Music's Power: Politics, Control & Protest

The Power(s) of Music: Politics, Control, and Protest

• This lecture discusses the political and economic functions of music, as well as its role in subversion and resistance.
• It also covers the stages of musical production
• It analyses the timeline of music and politics from the 1800s to the 2020s

The Political and Economic Function of Music

• Music, though immaterial, has become a major economic force and is inscribed in the political economy.
• Music has always been an instrument of power.
• Jacques Attali (*1943) is a French economic theorist and political advisor.
• Attali served as a counselor to French President François Mitterand (1981-1991).
• He also headed the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
• He designed a reform for the French university system.
• Attali founded the European Research program for new technologies EUREKA.
• He founded the POSITIV foundation, a microfinance bank that helps disadvantaged individuals worldwide develop their own sustainability.

The Use of Music in Nazi Germany

• The Nazi regime used music as a tool for propaganda and social control, promoting compositions that aligned with their ideology and suppressing dissenting musical expressions.
• The Nazi regime made extensive use of music to exalt the race and the nation.
• They organized grandiose festivals and banned works that did not correspond to the official aesthetic.

Noise as Subversion and Resistance

• Noise is introduced as a metaphor for disruption, dissent, and social change.
• Power structures seek to regulate and suppress noise.
• Noise inevitably challenges and reshapes order.
• Musical innovation is inherently political because it disrupts dominant cultural norms.

The Role of Jazz in Early 20th-Century America

• Jazz, emerging from African American communities, served as a form of resistance against mainstream cultural norms and racial oppression.
• Its improvisational nature challenged established musical structures, symbolizing broader social defiance.
• Jazz introduced noise into music, a violence that subverted the cultural order, embodying the cry of a community in search of its identity.

The Stages of Musical Production

• Music is prophecy, and its styles and economic organization are ahead of the rest of society because it explores the entire range of possibilities faster than material reality.
• There are four historical stages in the political economy of music:
• Ritual: Music as a sacred or communal practice.
• Representation: Music as a performance to be observed (patronage, classical music era).
• Repetition: Music as a mass-produced commodity (recording industry, pop music).
• Composition: A future stage (seen from 1985) where music becomes a form of autonomous, self-organized production, breaking away from market control.

The Transition from Live Performances to Recorded Music

• The shift from the 'Representation' stage, characterized by live performances patronized by elites, to the 'Repetition' stage, marked by the mass production and consumption of recorded music.
• This transition reflects changes in the economic organization of society.
• With the advent of recording, music became reproducible, thus becoming a commodity, leading to its mass consumption and the standardization of tastes.

Music as a Predictor of Societal Change

• Music is more than an object of study, and is itself, a mode of prophecy.
• It makes audible the new world that will gradually become visible.

The Emergence of Polyphony in the Late Middle Ages

• The rise of polyphonic music in the late Middle Ages anticipated the emergence of individualism and the subsequent societal transformations leading to capitalism.
• The simultaneous performance of several different melodies challenged the ancient order and was a radical attack on the code of musical homogeneity, and thus a prelude to the emergence of capitalism.

Music & Politics: A Timeline

1800s

• Napoleonic Wars & Nationalist Music (Europe, Latin America)
  • French expansion inspires nationalist compositions.
  • Latin American independence movements.
  • Key Works: Beethoven's Eroica (1804), early national anthems in Argentina (1818) and Mexico (1821)
• Anti-Colonial Resistance & Folk Traditions (Africa, Asia, Oceania, Latin America)
  • Indigenous and enslaved communities use music to preserve culture and resist colonial rule.
  • Key Forms: African spirituals (Brazil, Caribbean), Aboriginal songlines (Australia).

1810s-1830s

• Revolutionary Music & Nationalism (Latin America, Greece, Europe, Philippines)
  • Independence movements (Latin America, Greece), anti-Spanish uprisings (Philippines).
  • Key Songs: “La Marseillaise” adapted in South America, Greek war songs.

1840s-1860s

• 1848 Revolutions & Nationalist Operas (Europe, Italy, India, Africa)
  • Nationalist revolts in Italy, Germany; British colonial oppression in India.
  • Key Works: Verdi's Nabucco (1842), Indian devotional songs turned into resistance music.
• American Civil War & Resistance Music (USA, Brazil, Australia)
  • Slavery and resistance songs in the U.S. and Brazil; Aboriginal music protests British settler violence.
  • Key Songs: “Battle Hymn of the Republic” (1861), African-inspired resistance chants in Brazil.

1870s-1890s

• Nationalist Compositions & Colonial Resistance (Europe, India, Japan, Ottoman Empire, Africa)
  • Nationalist compositions emerge against imperial rule.
  • Key Works: Nationalist songs (Vande Mataram), Japanese military marches (Meiji Restoration).
• Labor Movement & Protest Songs (USA, Europe, Africa, Latin America)
  • Growth of worker movements, industrial strikes.
  • Key Songs: "The Internationale” (France, 1888) after the suppression of the Paris Commune, union songs in the U.S. and Argentina.

