millions of records at the height of their...
as well as Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
were influential in this type of social and political music. Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" is a folk song. The first three verses were written by Pete Seeger in 1955, and published in Sing Out! magazine...
", was a popular anti-war protest song. Many of these types of songs became popular during the Vietnam War era. Blowin' in the Wind
Blowin' in the Wind
"Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan and released on his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963. Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of questions about peace, war and freedom...
, by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, was a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary were an American folk-singing trio whose nearly 50-year career began with their rise to become a paradigm for 1960s folk music. The trio was composed of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers...
, and suggested that a younger generation was becoming more aware of global problems than many of the older generation. In 1964, Joan Baez had a top-ten hit in the UK with "There but for Fortune
There but for Fortune (song)
"There but for Fortune" is a song by Phil Ochs, a U.S. singer-songwriter from the 1960s. Ochs wrote the song in 1963. He recorded it twice, for New Folks Volume 2 and Phil Ochs in Concert...
" (by Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
). It was a plea for the innocent victim of prejudice or inhumane policies. Many topical songwriters with social and political messages emerged out of the folk music revival
American folk music revival
The American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States that began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Richard Dyer-Bennett, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie, John Jacob...
of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton
Tom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
, Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC is a Canadian Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire includes...
, Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
, Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
, and many others.
These folk protest traditions are still being carried on today by many old and new topical songwriters and musicians of all types and varieties. Today's socially conscious musicians not only sing at rallies, demonstrations and on picket lines, but typically have professional web sites and post videos on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
and other popular internet sites. Examples of such activist musicians include Ray Korona
Ray Korona
-Music and Activism:Ray Korona writes folk and folk rock songs about working, the environment, peace and social justice issues along with songs on the more traditional themes of love and friendship. A founding member of the Travelling Musician's Union, Local 1000 of the American Federation of...
(environmental, labor, peace, social justice), Charlie King
Charlie King (folksinger)
Charlie King is a folksinger and activist. He was born and raised in Brockton, Massachusetts in 1947 and cites the folk music revival of the 1960s, the American Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War era as his as musical influences...
(labor, social justice) and Anne Feeney
Anne Feeney
Anne Feeney is a political activist, folk musician and singer-songwriter.- Life and career :Anne Feeney was born in Charleroi, Pennsylvania to Annabelle Runner and Edward J. Feeney. She has a sister, Kathleen, born May 3, 1953. The family moved to the nearby Brookline neighborhood of the city of...
(labor, protest), among many others. Although these musicians each have their own followings and performance circuits, good sources for finding many of them include the Peoples Music Network
Peoples Music Network
The People's Music Network for Songs of Freedom and Struggle, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that serves as a network of musicians, activists, songwriters, concert producers, sound engineers, and others, who use music and culture to promote progressive ideas and values...
for Songs of Freedom and Struggle and the Labor Heritage Foundation
Labor Heritage Foundation
The Labor Heritage Foundation is a non-profit organization which preserves and disseminates information and artifacts about the labor history of the United States.-History:...
.
Blues songs tend to be resigned to fate rather than fighting against misfortune, but there are a few exceptions. Josh White
Josh White
Joshua Daniel White , better known as Josh White, was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names "Pinewood Tom" and "Tippy Barton" in the 1930s....
recorded "When Am I going to be Called a Man" in 1936. At this time it was common for white men to address black men as "boy". He also wrote "Silicosis is Killing Me" in 1936. Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
recorded "Strange Fruit
Strange Fruit
"Strange Fruit" is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who released her first recording of it in 1939, the year she first sang it. Written by the teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem, it exposed American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans. Such lynchings had occurred...
" in 1939. With great sophistication, it draws a comparison between fruit on the trees and the rotting corpses of lynched black men.
Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
, singer, actor, athlete, and civil rights activist, was investigated by the FBI and was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
(HUAC) for his outspoken political views. The State Department denied Robeson a passport and issued a "stop notice" at all ports, effectively confining him to the United States. In a symbolic act of defiance against the travel ban, labor unions in the U.S. and Canada organized a concert at the International Peace Arch
Peace Arch
The Peace Arch is a monument situated on the Canada – United States border between the communities of Blaine, Washington and Surrey, British Columbia. The Peace Arch, which stands...
on the border between Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
on May 18, 1952. Paul Robeson stood on the back of a flat bed truck on the American side of the U.S.-Canada border and performed a concert for a crowd on the Canadian side, variously estimated at between 20,000 and 40,000 people. Robeson returned to perform a second concert at the Peace Arch in 1953, and over the next two years two further concerts were scheduled.
In Communist China, exclusively national music was promoted. A flautist named Zhao Songtime, a member of the Zhejiang Song-and-Dance Troupe, attended an Arts festival in 1957 in Mexico. He was punished for his international outlook by being expelled from the Troupe. From 1966 to 1970 he underwent "re-education". In 1973 he returned to the Troupe but was expelled again following accusations.
Rock music
Rock the VoteRock the Vote
Rock the Vote is a non-profit organization in the United States of America whose mission is to engage and build the political power of young people....
is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in Los Angeles in 1990 by Jeff Ayeroff for the purposes of political advocacy. Rock the Vote works to engage youth in the political process by incorporating the entertainment community and youth culture into its activities. Rock the Vote's stated mission is to "build the political clout and engagement of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country."
Some rock groups, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
, Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour is an American rock band from New York City, formed in 1984. Stylistically, the band's music is a creative fusion influenced by free jazz, funk, neo-psychedelia, hard rock, and heavy metal...
, Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...
, Manic Street Preachers
Manic Street Preachers
Manic Street Preachers are a Welsh alternative rock band, formed in 1986. They are James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire, Richey Edwards and Sean Moore. The band are part of the Cardiff music scene, and were at their most prominent during the 1990s...
, Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...
, Megadeth
Megadeth
Megadeth is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California which was formed in 1983 by guitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine, bassist Dave Ellefson and guitarist Greg Handevidt, following Mustaine's expulsion from Metallica. The band has since released 13 studio albums, three live albums, two...
, Anti-Flag
Anti-Flag
Anti-Flag is a punk rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States, formed in 1988. The band is well known for its outspoken political views. Much of the band's lyrics have focused on fervent anti-war activism, criticism of United States foreign policy, corporatism, U.S. wealth...
, Scars on Broadway
Scars on Broadway
Scars on Broadway is an American-Armenian rock band, founded by System of a Down members Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan. The band's eponymous debut album was released on July 29, 2008....
, and System of a Down
System of a Down
System of a Down, also known by the acronym SOAD and often shortened to System, is a rock band from Southern California. The band was formed in 1994. It consists of Serj Tankian , Daron Malakian , Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan...
have openly political messages in their music.
Detroit, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
's MC5
MC5
The MC5 is an American rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan and originally active from 1964 to 1972. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson...
(Motor City 5) came out of the underground rock music scene of the late 1960s, and displayed an aggressive evolution of garage rock
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
which was often fused with sociopolitical and countercultural lyrics of the era, such as in the songs "Motor City Is Burning" (a John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
cover adapting the story of the Detroit Race Riot (1943)
Detroit Race Riot (1943)
The Detroit Race Riot broke out in Detroit, Michigan in June 1943 and lasted for three days before Federal troops restored order. The rioting between blacks and whites began on Belle Isle on 20 June 1943 and continued until 22 June, killing 34, wounding 433, and destroying property valued at $2...
to the Detroit Insurrection of 1967
12th Street riot
The 1967 Detroit riot, also known as the 12th Street riot, was a civil disturbance in Detroit, Michigan, that began in the early morning hours of Sunday, July 23, 1967. The precipitating event was a police raid of an unlicensed, after-hours bar then known as a blind pig, on the corner of 12th and...
