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‘Fight the Power’: The Politics of Music and the Music of Politics*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

John Street
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Abstract

Popular music has a long and varied association with politics. It has provided the soundtrack to political protest and been the object of political censorship; politicians have courted pop stars and pop stars — like Bono of U2 — have acted as politicians. But although these more familiar aspects of pop's connections to politics have been noted in passing, they have not received a great deal of academic attention, and there are other aspects of the relationship — the state's role as sponsor of popular music, for instance — which have been largely ignored. This article explores the various dimensions of the interaction between popular music and politics, and argues that the study of music can contribute to our understanding of political thought and action.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , 2003 , pp. 113 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2003.

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Footnotes

*

This article is the second in an occasional series on Politics and Culture.

References

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