Robin Balliger* defines politics in popular music as ‘songs which either serve or struggle against dominant institutions’. The RATM* protest against Simon Cowell and the Christmas number one is an example of this. Popular music influences society, so it is no surprise that popular music has been used to highlight political issues throughout history. Longhurst stresses that there are two reasons for this connection, the way that music ‘is seen as oppositional to established values in the broadest sense’ and music that relates to a political theme ‘the interconnections between Rock and politics’. This strong relationship between music and political change is apparent with Band Aid in the 1980s where music artists encouraged donations in order to ‘feed the World’. This did not solve the problem but it did make a significant change. Music alone cannot achieve political change but it is a useful tool and helps raise global awareness.
*RATM- Rage Against the Machine
A good post, well expressed.
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