), and "The American Ruse" (which discusses U.S. police brutality
Police brutality
Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....
as well as pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
, prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
, materialism
Materialism
In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...
and rebellion
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
). They had ties to radical leftist
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...
organizations such as Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers
Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers
Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers was an anarchist affinity group based in New York City...
and John Sinclair
John Sinclair (poet)
John Sinclair is a Detroit poet, one-time manager of the band MC5, and leader of the White Panther Party — a militantly anti-racist countercultural group of white socialists seeking to assist the Black Panthers in the Civil Rights movement — from November 1968 to July 1969...
's White Panther Party
White Panther Party
The White Panthers were a far-left, anti-racist, White American political collective founded in 1968 by Lawrence Plamondon, Leni Sinclair, and John Sinclair. It was started in response to an interview where Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, was asked what white people could do...
(composed of white American socialists seeking to assist African Americans in the fight for racial equality - it was not, as the title may suggest, a white supremacist group). MC5 performed a set before the 1968 Democratic Convention held at International Amphitheatre
International Amphitheatre
The International Amphitheatre was an indoor arena, located in Chicago, Illinois, between 1934 and 1999. It was located on the west side of Halsted Street, at 42nd Street, on the city's south side, adjacent to the Union Stock Yards....
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
where an infamous riot
1968 Democratic National Convention protests
The 1968 Democratic National Convention had a significant amount of protest activity. In 1967, protest groups had been promising to come to Chicago and disrupt the convention, and the city promised to maintain law and order. For eight days, protesters and the Chicago Police Department battled for...
subsequently broke out between police and students protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
ing the recent assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
of The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
and the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. During the counterculture era, acts like John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
commonly protested in his music, with latter devoting an entire album
Some Time in New York City
Some Time in New York City was released in 1972 and is John Lennon's third post-Beatles album, fifth with Yoko Ono, and third with producer Phil Spector...
to politics and the song Imagine
Imagine (song)
"Imagine" is a song written and performed by the English musician John Lennon. It is the opening track on his album Imagine, released in 1971...
, widely considered to be a peace anthem. In 1965, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
sang to his fans about the evils of war and the emptiness of consumerism when he released his trade mark album “The Times They are A-Changin’” which became one of his number one albums containing one of his number one songs. This song was articulating the movement of social change and that history will always repeat itself. When he sang the lyrics “Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen and keep your eyes wide, the chance won’t come again. And don’t speak too soon, for the wheel’s still in spin.” He achieved the attention of the civil rights movement which helped in the transformation of the American political landscape.
Like any other musical artist, Dylan was influenced by other radical groups such as the Wobblies- the popular group of the thirties and forties, the Beat Anarchists of the fifties, and above all, by the political beliefs of young people during the civil rights movement. In his songs, he included the terror of the nuclear arms race, poverty, racism, prison, jingoism, and war. With his songs, he helped with the political revolution of America in the 1960’s.
Punk rock
Since the late 1970s, punk rockPunk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
has been associated with various left-wing and/or anti-establishment
Anti-establishment
An anti-establishment view or belief is one which stands in opposition to the conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society. The term was first used in the modern sense in 1958, by the British magazine New Statesman to refer to its political and social agenda...
ideologies, including anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
and socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
: punk's culture of DIY and disregard for musical virtuosity held an obvious attraction for those on the left - mirroring as it does workers' control of the means of production, and empowerment of the powerless (though some leftists, it can be argued, may see the DIY ethic
DIY ethic
The DIY ethic refers to the ethic of self-sufficiency through completing tasks oneself as opposed to having others who are more experienced or able complete them for one's behalf. It promotes the idea that an ordinary person can learn to do more than he or she thought was possible...
as just another form of private enterprise) - and the genre as a whole came, largely through the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
to be associated with anarchism. The sincerity of many of these bands has been questioned - many saw the use of anarchism in early punk as a fashion statement more than an ideology - but over time bands such as Crass
Crass
Crass are an English punk rock band that was formed in 1977, which promoted anarchism as a political ideology, way of living, and as a resistance movement. Crass popularised the seminal anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, and advocated direct action, animal rights, and environmentalism...
in the UK and Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1978. The band became part of the American hardcore punk movement of the early 1980s. They gained a large underground fanbase in the international punk music scene....
in America emerged who held strong anarchist views, and over time this association strengthened. New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
, however, and many punk bands who were a major influence on its development, such as Blondie, Television, and XTC eschewed this political aspect of punk.
