A high school kid receives a cassette tape (back then) or a Spotify playlist (now): what he hears there makes him see the world through different eyes. He has discovered this or that injustice, this or that resistance, and the music makes him experience this with an unknown emotion. The world is wrong, we can fix it, we have to try. His political worldview will never be the same and this musical discovery could determine his opinion (and his vote) for the rest of his life. It is the power of music to influence the formation of people’s ideological identity. It is not to be neglected.
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Joe Strummer (1952-2002), leader of The Clash, took part in the politicization of the punk movement, which was so nihilistic, and his involvement was reflected in the lyrics of all his musical projects, such as the recent essay The Punk Politics of Joe is analyzed by Strummer (Liburuak), by Gregor Gall. Anti-fascism, the defense of the oppressed, anti-racism, criticism of inequality or imperialism were some of the themes that the British artist addressed in his verses, some of which have entered not only the history of rock and roll, but also history They have deeply touched the conscience of their fans. He called it rebel rock.
From right to left: Nicky Headon (drums), Mick Jones (guitar), Paul Simonon (bass) and bandleader Joe Strummer (guitar and vocals). The 1978 New York Clash.Michael Putland (Getty)
Can music change the world? “When asked broadly, the question almost suggests that music, as a non-human force, has the ability to change the very nature of our humanity,” Gall writes. If one asks more modestly whether music can simply contribute to sociopolitical change, the answer is: “Music could help change the perspective with which people view the world, more than the world itself; “It helps to inform and subjectively change the way you think and act,” adds the author.
“All I want to achieve is an atmosphere where things can happen,” Joe Strummer said in a 1978 interview with Melody Maker. Although punk can be considered the epitome of the fighting style, the outstanding seed of this “atmosphere”, it is not the only one. . The likes of Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Billy Bragg had a strong political component that predicted times of change (and which, incidentally, also inspired Strummer); as well as hip-hop, especially in its early days (not so much today as it has become the global and commercial genre of our time). Then Chuck D, a member of Public Enemy, said that rap was “the CNN of neighborhoods” and spoke harshly and eloquently against police violence and abuse. Also active was Bob Marley’s reggae, which called for unity against colonialism and oppression. Here and there the political creeps in, from classic rock, as in certain sections of Bruce Springsteen, to techno, as in the case of the groundbreaking Underground Resistance collective, passing through Mexican corridos or mestizaje.
Singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie, circa 1940, with his famous guitar with the inscription: “This machine kills fascists.” Michael Ochs Archives (Getty Images)
“Punk rock, hip hop and reggae have a playful, expressive side and another political, activist side. There are young people who stay in the first and others who develop into the second. We could say that music is a necessary condition but not sufficient,” explains Carles Feixa, professor of social anthropology at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and co-author of the book Mierdas Punk (Ned Ediciones). Although music can promote politicization, other entities must intervene for it to develop and sustain: social movements, grassroots political actors or moments of protest. In addition, “singing and dancing have always been a central form of expression in social movements,” adds Feixa, from the classic labor movement to alter-globalization or Me Too to feminism and environmentalism. “Given that youth is the period in which musical tastes are formed and are the largest consumers of music, this becomes a means of ideological dissemination and therefore politicization,” says the anthropologist.
affective transformation
“Music is the artistic form that has the greatest transformative impact on an emotional level. So it contains a very strong political element. Any work of art is actually a social behavior and as such aims to create a community around it,” says philosopher Alberto Santamaría, author of “A Place Without Borders.” Music, nihilism and catastrophe politics in times of neoliberal awakening (Akal). According to Santamaría, Joe Strummer and others discovered this vector. Paco Ibáñez, for example, “shows us the political power of the poets of the Golden Age. It is clear that in the 1980s, as music became more widespread, politics began to occupy other places within that music.”
