Resisting Muse: Popular Music and Social Protest

Popular music has traditionally served as a rallying point for voices of opposition across a huge variety of genres. This volume examines the various ways popular music has been deployed as anti-establishment and how such opposition both influences and responds to the music produced. Implicit in the notion of resistance is a broad adversarial hegemony against which opposition is measured. But it would be wrong to regard the music of popular protest as a kind of dialogue in league against 'the establishment'. Convenient though they are such 'us and them' arguments bespeak a rather shop-worn stance redolent of youthful rebellion. It is much more fruitful to perceive the relationship as a complex dialectic where musical protest is as fluid as the audiences to which it appeals and the hegemonic structures it opposes. The book's contemporary focus (largely post-1975) allows for comprehensive coverage of extremely diverse forms of popular music in relation to the creation of communities of protest. Because such communities are fragmented and diverse the shared experience and identity popular music purports is dependent upon an audience collectivity that is now difficult to presume. In this respect The Resisting Muse examines how the forms and aims of social protest music are contingent upon the audience's ability to invest the music with the 'appropriate' political meaning. Amongst a plethora of artists genres and themes highlights include discussions of Aboriginal rights and music Bauhaus Black Sabbath Billy Bragg Bono Cassette culture The Capitol Steps Class The Cure DJ Spooky Drum and Bass Eminem Farm Aid Foxy Brown Folk Goldie Gothicism Woody Guthrie Heavy Metal Hip-hop Independent/home publishing Iron Maiden Joy Division Jungle Led Zeppelin Lil'Kim Live Aid Marilyn Manson Bob Marley MC Eiht Minor Threat Motown Queen Latifah Race Rap Rastafarianism Reggae The Roots Diana Ross Rush Salt-n-Pepa 7 Seconds Roxanne Shanté Siouxsie and the Banshees The Sisters of Mercy Michelle Shocked Bessie Smith Straight edge Sunrize Band Bunny Wailer Wilco Bart Willoughby Wirrinyga Band Zines.