Hi I'm Dr Ivan Molloyformer university senior lecturer (a professor
for all you Americans) in International Politics and Co-ordinator and designer of the ground breaking University lecture series: Rocking The World - The Politics of Popular Music, upon which much of this web site is based. |
Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World
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Pop (popular music) is political because it is a form of communication. It is a means by which information and knowledge is transmitted. In fact this is one of the most important and historical roles of all music. Music has always been a way and medium of transmitting knowledge about other peoples, current affairs, news, other ideas etc. |
Music has always reflected values and other cultures. And this
has been one of the most important functions of music in human society, indeed in all of civilisation, since the year dot! It's always been a way of imparting messages - take the `bard’, in medieval days in Europe, no more than a traveling current affairs reporter. Think of the strolling minstrel as news dispenser, of the events at court, of the latest political events in capital. |
As in the West, in many Third World states it is still the
common form of political protest. Music as communication records celebrations and cultural practices: births, birthdays, and funerals. Indeed music in human society has a multi-functional role, as a form of communication it entertains, is informative, and defines ritual. Indeed music is embedded in the human experience and is multi-functional. Music has also reflected celebrations and practices of other cultures and of course events. For our purposes it has |
Music as a form of communication has power - the power to inform. But it has other sorts of powers as well. To quote Ellis again, music `can bridge various thought processes; it is concerned with the education of the whole person; it can stimulate intercultural understanding at a deeply personal level, with the result that a person is no longer a member solely of one culture.’ Charles Seeger notes that `music is one of the two traditional means of auditory communication with among men, the other being speech.' He clarifies this |
An Experiment
We should study the impact of Western popular music on society because Pop music is a form of power. While knowledge is a form of power - which music transmits, Pop music possesses power in yet another dimension. On a base level, it has power in its messages and power in its sound - it has power in what it does to the human body. Let's illustrate this. |
Dance to the Doors
The Doors - Roadhouse Blues
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Bruce Springsteen - Born In the USA
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Liverpool Soccer Crowd - Walk Alone |
So OK, music is politics, but why bother these days to make
the connections between politics and Popular music? In the 1960s this question would not have been asked- because of the Vietnam War and other issues. But in the 21st Century, to many of those of the 'Baby Boomer' generation, it’s not that apparent these days that there is much of a connection. Not overtly at least, because what they experienced might have been an exceptional, i.e. - the connection between Pop |
Western Popular Music can also be a tool both implicitly
and explicitly for driving Westernisation/Globalisation. It is and can be used overtly and covertly to spread influence and the power of peoples’ cultures, nations and states over others - a process we call 'Cultural Imperialism'. This is indeed a major force today where we are seeing military and economic power in the world being displaced by the power |
Let's consider a few examples for those who still might doubt that Pop music is essentially political, both in how it has emerged, and in turn how it has been used. Leading and Reflecting Change - Community Attitudes To Coloured People Besides its immediate, obvious effects, Popular music can have a subtle impact on the course of human events. For example, the music of Elvis Presley, ‘the white boy who sang colored’, in the mid-1950s actually helped pave the way for American racial |
While we know music has the power to move people to
war and peace, to love and to sleep, it also reflects changing human values. In 1991, as US troops were massing at the Persian Gulf to retake Kuwait, American record makers issued music that reflected public enthusiasm for the war. For example, Arista records put |
The records’s message of the oneness of humankind
inspired one of the most massive outpourings of donations in history. Americans pumped $20 million into USA for Africa in the first 6 weeks the record was out. Within 6 months, $50 million in medical and financial support was en route to drought-stricken parts of Africa. `We are the World’, a single song, had directly saved lives. |
Music has always had power. It has the power to motivate
and inspire. For example, ‘Over There’ and other songs inspired Americans to support their involvement in the First World War. It was exactly the same in World War Two and later wars including Vietnam. For example, some singer songwriters supported it, ie. ‘The Ballad of The |
Many politicians and their speech writers also have used
Popular music to inspire and motivate support for their campaigns. Consider George Bush (Sen) in the 1992 primaries when he paraphrased a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band song to win over crowds in New Hampshire. Also one writer observed Bush using ‘If you want to see a rainbow, you’ve got to stand a little rain.’ In his state of the union |
What should be obvious by now is that we are not talking about all forms of music - but primarily Western Popular Music. And also, when we talk about Western Popular Music, we mean 'Pop'. So we need to understand exactly what we mean by Pop. To do that, we need to understand what is political culture - as Pop is the music of the popular or mass political culture. |
So for our purposes we are talking about Western Popular
Music - the music reflecting the most dominant political culture in the world - Western capitalist society. And this is the important point, Pop music in the West reflects Western economic systems. It reflects Western capitalism and is indeed a product of capitalism and a tool of capitalism. As such, this century has seen the commodification of many consumer products in Western capitalist society, and also the |
The connection between Pop and politics can never be excluded from any analysis of Pop music. What makes ‘Pop’ music popular? argues one expert. Is it something intrinsic to the sound of the music; something intrinsic to the combination of the sound, the look and the story of the act; or marketing by record companies? Ultimately, the experts say marketing rests on the identification of |
George Lewis New Orleans Jazz Band- Mahogany
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The Blues
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Hooker - Boom, Boom, Boom
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Pete Seeger - Where Have All The Flowers Gone
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The Blues Brothers - Rawhide
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The Blues Brothers - Rocking The Gospel
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Rockabilly
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Rockabilly
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The Rolling Stones - Mona
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Rhythm
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And at times, each one of these ingredients and their variants
have also even been considered to be Pop music in themselves. And indeed - I would argue all are have been, and are, inherently political. As such there are many forms or strands of Popular music, but for our purposes we shall focus mainly on the most dominant one and that is Rock n Roll which then morphed into Rock and its various variants and even mutants. |
Spice Girls - Wannabe
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John Lennon - Give Peace A Chance
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