Notable punk rock artists such as The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
, Crass
Crass
Crass are an English punk rock band that was formed in 1977, which promoted anarchism as a political ideology, way of living, and as a resistance movement. Crass popularised the seminal anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, and advocated direct action, animal rights, and environmentalism...
, Discharge
Discharge (band)
Discharge is a British hardcore punk band formed in 1977 by Terry "Tezz" Roberts and Roy "Rainy" Wainwright. They are often considered among one of the very first bands to play hardcore punk, and to mix punk with metal...
, Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1978. The band became part of the American hardcore punk movement of the early 1980s. They gained a large underground fanbase in the international punk music scene....
, Millions of Dead Cops, Aus-Rotten
Aus-Rotten
Aus-Rotten was an American crust punk band, from 1991 to 2001 formed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Part of the DIY underground, its members practiced and promoted a philosophy of anarchism and far-left sociopolitics....
, Anti-Flag
Anti-Flag
Anti-Flag is a punk rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States, formed in 1988. The band is well known for its outspoken political views. Much of the band's lyrics have focused on fervent anti-war activism, criticism of United States foreign policy, corporatism, U.S. wealth...
, and Leftover Crack
Leftöver Crack
Leftöver Crack is an American punk rock band formed in 1998, following the breakup of the ska punk band Choking Victim. Primarily playing an amalgam of ska and hardcore punk, they classify themselves as "crack-rocksteady". The band is currently signed to Fat Wreck Chords for CD releases, and...
have been known to use political and sometimes controversial lyrics that attack the establishment, sexism, capitalism, racism, colonialism, and other social conflicts they see as problems in society.
The Sex Pistols song "God Save the Queen" was banned due to perceptions that it was anti-monarchy. The Crass album The Feeding Of the 5000 almost was not released because workers in the plants refused to release it due to sacrilegious lyrical content, and later Crass albums were banned. Crass eventually even ended up in court on charges of obscenity, similar to what later happened in the USA to the Dead Kennedys over their Frankenchrist
Frankenchrist
Frankenchrist is the third album released by the American hardcore punk band Dead Kennedys in 1985 on Alternative Tentacles.The album was a subject of controversy because of a poster inserted in the original record sleeve. The poster, H. R. Giger's Landscape #XX, or Penis Landscape, was a painting...
album artwork.
Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra
Jello Biafra
Jello Biafra is an American musician, spoken word artist and leading figure of the Green Party of the United States. Biafra first gained attention as the lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys...
, as well as TSOL
TSOL
TSOL is an American punk rock band which formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California. TSOL is short for True Sounds of Liberty although they are rarely referred to by their full name....
frontman Jack Grisham
Jack Grisham
Jack Grisham is an American rock musician, raconteur and political activist. He is the vocalist for the punk band T.S.O.L. , which emerged from the 1980s Los Angeles punk rock scene, along with Black Flag, Circle Jerks and Social Distortion. Grisham has also fronted the bands The Joykiller, Tender...
, have even ran as candidates for public office under left-wing platforms. Also, several musicians such as Joey Ramone
Joey Ramone
Joey Ramone was an American vocalist and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist in the punk rock band the Ramones. Joey Ramone's image, voice and tenure as frontman of the Ramones made him a countercultural icon.-Early life:Joey Ramone was born Jeffry Hyman to parents Noel and Charlotte Hyman...
, Fat Mike, Ted Leo
Ted Leo
Theodore F. Leo , called "Ted," as a short form of "Theodore," is an American punk rock/indie rock songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, though he is most known for his singing and guitar playing...
, Crashdog
Crashdog
Crashdog was one of the first Christian punk bands and was active primarily in the early 1990s. Most of their albums were released by Grrr recordS, which has also been home to Headnoise, Resurrection Band, and Glenn Kaiser, among others....
