It is difficult to say whether popular music has a direct impact on politics. According to Roy Shuker, it is possible for music to have an impact, labelling pop music as 'a means of raising consciousness'. The 1994 Criminal Justice Act proves how certain musical genres led to moral panic; leading to a change in the law because of the connotations that 'acid house music' had. Red Wedge and Rock Against Racism showed how the attempts to use music to affect politics flopped, however Live Aid and Band Aid shows how music can bring about awareness. Using music to express social and political messages can be seen in tracks such as Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday (which was named as song as the century by Time magazine), What's Going On by Marvin Gaye, Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2 and many more.
In my opinion, I think that popular music has a minor effect on politics and cannot solely bring about change without other contributing factors.
This is a fairly good summary of many of the issues discussed in the lecture. Indeed, perhaps you have attempted to cover too much in 150 words.
ReplyDelete