There are a number of songs that have political influences within the lyrics or the music itself but whether or not they ever achieve influencing those political views on the general public is another story.
Take for example Billy Holidays infamous song ‘Strange Fruit’. This song, which is essentially about the lynching of black people, was at first denied to the general public and wasn’t released because of its content and strong political influences. This song had the groundwork to politically shake the world at the time but restrictions prevented this.
Another example is the 1988 ‘Acid Rave’ stories that tainted the music thousands of teens listened to and resulted in laws being passed to prevent raves or similar kinds of music being produced. This explains how big of an impact music with political influences can make however, Longhurst notes that “in approaching the politics of popular music we need to address not only the context of it lyrics but also the sound and reception in particular contexts”. Music can only ever really cause political awareness rather than change and the circumstances in which it is used effects how influential it is.
Many of your assertions are reasonable but there are also a few errors here. BILLIE Holiday did release Strange Fruit, it's just that she had to do so on a smaller label as her own (major) label refused.
ReplyDeleteOverall, you display some understanding of the questions and concepts; but I think that further reading around the subjects would have enhanced your blogs.
ReplyDeleteSpecific comment Whiteness/blackness blog: You argue that blackness and whiteness in music is now largely irrelevant; but aren't these concepts about identity? Surely, blackness matters to those who have experienced 'blackness' and what that means in reality.
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