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4. Social Revolution - 



Popular Music 


Empowering Class
RM Radio 
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Popular music, apart from providing good entertainment, has also proven to be a force 

for the oppressed and the exploited as we can demonstrate with respect to women, 

coloured peoples, and others. At times, however, it also speaks for other downtrodden 

sectors or classes in society - `the lower class’,  both in the West and also in the Third 

World.

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 In this segment we 

examine some of the

music and the messages 

therein aimed at 

spreading awareness of 

the oppression of certain

other `sectors’ of our 

society.
John Lennon - Working Class Hero
Class

As we know, all Pop music stems from a social context – and as such, it has also

represented, or reflected various class backgrounds, and often the woes of various

classes. It is also certainly possible to identify music with certain classes and ethnic 

groups, or other human communities, certainly with African Americans and others, and

certainly with the hopelessness of the working class.


What Is Class?

OK – before we go any further we need to work out what we mean by ‘class’. And 

when we do that we find the concept of class has quite often been linked to socialism –

or socialist theorists. While socialists believe in the existence of a common humanity,

they also have stressed the importance of social class, and have traditionally linked their

views to the interests of the working class.





Much of the working class has been 

represented in the Communist 

International and the music of that 

movement. And much of the rural 

working class has been represented in 

Country and Western music.
The Communist International
What Do We Mean By Class Then?

Simply speaking, class designates a group of people who hold a common economic 

position and therefore share similar working and social experiences, or in Marxist 

terms, share the same position vis a vis the relations of production.


The notion of social class is important because capitalism is based upon social 

inequality, and an unequal distribution of income or wealth. Capitalist society is in fact 

characterized by deep social divisions, between the rich and the poor, employers and 

workers, or `capital’ and `labour'. The working class is therefore generally considered

to be exploited and oppressed. As a result, the working class has provided somewhat of

a natural constituency for socialist ideas, and even at times the prospect of realizing 

socialism. Socialists have, therefore, traditionally seen the working class as an agent of 

social change and even social revolution.


Class Cuts Across Boundaries

In recent history, socialists have traditionally 

believed social class to be the deepest and 

most politically significant division in society. 

Class is seen to cut across religious, ethnic, 

racial and national boundaries, and as such, 

socialists have often tried to foster 

international working class solidarity.


For example, the First International 

Workingmen’s Association was established by

Marx in 1864, a Second or `Socialist’ 

international was set up in 1889, and revived 

in 1951. A Third International or Comintern’ 

was formed by Lenin in 1919, while a rival 

`Trotskyite’ Fourth International came into

existence in 1936.’
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However, because the class system is founded upon exploitation and injustice, socialists

also believe that class divisions can be and should be removed. Some, like Marx, looked

forward to creating a `classless society’ in which all social and economic conflicts will 

be resolved because wealth will be owned in common.
 
Marxist Views on Class

However, while all socialists believe class divisions to be important, they have not

always agreed about the precise meaning of social class. Marxists define class in terms

of economic power, the ownership of the 'means of production' or productive wealth. 

Marx believed that capitalist society was increasingly being divided into `two great 

classes facing one another: the Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.’ 


The Bourgeoisie, according to Marx, was/ and is, a small class of capitalists or property

owners, while the proletariat constituted the property-less masses who had been 

reduced to the status of `wage slaves’. The bourgeoisie was a `ruling class’ because it 

controlled massive economic power and systematically exploited the proletariat by 

extracting what Marx called `surplus value’ in order to make profits. The conflict 

between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat was both fundamental and irreconcilable; it

could only result in the overthrow of capitalism itself in a `proletarian revolution’.
 

For Marx, therefore, class conflict was the key to understanding human history and

society. `The history of all hitherto existing societies’, he declared, `is the history of 

class struggles.’ 



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Modes Of Production

In Marx’s view, each society was characterized by its `mode of production’, or its 

economic system. History has progressed through a series of stages as each `mode of 

production’ collapsed because of its own internal contradictions, reflected in class 

conflict. Capitalism was, and is, merely the last in a series of class societies which have

included slavery and feudalism. 

 
Like all previous societies, Marxists believe capitalism is unstable, and doomed because

of the conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletariat. This `dialectical’ process- i.e. 

class conflict, Marx believed to be the motor or driving force of history. What made 

capitalism different from other modes of production was that it was destined to be the 

last class society. The proletariat was seen to be the `gravedigger’ of capitalism and,

being the vast majority in society, Marx believed that the `proletarian revolution’ would 

bring exploitation itself to an end, and thus create a classless, communist society.

Russian Revolution


Modern Social Democrats View on Class

Modern Social Democrats, however,  do not share this Marxist conception of class. In

particular, capitalism has not appeared to develop as Marx had predicted. Far from 

becoming more intense, class conflict has actually been gradually diluted by growing 

affluence, nationalist and ethnic loyalties, at least in the industrialized West. 

 
In the West, at least, the traditional division between property owners and workers has

been replaced by a far more complicated social structure of differential rewards for 

particular occupations or jobs. As a result, Social Democrats have ceased to define 

class in terms of the ownership of wealth and have accepted instead the idea of 

occupational class. 

 
Class therefore reflects not an unequal distribution of economic power, but an unequal

distribution of income. The working class is no longer thought of as the property-less

proletariat, but, more narrowly, as a class of manual or `blue collar’ workers, those

whose jobs have traditionally been the lowest paid and enjoyed the least social status.  

Social democrats have therefore abandoned the goal of abolishing class divisions 

altogether, in favor of the desire to simply reduce them.


