Tuesday, 24 April 2007
Can popular music be a genuine force for political change?
In today’s music industry we tend to find many artists who like to take a political edge in their own music and style trying to influence their fans on a range of issues. For example more recently hip hop artists have been trying to raise awareness of the dangers of gun crime. I think that’s all music generally does – raises awareness of important issues. Just because an artist chooses to feature particular opinions in their music does'nt mean that things will necessary change at all. It just means there is more chance that something changing as awareness has been raised. Such events like Live Aid are a good example of where music could be seen as trying to influence political change. However again I think that events like this are just raising awareness and are just another way for artists to publicize their music. So generally I don't really believe that popular music could be seen as a genuine force for political change but I do however believe that it is ultimately very successful in raising awareness of such political issues.
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Raising awareness is certainly a major weapon in the political arsenal of popular music, although it is by no means the only one. Band Aid, and the concerts that followed it were clearly political interventions that raised significant funds and resulted in very real (if not decisive) action being taken in Africa in the late 1980s. In addition music has the ability to chronicle the political and social climate of its times (strange fruit), and what of government responses to the perceived threat of popular music (1994 criminal justice act).
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