Politics in Music: Music and Political Transformation from Beethoven to Hip-Hop
Author(s): Courtney Brown PH.D. (Author)
Publisher: Farsight Press
Publication Date: September 7, 2007
Language: English
Print length: 260 pages
ISBN-10: 0976676230
ISBN-13: 9780976676232
Book Description
This book discusses the political content of music over the past 200 years, from the classical to the hip-hop genres and everything in between. Beginning with Beethoven, Courtney Brown describes how Beethoven’s music has been used to support a wide variety of political views across the entire ideological spectrum, both during Beethoven’s life and long after. Then a provocative comparison of Bob Marley’s music and Richard Wagner’s “Ring” operas identifies striking similarities between the political ideas of these two composers relating to the idea of revolution. Nationalist music is then described and elaborated through examples, drawing from a wide range of national identities. Brown then turns to labor music by focusing on the legend of Joe Hill. Movement and non-movement related political music is then explored and compared, including the music associated with the Vietnam War. Finally, the political content of hip-hop is examined. Never before has a book covered such a broad spectrum of political music. This is a timely publication given the exponential growth of contemporary political music.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Politics in Music is a fascinating and wide-ranging exploration of the growing role of political activism in music.” –Albert Ahlstrom, D.M.A. (from The Julliard School), Musical Director
“Professor Brown has produced an interesting and provocative book. It should appeal both to fans of music and students of politics.” –Timothy J. Dowd, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Emory University
From the Back Cover
Never has there been a more pregnant opportunity than now to examine the political content of music. If politics is the blood that feeds our societies with the energy to evolve, then music is an essential ingredient to political transformation. We listen to music not only to be entertained. We listen to music to understand ourselves both individually and collectively. Yet it is precisely because music is so entertaining that it carries such great potency for political expression. With rhythm and tone, music becomes a powerful link between the emotionally rich ideas of a political thinker and the listeners. We are both political and musical creatures. This is, indeed, one of the things that makes it so fun to be human, and this is also why it is so crucial to understand the potential of music to help transform society. Employing a wide-angle view, from Beethoven to hip-hop, Courtney Brown identifies and discusses the political content of music as it has manifested in Western society for approximately 200 years. And as Brown writes, “I can see the arrival of no intermediating factors that might possibly diminish the urgent relevancy of political music as an essential element in our collective human destiny, however mudane or sublime that may be.”
About the Author
Courtney Brown teaches political science at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, regularly offering a course on the subject of political music. Besides having a long professional interest in political music, and he is also a vocalist who has performed classical and sacred music as a soloist in numerous venues in the United States and Africa.
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