This article summarizes and analyzes the dilemma of alternative media as it has been theorized in selected statements in the literatures of mass communication. It locates the source of this dilemma in the theoretical assumptions about alternative media and their resulting inability to escape the seeming tradeoff between political effectiveness and organizational/cultural massification. It concludes by suggesting an alternative way of conceptualizing alternative media that instead of leading to efforts to build mirror images of mainstream media organizations with all their limitations, makes possible greater and more meaningful participation in public debates about the nature and direction of American society.

Alternative Media: Conceptual Difficulties, Critical Possibilities

Music is commonsensically thought of as something that unites people, hence it is frequently deployed in multicultural contexts. However, little research has been done to see how this works over time. This article discusses new research from 2006 into a project that originally took place from 1989–1992. The original three year project aimed to improve relations between different ethnic groups through the use of music in schools in Norway. The project, which was documented at the time through annual reports and evaluations, consisted of performances of traditional folk and classical music by musicians from the home countries of different immigrant groups. This has been re-examined by interviewing the initial participants, 13 years after the project finished. Working from a grounded theory approach, semi-structured interviews of 23 people, primarily former pupils, took place in 2005–2006. The key focus was to learn how important the musical intervention had been in the participants' life-worlds, how they vi...

I'd like to teach the world to sing : music and conflict transformation

This paper examines punk subcultures as a response to “the condition of postmodernity,” defined here as a crisis of meaning caused by the commodification of everyday life. Punk musicians and subcultures have responded to this crisis in one of two ways. Like other forms of “plank parody” associated with postmodernism, the “culture of deconstruction” expresses nihilism, ironic cynicism, and the purposelessness experienced by young poeple. On the other hand, the “culture of authenticity” seeks to establish a network of underground media as an expression of artistic sincerity and independence from the allegedly corrupting influences of commerce. Although these cultures are in some ways diametrically opposed, they have represented competing tendencies within punk since the 1970s, and I argue that they are both reactions to the same crisis of postmodern society.

http://www.stevenlaurie.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/moore-punkauthenticity.pdf

Postmodernism and Punk Subculture: Cultures of Authenticity and Deconstruction

This article takes a comparative and transnational approach to a key phenomenon of the late-20th century: the dovetailing of music-based youth subcultures with radical politics. First prominent in the "Counterculture" of the 1960s and 70s, the phenomenon has become increasingly salient with the rise of right- wing-extremist rock music and racist skinhead violence in Europe since the fall of Communism. Examining the evolution of the "skinhead" from a fusion of West Indian immigrant and white working class youth styles in 1960s England into a vehicle of right-wing extremism in the Germany of the 1980s and 1990s, the article combines history and theory in an exploration of how an originally-English subculture was transformed through its contact with German social, cultural and historical traditions.

Subcultures, Pop Music and Politics: Skinheads and “Nazi Rock” in England and Germany

Popular music has a long and varied association with politics. It has provided the soundtrack to political protest and been the object of political censorship; politicians have courted pop stars and pop stars — like Bono of U2 — have acted as politicians. But although these more familiar aspects of pop's connections to politics have been noted in passing, they have not received a great deal of academic attention, and there are other aspects of the relationship — the state's role as sponsor of popular music, for instance — which have been largely ignored. This article explores the various dimensions of the interaction between popular music and politics, and argues that the study of music can contribute to our understanding of political thought and action.

'Fight the Power': The Politics of Music and the Music of Politics

Popular Music and Communication@@@Rockin' the Boat: Mass Music and Mass Movements

Born in the U.S.A. : the myth of America in popular music from Colonial times to the present

Philip Ennis presents a major social and cultural study of the origins and evolution of rocknroll. With masterful command of general trends and telling details, he describes the artistic, economic, and political context that nurtured this radically new popular music. This seventh stream, which drew from existing forms of pop music, began as a youth movement of rebellion and remains a worldwide banner of youth in search of alternatives. Rocknroll emerged, he shows persuasively, from the successive meeting and melding of the other six streams pop, black pop, country pop, jazz, folk, and gospel. He chronicles how these were shaped by struggles over musical property rights, and by the new technologies of radio and phonograph record. The most decisive clash was between the New York based music publishers and the radio broadcasters. Their decades long contest resulted in many cultural changes. The basic unit shifted from sheet music to the phonograph record. The radio disc jockey in small, independent radio stations became the new focal point for all the popular musics. New venues, audiences, and talent appeared throughout the nation. The appearance of rocknroll marked a significant cultural moment, argues Ennis. This seventh stream was part of an explosive efflorescence in all the American arts after World War II. Its early stars Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley built a pantheon of performers with deep roots in all the other streams.\

Timothy E. Scheurer

Papers

Popular Music and Communication@@@Rockin' the Boat: Mass Music and Mass Movements

Born in the U.S.A. : the myth of America in popular music from Colonial times to the present

The Seventh Stream: The Emergence of Rocknroll in American Popular Music@@@Rock, the Primary Text: Developing a Musicology of Rock

Stairway to Hell: The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe@@@Appetite for Destruction: The Days of Guns N' Roses

Born in the U. S. A.: The Myth of America in Popular Music from Colonial Times to the Present