Russia

As we have seen, the link between 

socialism and the working class, however

it is defined, has weakened during the 

20th century. In backward countries, such

as Russia, the industrial working class was

small and the Bolsheviks forged an 

alliance between workers and peasants, 

reflected in what was to become the 

symbol of communism: the hammer and 

sickle. 

 

China

However, in China in 1949 and in other 

parts of the Third World, the peasantry 

rather than the working class has been 

regarded as the `revolutionary class.’ In 

the industrialized West, material 

prosperity has made the working class 

progressively less radical, encouraging 

some socialists, like Andres Gorz, to 

predict `the death of the working class’. 

 
During the 1960s, the New Left

increasingly abandoned any faith in the 

working class or proletariat and looked 

instead to the revolutionary potential of 

groups like students, women, ethnic 

minorities and the Third World.
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Either Way Classes Still Exist And Perhaps So Does Class Conflict.
 
There are still classes out there, and right throughout history there have been many

changing class formations and much class conflict. And as a consequence, music as a 

means of communication and tool of struggle has also been a weapon of class struggle.


Let’s now look at the role of Pop music as a means of representing various classes and 

spreading the message of the woes of the working class, at least in the Capitalist West.
 


Folk Generally Has Been The Music Of Class Struggle
 

Folk

As we have seen so far, Folk has generally been politicized music, the music of the 

people. As such it became the music of the oppressed in the depression and it had a 

resurgence in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly with the association with the Civil 

Rights Movement and the Peace Movement.

 

Blues and Jazz

Blues was also the music of class, the black working class, as was Jazz, although Jazz

was very much city music. In this respect it was interesting to note that Jazz very much

became the music of the left wing socialist movement and became very big in the

Soviet bloc.


Country and Western

Country and Western too, as we know, was the music of the poor country folk, or the

rural peasantry - to use Marxist terminology.


Woody Guthrie - This Land Is Your Land
Leadbelly- Bourgeois Town


However, The Politics Of Class Has Also Been Evident In Pop Music

Just as all these elements - Jazz, Folk, Blues and Country and Western came together in

Pop, we could argue that Pop in itself can be seen to reflect class - the modern

industrialized mass class of the urban cities. It is modern working class music perhaps -

music, as we have seen, that consistently becomes co-opted and commodified.

Some musicians have made definite

attempts to draw attention to the plight of

many people living 'down and out' in

cities, in what for some is sheer 

hopelessness. Let’s look at some of this. 

In the Kinks - 'Dead End Street' What is 

this song saying? - "We are strictly second

class - we don’t stand a chance" 
 

This is a song basically about the poverty

and hopelessness of the city - of those 

working class in dead end jobs - on 'Dead

End Street'. It is for some, a song about 

the hopelessness of class.  



Take Billy Joel for a further example. 

'Allentown' is about the impact of a 

collapsing economy - about the impact of 

a collapsing steel industry on a steel town

like Allentown in the United States.
The Kinks - Dead End Street
Billy Joel - Allentown
Take also the song below by Jimmy Barnes and Cold Chisel - it is directly about the 

trials and tribulations of the 'working class' man.

Jimmy Barnes - Working Class Man

And how about this one?
The Animals - We Gotta Get Out Of This Place

Again a song about the hopelessness of the working class in large industrialized cities. 

There are many, many more songs, such as those by Cat Stevens and Billy Bragg. 
Much of Billy Bragg’s music for example is about the struggles of the working class as 

was indeed the songs of Woody Guthrie, in a much earlier folk era.
 
Billy Bragg - Waiting For The Great Leap Forward
Cat Stevens - Matthew & Son



Further Examples

There are many examples out there of Pop music explicitly talking about the politics or 

struggles of the working class. And much or many of these issues are also linked to 

the impact of the globalisation of capitalism. 

 
Many political groups or parties have tried to use pop music to harness class 

consciousness with which to build a political base, as was the case of the British Labour

Party and 'Red Wedge' in the 1980s, a group of artists and concerts, to rally support for 

the British Labour Party. However, the real problem for Red Wedge was that it was

meant to appeal to everyone (along the lines of Live Aid) by using music, the collective 

power of which depends on its sense of exclusion. When people feel most passionately

about music together it is because of its power to mark boundaries (this is obvious in the

case of Punk and Heavy Metal, for example); but inclusive, 'mainstream' music never 

has such power. 

 
Where 'Rock Against Racism' (RAR), at least offered an enemy, Red Wedge for all the

targeting of the 'Tories' or conservatives - only offered a vague target, and also called on

its audiences to be reasonable. And whatever else mass music may represent, it is not 

the 'power of reason’. 

Red Wedge  - Political Impact

Both RAR and the Labour Party - through Red Wedge, tried to harness Pop for causes.

RAR succeeded but Red Wedge did not - because in the 1990s in post industrial

capitalism it was very hard to harness a class consciousness and national if not 

international solidarity. 


Quite simply - class politics these days is somewhat out of date - or been superseded by

globalisation and new ideologies which embrace the complex issues and cross cutting 

forces and influences of the 21st Century - ideologies such as Environmentalism, 

Feminism, Islamic radicalism and others.

 
Nevertheless, much Pop music has been about the plight of the working class, however

ill-defined, but very little about changing conditions for all, and less about offering 

prescriptions about just how to bring about change and what form it should take. 

Except perhaps for artists like Thunderclap Newman.


Thunderclap Newman - Something In The Air



A Question To Consider:
 
Do you think Modern Popular Music has had any success in spreading awareness and 

concern as to the plight of the politically and economically oppressed and/or 

disadvantaged?




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