That politics and music are interconnected in a number of ways is regarded as obvious within popular music studies, which has produced a strong body of work examining (among other themes) causes and movements, censorship, industrial politics or city and national music policies. In much of this work music is seen to be impacted upon or influenced by politics, or vice versa. The danger is that music, as ‘culture’, is regarded as a separate sphere of activity. In this book the author is consistent in making the case that music and politics are ‘not to be seen as separate entities whose worlds collide only occasionally, but rather are extensions of each other … music embodies political values and experiences, and organizes our response to society as political thought and action’ (p.1, emphasis in original). A key boundary is constructed early on in terms of precisely when music ‘becomes’ political, in the transition from private to public spheres (p. 8).
The book begins in an obvious place, censorship debates, where music is seen to be ostensibly ‘political’ for fans and the media. Chapter 1, ‘Sound barriers: censoring music’ reminds the reader that protestations from both left and right governments about the triviality of music belie the intense efforts globally to prohibit it. In stating that censorship is about the assertion of cultural power, Street reveals through several case studies the complex contingencies of localised politics and genre (e.g. the ‘free’ markets of the West are not entirely free; not all Islamist states ban music). This chapter also points to the need for further work that brings to light how censorship is ‘routinised’, and the increasing instances of self-censorship (p. 14).
The chapter on music policy, ‘Falling on deaf ears?’, provides an overview of key sites of governance: censorship, broadcasting, law and copyright, cultural policy and identity. It is most instructive in its discussion of ‘excellence’ as the foundational discourse of arts policy in Britain (and elsewhere). This includes the ideological tangle New Labour constructed for itself in arguing for a platform of excellence that somehow retains links to older party beliefs in access for all (on this, New Labour has a decidedly mixed record: a government which substantially increased funding for youth participation in music and music education, at the same time increasing arts funding via gambling funds drawn largely from its working-class constituencies). This is further complicated by the markets/state debate. Apart from offering that ‘judgements are necessarily the product of interests and ideology’ (p. 39), a deeper investigation into how ‘excellence’ plays out in policy decision making is not offered. While ‘entertainment’ is increasingly the recipient of state funding, music ‘excellence’ for the most part remains defined by its (classical) forms.
The book also investigates the visible ways in which musicians enter policy debates through events linked to singular causes. Bob Geldof's Live 8 is examined as an example of both the embodiment and organisation of politics and values through music. However, in taking seriously participation in Live 8 as a political act, no discussion of the event as spectacle is provided – that is, the McLuhanesque ways in which the impressive televised line-up of performing stars and politicians comes to overwhelm and potentially dilute the cause (and I would be interested to read the author's views of how both audiences and industries have changed since Live Aid in 1985). Street is clear on what earlier rock movements achieved: in the case of RAR (Rock Against Racism) in the UK of the late 1970s, a discernible structure of feeling was mobilised against a rising National Front party and racist elements within punk. The short- and long-term achievements of Live 8 are less clear.
The middle part of the book offers variants of imagined music communities, from singular events (such as Woodstock) to elaborate historical claims made through nation and genre. In the author's sights here are Greil Marcus' particular imaginings of American music as the embodiment of nation and identity. Street nails the various ways in which Marcus' narratives cannot sustain the weight of their own mythologies, and the ways in which they become political constructs themselves. This is followed by a fascinating analysis of how ‘quality’ is measured and promoted through music prizes, with an incisive case study of Britain's Mercury Prize. It is an excellent chapter in revealing how aesthetic value is inevitably complicated by the prevailing economics and political economies of the music industries. The brief discussion at the end of this chapter on the rise of consumer ratings facilitated by Google sites and the like points to much-needed work on how current music consumers are being led down particular paths of taste and genre communities.
In Chapter 8, ‘Politics as music: the sounds of ideas and ideology’, a broad historical spectrum (Plato to Rousseau, Adorno to Scruton) is useful in its deliberate modes of juxtaposition. Street effectively shows how conservative/radical difference lies not in disagreement over music's claim to ethical and social value, but in their different cultural forms and context. It would have been interesting here to link these core differences back to corresponding views of how the state is organised and the implications for cultural policy and cultural politics. Given the masterful treatment of how music is attached to different arguments along the political spectrum, a chapter on music and multiculturalism would be a valuable addition, looking at both government discourses and policies, and the extent to which migrant communities see and use music in the ways described here.
Clearly written and with a powerful means of harnessing social and political history to contemporary debates, this book will prove useful to students seeking philosophical frameworks for the latest funding or censorship scandal, or the imprisonment of a musician. The author's engaging use of philosophy, economics and political science is also impressive and another reason to use this in the classroom. It is a work that applies a handbrake to some of the wilder claims made for popular music's political roles. Above all, in insisting upon a highly contextual approach to exactly where and how politics draws upon music and music intervenes in the political, Street has provided an antidote to the simpler ‘music-as-political-barometer-of-the-times’ methods of past analysis.
