Musical Violence and Popular Music Studies

Music therapy is based on the recognition of the positive power of music in the treatment of a range of traumas, disabilities and neuro-physical disorders. It seems that music can indeed be a &s;magic&s; that sets people free. War perennially provides the most extreme manifestations of the connections between music, identity and violence, in such abundant numbers that any illustration is arbitrary. Joseph Stalin&s;s musicality illustrates the easy continuum between its negative and positive poles, with framing lines of force that eddy around violence, murder and the ugly triumphalism of one of the most brutal regimes of the twentieth century. Simon Frith also recently noted that for popular music scholars, &s;the belief that music is a good thing has meant the celebration of public use of ghetto blasters, an unswerving critique of any form of censorship, and, by and large, a positive spin on impact of rock on local music around the world in the name of hybridity and modernity&s;.

Art · Musical · Visual arts · Music History and Culture