Lyrics of Protest

The history of Kenya is loaded with continuous moments when music played a key role in expressing various issues in the country. Music is one of the most important modes through which ordinary Kenyans express their wishes, identity, frustrations and aspirations. For a long time, freedom of speech in Kenya, especially on issues touching political injustice had been curtailed. However, musicians in Kenya offered an alternative means of challenging the political status quo in the country by use of musical lyrics which address injustices directly or metaphorically. What is the place of music in Kenya's political landscape? Has political music in Kenya made a difference in governance and in educating the masses on their political and social rights? Have political songs helped change the political and social climate in Kenya? These issues are examined in this chapter.

Cultural Political System

The use of popular culture of music, dance, songs, theatre, videos and films for electioneering has been part of the Indian election process. Politics has been the narrative of Indian cinema since the beginning of century where political themes, political roles and political issues were exemplified through lead roles of politicians, enactment of political scenes, political satires and songs. This chapter examines the role of film artists in politics, popular political songs in films and campaign films that have expanded the levels of traditional and new media campaigning in India. Films and songs in the films glorify the country, arouse patriotism and whenever needed expose social issues such as high prices, corruption, feudalism, and other political issues. In the process, political campaign films became a way of marketing parties and candidates. This further characterizes the future of the political cultural system and the political economy of Indian cinema.

George Harrison and the Concert for Bangladesh

The Concert for Bangladesh occurred on August 1, 1971, forever changing the dynamic between popular music, politics, and humanitarian aid. The concert was organized by former Beatle George Harrison, reflecting New Left political leanings. He was inspired to put on the concert by Bengali Ravi Shankar, who sought aid for victims of war and severe weather in East Pakistan, soon to become Bangladesh. The concert raised consciousness among the counterculture movement and mixed with world politics as the War of Liberation raged in the south Asia country on the Indian subcontinent.

Afrikaner Music and Identity Politics in Post-Apartheid South Africa

A song about a Boer War general, released in 2006, stirred controversy in South Africa by triggering a gearshift amongst Afrikaners towards re-engaging in the political process. The song “De la Rey”, which became a popular South African hit, captured the alienation many Afrikaners felt at having become a politically marginalized and disempowered ethnic minority within a state where Black Nationalism had become the dominant discourse. The song triggered the De la Rey phenomenon in which Afrikaners became once more politically assertive, following a decade in which this community had been politically dormant. Afrikaners took to singing “De la Rey” as a sort of ‘national anthem' when they gathered in sports stadiums, BBQs, pubs and parties. Twelve months after “De la Rey” was released, the South African government expressed concern the song could become “a rallying point for treason”. The De la Rey phenomenon offers an excellent fulcrum to consider how music can provide a platform for political messages which have consequences for the political process.

Zimbabwe Dancehall Music as a Site of Resistance

The popularity and consumption of dancehall music in Zimbabwe has grown exponentially over the past few years. However, despite its popularity, Zimdancehall has attracted controversy for promoting violence and vulgar behavior among other ills. This chapter casts aside society's moral judgements in order to investigate Zimdancehall music's role as an alternative public sphere. Using Fraser's alternative public sphere and Bakhtin's carnivalesque as its conceptual framework, and Norman Fairclough's approach to Critical Discourse Analysis as its methodology, the study analysed the discourses that underpin Zimdancehall music. The chapter argues that Zimdancehall music has become a counter public that provides marginalised youths with a platform to resist the dominant state-sponsored patriotic discourse. The music genre has opened a liberating alternative communicative space, outside of state control and ZANU-PF's patriotic discourse, where marginalised youths can symbolically invert their reality, protest as well as articulate their needs and aspirations freely.

It's Not Only Rock and Roll

In today's multi-media environment, citizens receive more politically- and socially-charged messages than ever before. Yet our understanding of how media messages shape political attitudes is limited to a narrow set of sources, such as campaign ads and news coverage. Drawing on research in public opinion and political communication, this research examines a highly pervasive form of communication that often has overt political content, yet one that has been largely overlooked by scholars: music. Measured through an original survey (N = 888), findings show that music genre preferences are significant predictors of key political attitudes, even when controlling for other known influences such as demographic factors and partisanship. Additionally, findings show that the mechanism of influence is not through direct exposure to the content of the music (i.e., the lyrics), but rather through the listener's association with the genre and group-level norms.

“In Toronto, Iranians and Israelis Make Music, Not War”

Engaged musicking creates enjoyable, meaningful aesthetic experiences and strengthens citizen engagement in public policy. This case study of March 2015 Converging Paths concert in Toronto, organized by the Israeli-Iranian Musical Initiative, demonstrates how acting through this worldview included political communication as a key sphere of action. Applying Mannheim's Documentary Approach, three interpretations are presented: The Objective Interpretation details what occurred. Subjective Interpretation presents analyses of organizer-composer-musicians' explanations for why and how they constructed and communicated their alternative political narrative. Documentary Interpretation explains how organizers' initiatives, including political communication, are consonant with efforts by critical communicators, conflict transformation through social change, audiotopias.

Musical Messages

This research analyzes the political content in Sudanese music. The aim is to scrutinize and interpret the meaning of such political content and to place it in a historical context of the country's post-independence history. The songs of some of Sudan's most respected musicians of the current era such as Mohamed Al Amin, Abdel Karim Al Kabli and Mohamed Wardi are examined. Guided by framing analysis, the study employs six framing devices: nationalist/patriotic, responsibility, loyalty/allegiance, assimilation, ethnocentric and superiority frame. The aim of the investigation is to deconstruct the content of nationalistic songs to fully appreciate the roles they play in both popular culture and in the political arena. Results suggest that Sudanese popular music is high in nationalistic/patriotic and loyalty/allegiance but low in assimilation content. Results also indicate that Sudan's post-independence history is rich with songs that reflect the country's political situation.

The Sociopolitical Discourse of Violeta Parra and Víctor Jara - The Culture of People's Power

While its roots lie deep in Latin American culture and history, the New Song music was first brought to the attention of the world when totalitarian military regimes seized power in South America during the 1970s. Torture, death, persecution, or disappearance became the tragic fate of thousands of citizens including Violeta Parra and Victor Jara of Chile, popular and talented singer-songwriters (cantautores), the latter executed for his songs of justice and freedom. Other New Song artists were driven into exile to avoid a similar fate. Later, during the 1980s, a second, deadlier wave of terror swept through Central America in genocidal proportions. Again, New Song artists urgently sang about these horrific human rights violations, denouncing the perpetrators of this violence and telling the story of the struggle of people resisting. Beyond the desired social space in which to talk about horrific human rights abuses, there is a deep history of social commentary in musical and other performative traditions in Latin America.

Women and South Africa's Anti-Apartheid Struggle

Credit for South Africa's liberation from the apartheid system of government under the National Party usually goes to forces within the country, especially the African National Congress under various leaders, from Oliver Tambo to Nelson Mandela. Also mentioned in the struggle for the abolition of the racist philosophy of government are the activities of independent, black-ruled countries in Africa and sympathetic nation-states, especially in Europe. Rarely highlighted are the activities of indigenous black women who operated within and outside the apartheid-ruled enclave. This chapter uses textual analysis to explore the political agitation of one such woman, Miriam Makeba, who used her music to communicate political messages that challenged the apartheid government. Makeba produced anti-apartheid songs and held performances that mobilized suppressed black South Africans to overthrow the internal colonialism imposed by the Afrikaner ruling elite. Now dead, Makeba lived to see an independent South Africa with Nelson Mandela as its first black president.