Art is often seen as a way to escape from reality, to enter a new universe, and indeed it is. Art has to create emotions, to make people understand how irrational their life can be or sometimes just to make the beauty hidden from their eyes appears. And nobody knows how Art manage to touch so deeply almost everyone. We can understand the artists but Art remains a mystery. Why do these three notes evoke so many things? With Art, Man discovered he had the possibility to create things he would never understand. Art is a piece of eternity and Man needs to believe he can be eternal. That's why it's an original subject to try in this survey to link what seems to be so abstract with a pragmatic and human science: politics. To make this relation appear, we will restrict our work to the specific part of art which is music. This lout syllogism gives the direction of our reflexion. Particularly in the 20th century, examples are numerous of this strong link between music and politics. There are many reasons to this which we probably won't manage to count all, but our modest aim thought a so large subject is to show how music is deeply rooted in the social context. As Jacques Attali said, "music is an attribute of political power". That's why, in history, music has been widely used by diverse politicians and governments, and for diverse reasons. We will try to understand how music can be useful for politicians.
[...] To conclude, music can be influenced a lot by politicians, in order to gather people, to represent their country or even to impose ideas, but now, we will see that the contrary is also possible: music can have an impact on politics Subversive music Different kind of subversive music The concept of identity is the main issue when we think of music and politic. Indeed each in-group or community has an identity. This identity is based on cultural values and on the world in which the community exists and evolves. [...]
[...] The present situation What is the link between politics and music nowadays? With the success of some Rap band like Run DMC, the majors began to be interested in this new music which can make them earn a lot of money. Thus a lot of Hip Hop bands or singers who were only interested in easy money appeared and became famous (for example Puff Daddy). They are entertainers instead of being spokesmen for their communities. Thus their music became exclusively commercial and their priorities were easy listening songs with weaker messages. [...]
[...] we can't deny that the origins of music and all his subsequent evolutions are deeply rooted in the social structures.” In parallel, John Coltrane was thinking “Music is an instrument.” Concerning the names, we can quote Ornette Coleman a famous alto player who really launches the main ideas in 1960 with the first really “free disc”. We can find in the career of Charlie Mingus some first steps of Free, but this movement was engraved in the marble by John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Don cherry and all their disciples. [...]
[...] music has been widely used by diverse politicians and governments, and for diverse reasons. We will try to understand how music can be useful for politicians. Music as a means to gather Let's see how music can help gather people . The national anthems Music is used by the states to create a strong symbol. Indeed, today, each country has its own national anthem. This national anthem, for example the French one Marseillaise” or the American one Star Spangled Banner”, represents the country: it is the symbol of its ideology and of its regime. [...]
[...] Especially, this music came from the capitalism and thus was a threat for the young people's minds. Although it was very hard to get instruments and records, young Soviets loved it and can forge their identity in it. With black market, it was broadcast through URSS. Whereas official rock bands spoke about monuments or Russian heroes, non-official bands wrote lyrics in which denunciations were not too direct (because of the repression). In UK, Rock music also cemented communities around political issues. [...]
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