Music and Politics

William Burroughs: musical experimentation à la Beat Generation

by Carlos Yebra Lopez

Draft for the workshop "Musical Perspectives" (University of Warwick, 18-19th Juny).

This essay deals with the way in which the revolutionary ideas of the American writer William Burroughs (1914-1997)... more This essay deals with the way in which the revolutionary ideas of the American writer William Burroughs (1914-1997) may be put into practice by paying attention to his analysis with regard to the field of musical experimentation. In this sense, I will claim that Burroughs' work in general and his aforementioned analysis in particular, offer an interesting 'toolbox' that may prove useful in organizing social and political rebellion. In particular, I will focus my attention on the use of the cut-up technique in The Electronic Revolution (1970), the utilization of infra-sounds and the importance of being in silence. Finally, I will conclude that this meaningful revolution is just gaining momentum across the world due to the current expansion of technology.

The Mechanics of Destruction. An analysis of authorship and political engagement in the work of Matthew Herbert

by Melle Kromhout

MA-thesis Cultural Analyis, University of Amsterdam; 2008

An analysis of the politically engaged music of electronic musician Matthew Herbert, through tracing different... more An analysis of the politically engaged music of electronic musician Matthew Herbert, through tracing different contradictive aspects of his author position and the way this translates in his work.

Positive Energy: A Review of the Role of Artistic Activities in Refugee Camps

by Awet Andemicael

published by the United Nations High Commisisoner for Refugees Policy Development and Evaluation Service (UNHCR PDES)

When the Party Comes Down: The CPGB and Youth Culture, 1976-1991

by Evan Smith

Twentieth Century Communism: A Journal of International History, 4, 2012 (in press)

“Gosto de Jazz porque gosto da verdade”: o Clube Universitário de Jazz, a contestação e o discurso alternativo ao meio “jazzístico” em Portugal, entre 1958 e 1961

by Pedro Cravinho

Performa ’11 – Encontros de Investigação em Performance
Universidade de Aveiro, Maio de 2011

In 1958, a group of university students established in Lisbon the Clube Universitário de Jazz (University Jazz Club)... more In 1958, a group of university students established in Lisbon the Clube Universitário de Jazz (University Jazz Club) (CUJ), with the aim to disseminate Jazz music. The CUJ’s life was very short as the Public Security Police sealed it, in 1961. CUJ started its activity during a period of great social expectation, related to the possibility to change the dictatorial regime, installed in Portugal since 1933. Portugal was preparing what was supposed to be a process of “free elections” and some prior forbidden activities were now allowed. Within this context CUJ became an alternative to the broadcasting of jazz in Portugal using it as a discourse of liberty, specially regarding the status of the Portuguese colonies in Africa. To achieve this aim CUJ published the first Portuguese jazz magazine, organized “jam-session’s”, concert’s and phonograph meetings followed by collective discussion. These activities were carried out by a core group of individuals, including its founder, Raul Calado, who’s main propose was to present a non canonical musical repertoire, usually excluded from the public sphere for political reasons (Jazz, Kwela, and other African sonorities). Using the contribution of Lawrence Grosseberg based on an understanding of the binomial hegemony/resistance as a "transformative practice", giving rise to bilateral relations and changes, (Grossberg, 1996), I will reflect on the actions of resistance carried out by CUJ, configuring Jazz as the discourse of truth in a period of censorship and repression, and its impact on university students who have attended institutions such as the Casa dos Estudantes do Império (House of the Empire’s Students). This paper will explore further the role of jazz as an experience of "human relations ideals", capable to provide new social realities that are not yet accessible (Turino, 2008).

This is Not For You: The Rise and Fall of Music Milieux in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, 1950s -1990s

by Rylan Kafara

MA Thesis.

When Nirvana found sudden commercial success with the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in 1991, the music industry’s... more When Nirvana found sudden commercial success with the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in 1991, the music industry’s attention became focused on Seattle for the first time. The city, however, had a rich musical tradition going back decades.  This thesis examines the rise and fall of music communities in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest from the 1950s to the 1990s: the jazz mileu in Seattle in the 1950s, the Pacific Northwest garage rock network of the 1960s, and the alternative music community of the 1980s and early 1990s. It looks at the factors involved in the development of these three distinct scenes: timing, innovation, and marketability, showing the opportunities and limitations of regional music milieux. In doing so, it reveals a trend of musicians of each scene departing Seattle for more major industry centres like Los Angeles. What separated the milieu Nirvana participated in from earlier regional communities was the fact musicians stopped leaving Seattle. This thesis shows why it was finally more beneficial for them to stay.

Seattle in the 1960s: Music, Identity, and the Struggle for Civil Rights

by Rylan Kafara

Culture, Space, Objectification: Adorno's Current of Music

by Wesley Phillips

forthcoming in the European Journal of Social Theory

"Opera en abyme: The Prodigious Ritual of Korngold's Die tote Stadt," Cambridge Opera Journal 22:2 (2011), 115-46.

by William Cheng

Towards a corpus-based approach to language attitudes: The Eurovision Song Contest on YouTube

by Dejan Ivković/ Дејан Ивковић

Language@Internet (forthcoming, 2012)
Languages: multilingual, English, French, German

(abstract)
This article examines language attitudes expressed in the comments sections of YouTube web pages. A... more (abstract)
This article examines language attitudes expressed in the comments sections of YouTube web pages. A corpus-based analysis of language attitudes was carried out on data taken from a range of YouTube pages featuring video uploads of songs performed in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) between 2003 and 2010. A specialized corpus of approximately 770,000 tokens was collected from YouTube for the purpose of the study. Comments of YouTube users were analyzed using the WordSmith concordancer to reveal patterns of overtly-expressed language attitudes. The results of the analysis show that (1) language attitudes are explained by arguments that support affective/evaluative, instrumental, pragmatic or symbolic functions of language choice; (2) singing in a non-native language provokes mostly negative comments; and (3) the performance of the German 2010 winning song in a “Cockney-like” accent elicits mixed positive/negative responses. The results of the study shed light on multilingualism and language choice in the ESC and offer an input parameter for language policy and language planning of the Contest.

