Music to Some Consequence
Reaction, Reform, Race
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10068065 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Oskar Cox Jensen (0000-0002-8106-1248, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 375-388 |
| Publication date | 2021-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of British Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-9371 • E-ISSN: 1545-6986 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/jbr.2020.246 |
| OpenAlex | W3154501094 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 10 |
A naval chaplain in the 1790s, a radical arrested after Peterloo, and a smash hit of blackface minstrelsy: these three disparate historical actors all provide exemplary cases of music in action, playing upon the political passions of the British people. Thinking across the three examples, this article reflects upon the aims of the forum Music and Politics in Britain, c.1780–1850, as well as advancing its own autonomous argument. Alexander Duncan was drummed out of the navy for publishing a pamphlet advocating the use of martial music in action; inspired by the French, Duncan was effectively arguing for a democratization of Britain's servicemen by playing upon their passions. The potential for subversion inherent in this approach was borne out by the career of Samuel Bamford, a Lancashire weaver; music was central to Bamford's activism, and I chart the functional ends to which he deployed music around 1819. In a third instance, with the 1840s hit “Buffalo Gals,” music led to public disorder. The song, due in large part to its musical qualities, enabled forms of licentious behavior among white males that mobilized latent forms of gendered as well as racial prejudice, so that its performance came to excuse forms of sexual harassment
Aesthetics · Argument (complex analysis · Art · Art history · Harassment · Jazz · Literature · Musical · Passions · Political science · Politics · Prejudice (legal term · Scrutiny · Sociology · Gender Studies · History · Law · Music History and Culture · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Theater, Performance, and Music History
The music of Black Americans
Napoleon and British Song, 1797–1822
London Labour and the London Poor
Bloomers’ and the British World
Fiddling as an Avenue of Black-White Musical Interchange
The Music of Black Americans
Singing, Performance, and Lower-Class Masculinity in the Dublin Magistrates' Court, 1820-1850
John Bull in blackface
The Invention of African Rhythm
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |