Popular music, today, has supposedly collapsed into a
‘retromania’ which, according to leading critic Simon Reynolds,
has brought a ‘slow and steady fading of the artistic imperative
to be original.’ Meanwhile, in the estimation of philosopher
Alain Badiou, a significant political event will always require
‘the dictatorial power of a creation ex nihilo’. Everywhere, it
seems, at least amongst commentators of a certain age and type,
pessimism prevails with regards to the predominant aesthetic
preferences of the twenty first century: popular music, supposedly,
is in a rut. Yet when, if ever, did the political engagement
kindled by popular music amount to more than it does today? The
sixties? The punk explosion of the late 1970s? Despite an on-going
fixation upon these periods in much rock journalism and academic
writing, this book demonstrates that the utilisation of popular
music to promote political causes, on the one hand, and the
expression of dissent through the medium of ‘popular song’, on
the other hand, remain widely in practice today. This is not to
argue, however, for complacency with regards to the need for
expressions of political dissent through popular culture. Rather,
the book looks carefully at actual usages of popular music in
political processes, as well as expressions of political feeling
through song, and argues that there is much to encourage us to
think that the demand for radical change remains in circulation.
The question is, though, how necessary is it for
politically-motivated popular music to offer aesthetic novelty?
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