, Hoxton Tom McCourt
Hoxton Tom McCourt
Hoxton' Tom McCourt is the former bassist and bandleader of punk rock/Oi! band, The 4-Skins. He was one of the most influential members of the skinhead revival of 1977 to 1978, the mod revival of 1978 to 1979 and the Oi! movement from 1979 to 1984.McCourt moved to Hoxton, and was given the...
, Tim McIlrath
Tim McIlrath
Timothy "Tim" James McIlrath is an American punk rock musician. He is the lead singer, rhythm guitarist, songwriter and co-founder for the American punk rock band Rise Against. McIlrath is known to support animal rights and actively promotes PETA with his band...
, Bad Religion
Bad Religion
Bad Religion is a punk rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1979. Their current line-up consists of Greg Graffin , Brett Gurewitz , Jay Bentley , Greg Hetson , Brian Baker and Brooks Wackerman . Gurewitz is also the founder of the label Epitaph Records, which has released almost all of the...
, and the Dropkick Murphys
Dropkick Murphys
Dropkick Murphys are an Irish-American punk rock band formed in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1996. The band was initially signed to independent punk record label Hellcat Records, releasing five albums for the label, and making a name for themselves locally through constant playing and yearly St....
were politically center-left and liberal.
An extremely small minority of punk rock bands, exemplified by Skrewdriver
Skrewdriver
Skrewdriver was an English punk rock band formed by Ian Stuart Donaldson in Poulton-le-Fylde in 1976. They later evolved into one of the first neo-Nazi rock bands, playing a leading role in the Rock Against Communism movement and becoming known as the most prominent white power skinhead...
and Skullhead
Skullhead
Skullhead was a 1980s English Rock Against Communism band from the Newcastle area. Along with Brutal Attack, Skrewdriver and No Remorse, they are one of the most notable bands of that genre. Led by Kevin Turner, they started out as an Oi!-style band and then adopted elements from heavy metal...
, held right-wing and anti-communist
Rock Against Communism
Rock Against Communism started out as series of white power rock concerts in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s, and is also a name for the subsequent music genre. Despite its name, RAC song lyrics rarely focus on the specific topic of anti-communism...
stances, and were often dismissed or reviled in the broader, largely leftist punk subculture.
Racist music
Racist musicRacist music
Racist music is music associated with and promoting racism. Although musicologists point out that many, if not most early cultures had songs to promote themselves and denigrate any perceived enemies, the origins of racist music is tied to the 1950s....
is music associated with and promoting neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
and white supremacy
White supremacy
White supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...
ideologies. Although musicologists
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
point out that many, if not most early cultures had songs to promote themselves and denigrate any perceived enemies, the origins of Racist music is tied to the early 1970s. By 2001 there were many music genres with 'white power rock' the most commonly represented band type, followed by National Socialist black metal
National Socialist black metal
National Socialist black metal is black metal that promotes National Socialist beliefs through their lyrics and imagery. These beliefs often include: white supremacy, racial separatism, antisemitism, heterosexism, and Nazi interpretations of paganism or Satanism...
. 'Racist country music' is mainly an American phenomena while Germany, Great Britain, and Sweden have higher concentration of white power bands. Other music genres include 'fascist experimental music' and 'racist folk music'. Contemporary white-supremisist groups include "subcultural factions that are largely organized around the promotion and distribution of racist music." According to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
The Australian Human Rights Commission is a national human rights institution, a statutory body funded by, but operating independently of, the Australian Government. It has the responsibility for investigating alleged infringements under Australia’s anti-discrimination legislation...
"racist music is principally derived from the far-right skinhead movement and, through the Internet, this music has become perhaps the most important tool of the international neo-Nazi movement to gain revenue and new recruits." The news documentary VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
News Special: Inside Hate Rock (2002) noted that Racist music (also called 'Hate music' and 'Skinhead rock') is "a breeding ground for home-grown terrorists
Domestic terrorism in the United States
Domestic terrorism in the United States between 1980 and 2000 consisted of 250 of the 335 incidents confirmed as or suspected to be terrorist acts by the FBI. These 250 attacks are considered domestic by the FBI because they were carried out by U.S...