According to Gall’s data, a quarter of Joe Strummer’s supporters surveyed believe his influence on their political positions is “profound and lasting”; For other of his followers, music was always more important than politics. Despite everything, the essayist comes to the conclusion that Strummer has been the most important left-wing politicized musician in Western culture since the mid-1970s.
The rap group Public Enemy, pictured in 1988.Michael Ochs Archives (Getty)
In Spain, music also had a notable influence on political issues. For example, in the 1980s the nationalist left exploited the so-called Basque Radical Rock (RRV) with initiatives such as the Martxa eta borroka (March and Fight) tour. While within the RRV the Madrid Movida was committed to hedonistic debauchery, some bands like Kortatu or Negu Gorriak (both with Fermín Muguruza, strongly inspired by Joe Strummer, at the forefront) defended the nationalist theses. Others, with a more punk style, like Eskorbuto or La Polla Records, preferred to ignore nationalism and spit on flags, although they were often lumped together.
The Basque People’s Party had a brief similar initiative in presenting its so-called pop politics, with the collaboration of the Pignoise group led by former footballer Álvaro Benito. The neo-Nazi far right has also used music, in far-right versions of punk or in the Oi! style. (a derivative of punk associated with the skinhead subculture), as in the case of the Rock Against Communism (RAC) style, and international bands like Skrewdriver or Spanish bands like Estirpe Imperial or Klan.
Songs are better than arguments
The lyrics of Evaristo Premos, living legend of Spanish punk at the helm of La Polla Records, have implanted, with subtle irony and a lot of impudence, the virus of social criticism and acracy in the minds of several generations and have been praised by thinkers such as Santiago Alba Rico or Carlos Fernández Liria, to whom this volume dedicated the joint book Stop Thinking (Akal, 1986).
“We were amazed because the texts of this group were much more politically coordinated than all the speeches and programs of the left-wing political parties. His albums were a real lesson in citizenship education, a powerful pedagogical example of thinking about the state of citizenship under capitalism. There was no slip-up, not a single mistake, the texts were perfect,” explains Fernández Liria, professor of philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid. For these reasons they came to claim that these punks from Salvatierra, Álava, were the only ones who practiced authentic philosophy in Spain in the eighties, which caused a certain scandal.
Evaristo Premos of La Polla Records during a concert at Palau Sant Jordi on October 25, 2019 in Barcelona. XAVI TORRENT (Redferns/getty)
In addition to the messages that the lyrics may contain, music also provides a space for community, sociability, identification and solidarity: it is common for young people to build their social environment in the form of gangs or urban tribes, where music is always present a central element that provides not only the emotional but also the ideological. And beyond these spaces, the political can fit in other ways.
“When someone stops after a shitty job and listens to Bach, plays the tambourine with friends, or plugs in the guitar with colleagues in a garage, that is inherently political,” Santamaría notes. The fact that one does not strive for excellence in the performance of music, the use of the famous three chords, the escape from commerciality, can be seen as a political stance. “Playing badly at the wrong time without knowing it is another form of politics,” says the essayist. At least the way music is produced, for example in militant, self-managed, independent record companies. A typical case is the American record label Dischord Records, run by Ian MacKaye, a member of classic hardcore bands such as Minor Threat and Fugazi.
In Spain in recent times, politics has been mixed with music in many different styles. These are artists like Biznaga, Los Chikos del Maíz, Nacho Vegas, Maria Arnal i Marcel Bagés, Ayax y Prok, Reincidentes, Berri Txarrak, Def Con Dos or the already mentioned Muguruza. Music continues to be a direct route to the heart to convey political passions. “It seems to me that it was Paco de Lucía who once said that the sound of Camarón’s voice alone could convey the helplessness, the poverty and also the pride of his people much better than a thousand speeches or a thousand protest songs. Sung by the most committed singer-songwriters. Music, as I said, is the vehicle that enables a people to think. Without songs, politics would be something completely alien to people, an occupation of technocrats and professionals,” concludes Fernández Liria.
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