The Politics of Performance: Transnationalism and its Limits in Former Yugoslav Popular Music, 1999-2004

by Catherine Baker

Ethnopolitics 5:3 (2006): 274-93

This paper examines transnational relations between the Yugoslav successor states from the point of view of popular... more This paper examines transnational relations between the Yugoslav successor states from the point of view of popular music, and demonstrates how transnational musical figures (such as Djordje Balasevic, Momcilo Bajagic-Bajaga and Ceca Raznatovic) are interpreted as symbolic reference points in national ethnopolitical discourse in the process of identity construction. Another symbolic function is served by Serbian turbofolk artists, who in Croatia serve as a cultural resource to distance oneself from a musical genre associated by many urban Croats with the ruralization (and Herzegovinization) of Croatian city space. In addition, value judgements associated with both Serbian and Croatian newly composed folk music provide an insight into the transnational negotiation of conflicting identities in the ex-Yugoslav context. Ultimately the paper shows how the ethnonational boundaries established by nationalizing ideologies created separate cultural spaces which themselves have been transnationalized after Yugoslavia’s disintegration.

The concept of turbofolk in Croatia: inclusion/exclusion in the construction of national musical identity

by Catherine Baker

In 'Nation in formation: inclusion and exclusion in central and eastern Europe', ed. Catherine Baker, Christopher J Gerry, Barbara Madaj, Liz Mellish and Jana Nahodilova (London: UCL Press, 2007)

When Seve Met Bregović: Folklore, Turbofolk and the Boundaries of Croatian Musical Identity

by Catherine Baker

Nationalities Papers 36:4 (2008): 741-64

War Memory and Musical Tradition: Commemorating Croatia's Homeland War through Popular Music and Rap in Eastern Slavonia

by Catherine Baker

Journal of Contemporary European Studies 17:1 (2009): 35-45

From the outbreak of the Homeland War (1991–1995) in Croatia to the present day popular music has been used as a means... more From the outbreak of the Homeland War (1991–1995) in Croatia to the present day popular music has been used as a means to commemorate the upheaval and sacrifice of Croatia’s war against the Yugoslav National Army and the Serb militia. This paper focuses on the musical commemoration of a particular region, Eastern Slavonia, which was not fully integrated into the Croatian state until three years after the official end of the war. The narrative, vocabulary and symbols established during the immediate wartime phase have persisted into the present day when war memory has become inflected by post-war developments, such as the indictment of Croatian Army officers for war crimes.

Popular Music and Political Change in Post-Tuđman Croatia: 'It's All the Same, Only He's Not Here'?

by Catherine Baker

Europe-Asia Studies 62:10 (2010): 1741-59

'Death to fascism isn't in the catechism': legacies of socialism in Croatian popular music after the fall of Yugoslavia

by Catherine Baker

Narodna umjetnost 47:1 (2010): 163-83

This paper discusses both textual and structural legacies of socialism in Croatian popular music since the collapse of... more This paper discusses both textual and structural legacies of socialism in Croatian popular music since the collapse of socialism and Yugoslavia. Yugoslav socialism struggled to reconcile socialist consciousness and capitalist consumerism, forcing the producers of popular culture to make sense of the political field that surrounded them and put ideology into practice. The structural conditions of cultural produc- tion under socialism, the use of socialist iconography and memory as resources in post-socialist popular music and the negation of the socialist experience by patriotic musicians reflect three layers of socialist legacy in contemporary Croatian popular culture.

The ideal world of Mrs. Widder's soiréé musicale: social identity and musical life in nineteenth-century Ontario

by Kristina Guiguet

Are the Kids United? The Communist Party of Great Britain, Rock Against Racism and the Politics of Youth Culture

by Evan Smith

Journal for the Study of Radicalism, 5/2, Fall 2010,  pp. 85-117

Luigi Nonos Chorkomposition »La victoire de Guernica« (1954) und die Frage nach den Beziehungen zwischen Kunst und politischer Geschichte

by Stefan Drees

in: Guerni­ca: Über Gewalt und politische Kunst, hrsg. von Otto Neumaier und Wolfgang Gratzer, München: Fink 2010, S. 155-172

Die bundesdeutsche Rezeption von Luigi Nonos Komposition "La victoire de Guernica" (1954) macht auf die... more Die bundesdeutsche Rezeption von Luigi Nonos Komposition "La victoire de Guernica" (1954) macht auf die Verdrängungsmechanismen aufmerksam, die bis in die 1970er Jahre hinein mit der Mitschuld beim Angriff auf die baskische Stadt verbunden waren. Obgleich Nonos politische Ambitionen durch Wahl des Textes von Paul Éluard und durch bestimmte kompositionstechnische Details deutlich werden, werden Uraufführung und Folgeaufführungen durch Kritik und begleitende Programmtexte weitgehend entpolitisiert.

„Einführung: Militär, Musik und Krieg in interdisziplinärer Sicht“, in: Militär, Musik und Krieg – Kolloquium anlässlich des 70. Geburtstags von Michael Salewski, ed. Linda Maria Koldau, Stuttgart 2010, 9–23

by Linda Maria Koldau