." In 2004 a neo-Nazi record company launched "Project Schoolyard" to distribute free CDs of the music into the hands of up to 100,000 teenagers throughout the U.S., their website stated, "We just don't entertain racist kids … We create them." Brian Houghton, of the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism
National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism
The National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism is a United States-based non-profit training and professional development center dedicated to improving the skills of police officers.-Role and focus:...
, said that Racist music was a great recruiting tool, "Through music ... to grab these kids, teach them to be racists and hook them for life."
Hip hop
RacismRacism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and inequality
Social inequality
Social inequality refers to a situation in which individual groups in a society do not have equal social status. Areas of potential social inequality include voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, the extent of property rights and access to education, health care, quality housing and other...
are common themes in hip hop music
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
. Sub-genres of hip hop centered around political messages have emerged, including political
Political hip hop
Political hip hop is a sub-genre of hip hop music that developed in the 1980s. Inspired by 1970s political preachers such as The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, Public Enemy were the first political hip hop group...
and conscious hip hop.
Rap
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
artist Sean "P Diddy" Combs led "Vote or Die", a not-for-profit organization, arose the 2004 elections that was geared to draw more youthful voters into the polls. The "Vote or Die" campaign may have helped directly contribute to increased youth vote demographic (age 18-29) which saw an increase in participation to 20.9 million votes - up from 16.2 million in 2000. The overall turnout for the age group increased as well. 51 percent of citizens ages 18 to 29 voted in 2004. 42.3 percent voted in 2000.
Public Enemy was known for their politically charged lyrics, especially for their album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is the second studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released April 14, 1988, on Def Jam Recordings. Recording sessions for the album took place at Chung King Studios, Greene Street Recording, and Sabella Studios in New York City...
, and the song "Fight the Power
Fight the Power
"Fight the Power" is a single by American hip hop group Public Enemy. First released on the soundtrack for the film 1989 Do the Right Thing, a different version was released on the group's third studio album, Fear of a Black Planet . The single reached number one on Hot Rap Singles and number 20 on...
". Frontman Chuck D
Chuck D
Carlton Douglas Ridenhour , better known by his stage name, Chuck D, is an American rapper, author, and producer. He helped create politically and socially conscious rap music in the mid-1980s as the leader of the rap group Public Enemy.- Early life :Ridenhour was born in Queens, New York...
is the main advocate for political awareness in the group.
Immortal Technique
Immortal Technique
Felipe Andres Coronel , better known by the stage name Immortal Technique, is an American rapper of Afro-Peruvian descent as well as an urban activist. He was born in Lima, Peru and raised in Harlem, New York. Most of his lyrics focus on controversial issues in global politics...
, Chamillionaire
Chamillionaire
Hakeem Seriki , better known by his stage name Chamillionaire, is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Chamillitary Entertainment. Chamillionaire is also the founder and an original member of The Color Changin' Click...
, Flobots
Flobots
The Flobots are a political rock and hip hop musical group from Denver, Colorado, formed in 2000 by Jamie Laurie. Flobots found mainstream success with their major label debut Fight with Tools , featuring the single "Handlebars", which became a popular hit on Modern Rock radio in April 2008.-Early...
, Dead Prez
Dead Prez
Dead Prez stylized as dead prez is a hip hop duo from the United States, composed of stic.man and M-1, formed in 1996 in New York City, New York. They are known for their confrontational style, combined with socialist lyrics focused on both militant social justice and Pan-Africanism...
, and The Coup
The Coup
The Coup is a political hip hop group based in Oakland, California. It formed as a three-member group in 1992 with emcees Raymond "Boots" Riley and E-Roc along with DJ Pam the Funkstress. E-Roc left on amicable terms after the group's second album but appears on the track "Breathing Apparatus" on...
are all noted for their left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
views and lyrics. Right-wing
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
influenced rap is far less common, although it is not entirely unheard of.