1900s-1910s

• Anti-Colonial Songs & Socialist Realism (India, South Africa, Indonesia, Soviet Union, Mexico)
  • Indian independence movement uses music against British rule.
  • Soviet socialist realism emerges, promoting ideological compositions.
  • Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) gives rise to corridos (folk ballads).
  • Key Songs: "Vande Mataram” (India, 1870s, became important 1905)
• WWI & Propaganda Music (Global)
  • Music mobilizes war efforts across Europe, USA, and colonies.
  • Key Songs: Die Wacht am Rhein (German Empire), Your King and Country Want you (British Empire), Chant du Départ (French Republic)

1920s

• Post-Revolutionary Music & Socialist Realism (Soviet Union, China, Mexico, Latin America)
  • Key Figures: Shostakovich (early Soviet compositions), Chinese revolutionary composers, Mexican corrido singers.
• Jazz & Black Liberation (USA, Europe, Caribbean, Africa)
  • Harlem Renaissance; jazz spreads globally as cultural rebellion.
  • Key Artists: Jelly Roll, Morton, Fats Waller, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington, early African highlife musicians.

1930s

• Fascism & State-Controlled Music (Germany, Italy, Spain, USSR, China)
  • Music used for political indoctrination under totalitarian regimes.
  • Key Works: Nazi-approved classical works (Wagner, Liszt) and banned composers (Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer), Chinese revolutionary anthems.
• Anti-Imperialist & Resistance Songs (Africa, India, Latin America, Soviet Asia)
  • Growth of nationalist movements; Soviet Central Asian music controlled.
  • Key Forms: Indian ragas turned into protest songs, African anti-colonial songs.

1940s

• WWII Resistance & Nationalist Music (Global)
  • Key Songs: March of the Volunteers (China), “Bella Ciao” (Italy), South African anti-apartheid songs.
• Post-Colonial Independence & National Anthems (India, Indonesia, Africa, Latin America)
  • Nations formalize their anthems after independence.
  • Key Songs: “Jana Gana Mana” (India, 1950), Indonesian resistance songs.

1950s

• Cold War & Cultural Propaganda (USA, USSR, China, Cuba)
  • U.S. jazz diplomacy; USSR bans Western music. Congress for Cultural Freedom (CIA sponsors famous leftist artists to rally against the Soviet brand of communism).
  • Key Figures: Soviet composers (Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khatchaturian, Mysaskovsky, Gavriil Popov) censored for ideological deviation (Zhdanov decree condemning formalism and promoting heroism).
• Civil Rights & Protest Music (USA, Africa, Latin America, Australia)
  • Key Songs: "We Shall Overcome” (USA), early Afrobeat (Nigeria), Latin American nueva canción.

1960s

• Anti-Colonial & Protest Music (Africa, Latin America, Soviet Dissenters, USA, UK)
  • Key Figures: Fela Kuti (Nigeria, Afrobeat), Victor Jara (Chile, nueva canción), Bob Dylan (USA).
  • Key Songs: “El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido” (Chile, 1969).
• Psychedelic Counterculture & Youth Rebellion (Global)
  • Key Figures: The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, tropicalismo/anthropophagia in Brazil.

1970s

• Dictatorships, Exile Music & Resistance (South America and Africa)
  • Key Figures: Victor Jara (Chile, executed for protest songs), Gilberto Gil (Brazil, exiled), Soviet rock musicians, Portuguese Anti-Colonial Songs
• Punk as Political Rebellion (USA, UK, Soviet Empire, Latin America)
  • Key Bands: The Clash, Sex Pistols

1980s

• Anti-Apartheid & Revolutionary Hip-Hop (South Africa, Latin America, USSR, Middle East, USA)
  • Key Songs: “Bring Him Back Home” (Hugh Masekela), Soviet / Eastern bloc underground rock/punk ("Ich glotz TV von Ost nach West (I watch TV from East to West)” Nina Hagen Band)

1990s

• Political Rap & Post-Colonial Identity (Africa, Latin America, Asia, Middle East, USA)
  • Zapatista anthems (Mexico), Tupac's influence spreads to Africa.
• Indigenous Rights & Protest Music (Australia, Canada, Latin America, Africa)
  • Key Figures: Yothu Yindi (Australia, Indigenous rights).

2000s-2020s

• Digital Protest & Revolutionary Pop (Middle East, Latin America, Africa, China, Australia, USA, UK)
  • Key Songs: Alright (Kendrick Lamar, USA), Arab Spring protest songs, Indigenous resistance songs (Americas, Australia)