The connection between music and politics has been seen in many cultures. People in the past and present – especially politicians, politically-engaged musicians and listeners – hold that music can 'express' political ideas and ideologies, such as rejection of the establishment ('anti-establishment') or protest against state or private actions, including war through anti-war songs, but also energize national sentiments and nationalist ideologies through national anthems and patriotic songs. Because people attribute these meanings and effects to the music they consider political, music plays an important role in political campaigns, protest marches as well as state ceremonies. Much (but not all) of the music that is considered political or related to politics are songs, and many of these are topical songs, i.e. songs with topical lyrics, made for a particular time and place.
Introduction.
Although the use of music to mobilise political activists (and their audiences) as well as to enhance the impact of political rituals on political actors and people observing the rituals from the outside suggests that music in political contexts has an impact on participants and audiences, it is not clear how or to what extent general audiences relate to music in political contexts. Songs can be used to "transport" (or more precisely: accompany) lyrics with a political message. Like any political message, the political message of a song text set to music cannot be understood independently of its contemporary political context. It may have been clear to contemporaries, but historians studying past texts (with or without music) need to reconstruct the political 'content' of the lyrics and the political contexts in order to fully understand the texts (here: lyrics). In this everyday musical discourse, participants use the term "political music" to refer to songs (i.e. a combination of music with lyrics the latter set to the music and performed vocally). The political lyrics of such songs can in turn refer to an unlimited spectrum of political subjects, i.e. articulate both state-affirming and partisan opinions, or call for concrete political action. Additionally, a distinction can be made between the use of lyrics that raise awareness and support the formation of a certain political 'consciousness' and lyrics 'as advocacy'.
Participants in the informed discourse about music are aware that music itself is not political. If music listeners (including performers, composers, politicians and authorities who know music because they listen to it) "see" a relationship between certain music and politics, this is because, as a result of consequential logic, they attribute to this music the capacity to initiate certain (political) beliefs or behaviours in listeners. This relationship is also due to the specific functioning of music as a sign system, which is primarily based on similarities, structural analogies and associations that listeners construct between the music they listen to and non-musical things and phenomena.
Furthermore, some forms of music may be deemed political by cultural association, irrespective of political content, as evidenced by the way Western pop/rock bands such as The Beatles were censored by the State in the Eastern Bloc in the 1960s and 1970s, while being embraced by younger people as symbolic of social change. This points to the possibilities for discrepancy between the political intentions of musicians (if any), and reception of their music by wider society. Conversely, there is the possibility of the meaning of deliberate political content being missed by its intended audience, reasons for which could include obscurity or delivery of message, or audience indifference or antipathy.
It is difficult to predict how audiences will respond to political music, in terms of aural or even visual cues. For example, Bleich and Zillmann found that "counter to expectations, 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", suggesting there may be little connection between behaviour and musical taste. Pedelty and Keefe argue that "It is not clear to what extent the political messages in and around music motivate fans, become a catalyst for discussion, [or] function aesthetically".
However, in contrast they cite research that concludes, based on interpretive readings of lyrics and performances with a strong emphasis on historical contexts and links to social groups, that "given the right historical circumstances, cultural conditions, and aesthetic qualities, popular music can help bring people together to form effective political communities".
Recent research has also suggested that in many schools around the world, including in modern democratic nations, music education has sometimes been used for the ideological purpose of instilling patriotism in children, and that particularly during wartime patriotic singing can escalate to inspire destructive jingoism.
Plato wrote: "musical innovation is full of danger to the whole state, and ought to be prohibited. When modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the state always change with them;" although this was written as a warning it can be taken as a revolutionary statement that music is much more than just melodies and harmonies but an important movement in the life of all human beings.
Folk music.
American folk revival.
The song "We Shall Overcome" is perhaps the best-known example of political folk music, in this case a rallying-cry for the US Civil Rights Movement. Pete Seeger was involved in the popularisation of the song, as was Joan Baez. During the early part of the 20th century, poor working conditions and class struggle 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. Later, from the 1940s through the 1960s, groups like the Almanac Singers and The Weavers were influential in reviving this type of socio-political music. Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" is one of the most famous American folk songs and its lyrics exemplify Guthrie's socialistic patriotism. 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 from the folk music revival of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, and others.