To a certain extent, the emphasis of making money and the right to bear arms can be considered right-leaning stances
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
, which are prevelent throughout hip hop, especially in gangsta rap
Gangsta rap
Gangsta Rap is a subgenre of hip hop music that evolved from hardcore hip hop and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths. Lyrics in gangsta rap have varied from accurate reflections to fictionalized accounts. Gangsta is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word...
, although these subjects are probably not meant to be political, but rather the artist bragging about his or her street credibility.
Tupac Shakur
Tupac Shakur
Tupac Amaru Shakur , known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world...
's debut album 2Pacalypse Now
2Pacalypse Now
- Unused Tracks :* "Crooked Nigga Too" * "Tears Of A Clown" * "Scared Straight '91"...
generated significant controversy stemming from then Vice President Dan Quayle
Dan Quayle
James Danforth "Dan" Quayle served as the 44th Vice President of the United States, serving with President George H. W. Bush . He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Indiana....
's public criticism after a youth in Texas shot a state trooper and his defense attorney claimed he was influenced by the album and its strong theme of police brutality. Quayle made the statement, "There's no reason for a record like this to be released. It has no place in our society."
Country music
American country musicCountry music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
contains numerous images of "tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
al" life, family life, religious life, as well as patriotic themes. Songs such as Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
's "The Fightin' Side of Me
The Fightin' Side of Me
"The Fightin' Side of Me" is an American country music song performed by its writer, Merle Haggard. Released in 1970 as the follow-up to "Okie from Muskogee", the song became one of the most famous of his career....
", and "Okie from Muskogee
Okie from Muskogee (song)
"Okie from Muskogee" is an American country music song performed by its co-writer, Merle Haggard. Released in September 1969, the song became one of the most famous of his career.-Background:...
" have been perceived as patriotic songs which contain an "us versus them" mentality directed at the counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
"hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
s" and the anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
crowd, though these were actually misconceptions by listeners who failed to understand their satirical nature. In more recent years, Haggard has become more openly critical of "the establishment
The Establishment
The Establishment is a term used to refer to a visible dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation. The term suggests a closed social group which selects its own members...
", and even disagreed with the Iraq War. Other country musicians, such as Charlie Daniels
Charlie Daniels
Charles Edward "Charlie" Daniels is an American musician known for his contributions to country and southern rock music. He is known primarily for his number one country hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", and multiple other songs he has performed and written. Daniels has been active as a singer...
, openly supported George W. Bush, the Iraq War, and conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
politics in general. When Natalie Maines
Natalie Maines
Natalie Louise Maines Pasdar is an American singer-songwriter who achieved success as the lead vocalist for the female alternative country band, the Dixie Chicks...
, lead singer of the Dixie Chicks
Dixie Chicks
The Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...
, made negative comments about George W. Bush and publicly spoke out against the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, boycotts by country music radio stations and death threats hindered the band's continued success. In 2006, with Maines still acting as lead singer, the Dixie Chicks released a "comeback" album, Taking the Long Way
Taking the Long Way
-Public reception:On May 31, 2006, the album took three number one spots on the charts of Billboard magazine. It was number one on the Hot Country Albums, Top Digital Albums, and on the Billboard 200 chart, going Gold in its first week with 526,000 units sold....
. The album subsequently won five Grammys
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
.
Comedy music
Through the years, there have been numerous songs that have made fun of politicians and/or politics in general. One such group in the modern era primarily dedicated to political music and satire is the Capitol StepsCapitol Steps
The Capitol Steps are an American political satire group. It has been performing since 1981, and has released approximately thirty albums consisting primarily of song parodies. Originally consisting exclusively of Congressional staffers performing around Washington, D.C., the troupe now primarily...
. Tenacious D
Tenacious D
Tenacious D is an American rock band that was formed in Los Angeles, California in 1994. Composed of lead vocalist and guitarist Jack Black and lead guitarist and vocalist Kyle Gass, the band has released two albums – Tenacious D and The Pick of Destiny...
also features several songs with political themes.
New musicology
New musicologyNew musicology
The New Musicology is a term applied to a wide body of musicology with focus upon the cultural study, analysis, and criticism of music, with influences from feminism, gender studies, queer theory, and postcolonial studies...
is the cultural study
Cultural studies
Cultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...
