Killing me softly with his song
An Initial Investigation Into the Use of Popular Music as a Tool of Oppression
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4822515 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martin Cloonan (0000-0002-2592-0968, University of Glasgow), Bruce Johnson (0000-0001-7416-783X, UNSW Sydney) |
| Year | 2002 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 27-39 |
| Publication date | 2002-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Popular Music (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0261-1430 • E-ISSN: 1474-0095 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0261143002002027 |
| OpenAlex | W2121362632 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 21 |
Popular music studies generally celebrate the power of music to empower the construction of individual and social identities, a site of positive self-realisation. But such an approach risks overlooking a significant element in the musical transaction. How, for example, did the inhabitants of Jericho feel? Or President Noriega when musically besieged by US troops in Panama City? Or street kids in Wollongong, New South Wales, driven out of shopping malls by the strategic broadcasting of Frank Sinatra recordings? Every time we applaud the deployment of music as a way of articulating physical, cognitive and cultural territory, we are also applauding the potential or actual displacement or even destruction of other identities. On occasions that displacement may well be conducted as an act of extreme violence: music as pain. This negative side of the territorialism of music, however, receives little attention in popular music studies, even though it is potentially the dark side of any musical transaction. In attempting to redress the balance, this article is a 'trailer' for a joint investigation into the use of popular music as a weapon. It represents our initial attempts to think through some of the issues surrounding popular music and its use as a tool of repression and the deliberate inflicting of pain
Aesthetics · Art · Literature · Media studies · Musical · Oppression · Political science · Politics · Popular music · Power (physics · Redress · Sociology · Visual arts · History · Law · Music History and Culture
Culprit or Accomplice
Individual music listening in workplace settings
When rhythm becomes resistance
Response to Simon Frith's Essay
Music, performance and Zanu-PF’s hegemony in Mugabe’s newly independent Zimbabwe
Noise and the Battles for Space
Music’s Powers
Regions and place
Alco‐pop? The Use of Popular Music in Glasgow Pubs
Popular Musicians and Their Songs as Threats to National Security
Making care audible
Nazi Soundscapes
Weaponizing Classical Music
We Listened to it Because of the Message
Silent Alarm
Surprises, symbols, and mainstreaming
Listening to interruptions
Why Does Music Make People so Cross
Beginning at the Beginning
Music and Incitement to Violence
The pursuit of clinical recognition
| Unique citing works | 21 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,95 |
| Citation span | 2004 - 2026 (23) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 21 |