The folk revival can be considered as a political re-invention of traditional song, a development encouraged by Left-leaning folk record labels and magazines such as Sing Out! and Broadside. The revival began in the 1930s and continued after World War II. Folk songs of this time gained popularity by using old hymns and songs but adapting the lyrics to fit the current social and political conditions. Archivists and artists such as Alan Lomax, Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie were crucial in popularising folk music, and the latter began to be known as the Lomax singers. This was an era of folk music in which some artists and their songs expressed clear political messages with the intention of swaying public opinion and recruiting support. In the UK, Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd performed similar roles, with Lloyd as folklorist and MacColl (often with Peggy Seeger) releasing dozens of albums which blended traditional songs with newer political material influenced by their Communist activism.
In the later, post-war revival, folk music found a new audience with college students, partly since universities provided the organisation necessary for sustaining music trends and an expanded, impressionable audience looking to rebel against the older generation. Nevertheless, the rhetoric of the United States government during the Cold War era was very powerful and in some ways overpowered the message of folk artists, such as in relation to public opinion regarding Communist-backed political causes. Various Gallup Polls that were conducted during this time suggest that Americans consistently saw Communism as a threat; for example, a 1954 poll shows that at the time 51% of Americans said that admitted Communists should be arrested, and in relation to music 64% of respondents said that if a radio singer is an admitted Communist he should be fired. Leading figures in the American folk revival such as Seeger, Earl Robinson and Irwin Silber were or had been members of the Communist Party, while others such as Guthrie (who had written a column for CPUSA magazine New Masses), Lee Hays and Paul Robeson were considered fellow travellers. As McCarthyism began to dominate the United States population and government, it was more difficult for folk artists to travel and perform since folk was pushed out of mainstream music. Artists were blacklisted, denounced by politicians and the media, and in the case of the 1949 Peekskill Riots, subject to mob attack.
In general, the significance of lyrics within folk music reduced as it became influenced by rock and roll. However, during the popular folk revival's last phase in the early 1960s, new folk artists such as Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs began writing their own, original topical music, as opposed to mainly adapting traditional folksong.
Contemporary Western folk music.
Although public attention shifted to rock music from the mid-1960s, folk singers such as Joan Baez and Tom Paxton continued to address political concerns in their music and activism. Baez's 1974 "Gracias a la Vida" album was a response to events in Chile and included versions of songs by Nueva Canción Chilena singer-songwriters Violeta Parra and Victor Jara. Paxton albums such as "Outward Bound" and "Morning Again" continued to highlight political issues. They were joined by other activist musicians such as Holly Near, Ray Korona, Charlie King, Anne Feeney, Jim Page, Utah Phillips and more recently David Rovics.
In the UK, the Ewan MacColl tradition of political folk has been continued since the 1960s by singer-songwriters such as Roy Bailey, Leon Rosselson and Dick Gaughan. Since the 1980s, a number of artists have blended folk protest with influences from punk and elsewhere to produce topical and political songs for a modern independent rock music audience, including Billy Bragg, Attila the Stockbroker, Robb Johnson, Alistair Hulett, The Men They Couldn't Hang, TV Smith, Chumbawamba and more recently Chris T-T and Grace Petrie.
Ireland.
In Ireland, the Wolfe Tones is perhaps the best known band in the folk protest/rebel music tradition, recording political material since the late 1960s including songs by Dominic Behan on albums such as "Let the People Sing" and "Rifles of the I.R.A." Christy Moore has also recorded much political material, including on debut solo album "Paddy on the Road", produced by and featuring songs by Dominic Behan, and on albums such as "Ride On" (including "Viva la Quinta Brigada"), "Ordinary Man" and various artists LP "H Block" to which Moore contributed "Ninety Miles from Dublin", in response to the Republican prisoners' blanket protest of the late 1970s. Earlier in the decade, The Barleycorn had held the #1 spot on the Irish charts for five weeks in 1972 with their first release "The Men Behind the Wire", about internment, with all profits going to the families of internees; Republican label R&amp;O Records likewise released several records around this time to fundraise for the same cause, including the live album "Smash Internment", recorded in Long Kesh, and The Wolfhounds' recording of Paddy McGuigan's "The Boys of the Old Brigade".
Chicano folk.
Chicano folk music has long been a platform for political resistance and social commentary. From the 1960s and onward, Chicano musicians used their music to express their personal experiences of discrimination and oppression faced as Mexican-Americans in the United States. Political themes like the fight for immigrant rights, labor struggles, Chicano identity, and police brutality have been common subjects of their music. Through their music, Chicano musicians have also encouraged community empowerment, activism, and unity throughout the development of the Chicano Movement. Joan Baez is the most recognized figure of this movement.
Folk music around the world.
Folk music had a strong connection with politics internationally. Hungary, for instance, experimented with a form of liberal Communism in the late Cold War era, which was reflected in much of their folk music. During the late twentieth century folk music was crucial in Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia as it allowed ethnicities