Does Politics Have A Place in Music?
The simple answer is yes. Music has been the beating heart of culture across time and geography, and, by definition, culture is always political. It is not only influenced by the world around us, but visibly influences cityscapes, pervading the way we speak, dress and even think – it is why we can date a film, outfit or piece of music pretty easily.
A quick glance back at the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century can tell us a lot about how culture is inherently political; extensive censorship programmes ran alongside mass propaganda, simultaneously attempting to stifle resistance whilst winning the hearts and minds of the masses. What dictators across the globe feared, from Europe’s Hitler to China’s Mao and Russia’s Stalin, was the momentum which resistance movements can gather when the power of culture is grasped effectively.
It is no secret that music has played a key part in many social justice movements - it famously fuelled the anti-Vietnam War sentiment in the USA, with bands including The Rolling Stones providing a soundtrack to demonstrations with tracks such as ‘Gimme Shelter’. Rap music has been credited by many for inspiring the lobbying of Obama’s administration which led him to repeal the mandatory sentencing law which had caused an almost 100-fold disparity between time served for possession of powder cocaine and crack cocaine (this law is responsible for a notable proportion of the mass incarceration of African Americans in the USA). More recently, the BLM protests of last summer have inspired some powerful protest songs, with a personal favourite being Stevie Wonder’s ‘Can’t Put It In The Hands Of Fate’ – a song well worth a listen. Here in the UK, it is abundantly clear that there is a huge demand from the public for artists to create political music. Slowthai’s fame came directly off the back of his debut album ‘Nothing Great About Britain’ which, as the title clearly suggests, largely addresses some issues of class and race that persist in the UK today.
Examples could go on, and it seems pretty obvious why. Music is an outlet through which artists are free to creatively express themselves on topics that can be difficult to address in more conventional ways – it is why so many songs are written about love and heartbreak. This cathartic benefit extends past the creators and to the listeners, providing relatable content which unites people in a sense of community. There have been suggestions that this feeling is even scientific – that people’s heartbeats tend to match the beat of songs, meaning that a crowd of people listening to the same music will have a similar heartbeat. Perhaps this provides some explanation for why there is such a sense of community at festivals and concerts which can be replicated at protests – something that Gay Pride captures so well. And yes, this idea is not grounded in extensive scientific research. Nonetheless, the sense of community which music creates remains undeniable – it gives voice and a sense of belonging to those who may not otherwise have the confidence or platform to do so. It joins people together, sometimes physically singing at concerts, but also through the shared experience of listening, binding people through relatable content, in this context, political frustrations. This sense of community seems undeniably valuable, both to the individual and to the social justice movements it has repeatedly inspired.
So, it seems that the idea that politics has a place in music is pretty undeniable. However, where the debate about the place of politics in music has become particularly controversial and difficult to navigate is with regards to cultural appropriation. Sceptics of those who accuse artists of cultural appropriation argue that politics should remain out of music in this realm. They emphasise the value of total freedom of expression within music, and that this should not be limited by ‘identity’ politics. It is the classic cultural ‘appreciation’ response to accusations of ‘appropriation’.
It is easy to sympathise with such ideas – I spent the first half of this article explaining how freedom of expression solidifies the place of politics within music. However, like any issue of race, this problem is nuanced and somewhat complicated, making it far easier to dismiss any ideas of cultural appropriation with arguments of freedom of expression.
What cultural appropriation within music reflects is the all too familiar tale of exploitation and oppression – white people profiting completely disproportionately from the hard work of minorities. Those who have followed Eminem’s early career will be no stranger to this debate – rap as a genre was born out of black neighbourhoods, giving an outlet through which individuals and communities could express their grievances at racial abuse. Yet, as a white man, Eminem is one of the most commercially successful rappers of all time. And, not only that, but his specific branch of rap, gangster rap, has faced very public concerns from politicians such as C. Delores Tucker about the racial and sexual nature of gangster rap lyrics and how threatening they can potentially be to black women.
And, the list of white artists who have been accused of cultural appropriation is extensive – Macklemore points his finger at Elvis, Miley Cyrus and Iggy Azalea in his song White Privilege II. This song from 2016 has some powerful messages in its 8 minutes, with the second verse really capturing the sentiment of some of the main issues of appropriation; he speaks of white artists making huge royalties off a ‘watered-down pop bullshit version of the culture’. What this references is the way that white artists have the ability to adapt genres of music that have risen out of oppression, taking features such as the fashion and the accent, while making it more palatable to a white audience. In a world where overt racism and unconscious bias are still so prevalent, it is easy to see why a white artist profiting disproportionately off a genre of music whose roots lie in a culture traditionally discriminated against is uncomfortable, particularly since white artists make such genres more palatable to white audiences in the face of societal racism.
While the solution to this debate remains unclear to me, since freedom of expression is so fundamental within music, what remains clear is that this political discussion does have a place within the music industry – it seems that the protection of freedom of expression continues to ride a difficult line with clear exploitation and continued oppression and thus if anything, requires even greater prevalence within music.
Written by Abbie Warner
I am a 20-year-old undergrad at the Uni of Manchester studying PPE. I have always enjoyed writing, and writing for The Everyday Magazine allows me to refocus my attention from the academic essays I write for uni, back onto topics I'm interested in - it reminds me where my interest for politics and writing came from in the first place.