Can Popular Music be a Genuine Force for Political Change?

Politics in popular music is often thought of as songs that express the struggle against dominant institutions such as the state and the economic system or they can be used to portray a sense of belonging, for example every country has its own national anthem. Many theorists have studied the issue of music and politics and discussed whether it can act as a source for social change. Foucault argues that in some societies, popular music is considered a powerful social force, but in the West the division between high and low culture represents popular music as meaningless entertainment in order to devalue popular expression and its political content. Therefore this view of music and politics suggesting that for people in the West music can be responsible for change but it acts in the interest of the dominant forces in society to make certain issues seem natural, rather than produced by a political system. Others argue that popular music always conveys certain messages, even if they are hidden and Adorno suggested that even the standardised beat of popular music serves capitalism by shaping the working class into a 'mechanized collectivity' of worker/consumers. Some songs have been released with explicit political interest, such as Bob Marley 'Get Up, Stand Up' and such songs call for a political change as well as reinforcing solidarity as the oppressed recognise each other and become more aware of the subordination. Special events are put on such as Live 8 which used popular music to raise awareness of the suffering in other countries and raised millions to help them as well as one country halving the debts owed by one of these less developed countries, therefore showing that through music changes can be made in the world. However, it is questionable whether music is a genuine force of political change as in the past groups such as 'Red Wedge' formed, an independent organisation which used popular music to promote the Labour Parties agenda for the 1987 agenda but the Conservative Party won the election despite their efforts and no political change was made. As well as this, political songs that are released and achieve mass popularity are often bought under control by the institutions they are fighting against. The music industry makes money when artists sell, no matter what the message, so even though their cause is good, they still participate in a broader system of exploitation. At the end of the day it is government decision on what changes are made in a society and while music can be used as a strong force to raise awareness over certain issues, if the message they are portraying does not have government backing, it is highly unlikely that any political changes will be made because of popular music.