, analysis, and criticism of music. It is often based on the work of Theodor Adorno (and Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
) and feminist, gender studies
Gender studies
Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study which analyses race, ethnicity, sexuality and location.Gender study has many different forms. One view exposed by the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir said: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one"...
, or postcolonial hypotheses. As Susan McClary
Susan McClary
Susan McClary is a musicologist associated with the "New Musicology". Noted for her work combining musicology and a feminist music criticism, McClary is Professor of Musicology at Case Western Reserve University.-Biography:...
says, "musicology fastidiously declares issues of musical signification off-limits to those engaged in legitimate scholarship", including politics.
See also
- Anarcho-punkAnarcho-punkAnarcho-punk is punk rock that promotes anarchism. The term anarcho-punk is sometimes applied exclusively to bands that were part of the original anarcho-punk movement in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
- Civil Rights anthemCivil Rights anthemCivil Rights anthems is a relational concept to protest song, but one that is specifically linked to the African-American Civil Rights Movement. The songs were often sung during protests or marches related to the movement...
- Folk punkFolk punkFolk punk , is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered in the late 1970s and early 1980s by The Pogues in Britain and Violent Femmes in America. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade...
- Irish rebel musicIrish rebel musicIrish rebel music is a subgenre of Irish folk music, with much the same instrumentation, but with lyrics predominantly concerned with Irish republicanism.-History:...
- List of anarchist musicians
- List of anti-war songs
- List of national anthems
- List of socialist songs
- List of songs about the September 11 attacks
- List of songs about the Vietnam War
- Music and political warfareMusic and political warfareMusic and political warfare have been used together in many different political contexts and cultures as a way to reach a targeted audience in order to deliver a specific political message. Political warfare as defined by Paul A. Smith is the "use of political means to compel an opponent to do...
- Nazi punkNazi punkA Nazi punk is a neo-Nazi who is part of the punk subculture. The term also describes the related type of music. Nazi punk music sounds similar to most forms of punk rock, but it differs by having lyrics that express hatred of Jews, homosexuals, communists, anarchists, anti-racists and people who...
- Nonviolent resistanceNonviolent resistanceNonviolent resistance is the practice of achieving goals through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, and other methods, without using violence. It is largely synonymous with civil resistance...
- Oi!Oi!Oi! is a working class subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads and other working-class youths ....
- People's Songs
- Role of music in World War IIRole of music in World War IIWorld War II was the first major global conflict to take place in the age of electronically mass distributed music. By 1940 96.2% of Northeastern urban households in the United States of America had radio. The lowest group to take up, Southern Rural families still had 1 radio for every two...
- War songWar songA war song is a musical composition that relates to war, or a society's attitudes towards war. They may be pro-war, anti-war, or simply a description of everyday life during war times....
External links
- Music for Democracy - Music Activism Political Action Organization
- www.political-music.co.uk - non profit website promoting political music by various artists
- Making Marx in the Music: A HyperHistory of New Music and Politics by Kyle GannKyle GannKyle Eugene Gann is an American professor of music, critic and composer born in Dallas, Texas. As a critic for The Village Voice and other publications he has been a supporter of progressive music including such Downtown movements as postminimalism and totalism.- As composer :As a composer his...
- Stalin Lives On in the Concert Hall, but Why? by Richard TaruskinRichard TaruskinRichard Taruskin is an American-Russian musicologist, music historian, and critic who has written about the theory of performance, Russian music, fifteenth-century music, twentieth-century music, nationalism, the theory of modernism, and analysis. As a choral conductor he directed the Columbia...
- An exploration of the importance of rock music and its role in politics, written during the 2004 American Presidential election campaign.
- "Tony Blair: Punk icon" at BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, 28 September 2005 - Music and Politics Journal at UCSB
- An extensive discussion in particular about modernism and Marxism between composer Gordon Downie and pianist Ian Pace.
- Agit Disco - annotated playlists of political music by writers in the UK