Wednesday 8 July 2009

Music and International Politics


Hi everyone. Once again I’m asking for a request from y’all. As you may or may not know, I’m currently doing my masters in the field of international relations, a field that primarily looks into the politics and social framework of the international community.

Being somewhat interested in popular music, I’m very curious of the contribution music plays to forming political identities. I can think of countless bands that have used music to comment on the state of the world and the other transnational political issues.

Off the top of my head I can think of a few obvious ones – The Clash, the Dead Kennedys, Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down, Midnight Oil. It would seem that the Live Aid events in the 80s and of more recent times also demonstrate the role civil society plays in bringing issues such as global poverty to the forefront of international politics.

However, on first glance, there seems to be little scholarly work written about such groups/events and the effect on encouraging political dissent or sharpening perspectives on foreign policy – areas I’m looking to investigate in my next semester (subject to certain contingencies).

What I’m after is source material – album suggestions, band suggestions, and biographies, newspaper articles etc by groups and individuals involved in popular music which comment on domestic or international politics. If you have any suggestion, please leave me a comment here or send me an email to iamtheporkfireman AT the mail that is hot dot com (you know what I mean, I hope!)

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