‘A soundtrack to the insurrection’: street music, marching bands and popular protest
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors look at the marching bands of different socio-political and cultural contexts, primarily British, and explore questions of the construction or repositioning of urban space via music'how the sound of music can alter spaces'; participation, pleasure and the political body; subculture and identity.
Abstract: What happens in social movements when people actually move, how does the mobile moment of activism contribute to mobilisation? Are they marching or dancing? How is the space of action, the street itself, altered, re-sounded? The employment of street music in the very specific context of political protest remains a curiously under-researched aspect of cultural politics in social movements.... By looking at the marching bands of different socio- political and cultural contexts, primarily British, I aim to further current understanding of the idea and history of street music itself, as well as explore questions of the construction or repositioning of urban space via music'how the sound of music can alter spaces'; participation, pleasure and the political body; subculture and identity.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the characteristics and recent history of the protestival, the carnival of protest which has flourished with the advent of the alter-globalization movement.
Abstract: Investigating the significance of carnivalized methods of protest in the present, this article explores the characteristics and recent history of the protestival, the carnival of protest which has flourished with the advent of the alter-globalization movement. Heir to the carnivalized politics of the 1960s, and drawing from radical avant-garde movements and guerrilla theatre, the ‘protestival’ inherits much from the kinds of ‘symbolic challenges’ thought posed by post-1960s social movements. Immediately downstream from Reclaim the Streets, demonstrating a resurgence of autonomism, anarchism and direct democracy, and developing within the context of global opposition to neo-liberalism and the War on Terror, the Global Day of Action would become the template for popular direct action: in particular those events nominated ‘Carnivals Against Capitalism’ or ‘For Global Justice’. While new social movement theorists have recognized the significance of movement cultural politics, new approaches are needed to unde...
62 citations
Cites background from "‘A soundtrack to the insurrection’:..."
...The INB is addressed by McKay (2007) in a discussion of the politically regressive and progressive characteristics of protests....
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...For further discussion on the historical merger of music subcultures and political activism, see McKay (2007) on street music and marching bands....
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01 Jan 2018
TL;DR: Sungar et al. as discussed by the authors explored the relationship between public festivity and articulations of power through investigation of alternative carnival practices in Rio de Janeiro, exploring the musical and cultural knowledge of instrumental street musicians as cultural repertoires enacted in and circulating between a variety of scenarios.
Abstract: Author(s): Snyder, Andrew | Advisor(s): Guilbault, Jocelyne | Abstract: This dissertation examines relationships between public festivity and articulations of power through investigation of alternative carnival practices in Rio de Janeiro. I explore the musical and cultural knowledge of Rio’s instrumental street musicians as cultural repertoires enacted in and circulating between a variety of scenarios—from carnival to protest and the stage. Through embracing the “alternative carnivalesque,” they seek to critique and expand the dominant repertoires available to them. Rather than viewing music as a “resource” of social movements, I argue for a model of “socio-musical movements” that considers such movements’ musical and social, as well as aesthetic and ethical, elements as dynamically intertwined.Emerging during Rio de Janeiro’s spectacular rise in the first decades of the twenty-first century to hosting the 2016 Olympics, a contemporary brass movement (neofanfarrismo) has articulated itself as an alternative to the neoliberal governance of a global city heavily invested in particular forms of cultural representation. I view the term “alternative” as the movement’s theoretical framework, rather than a generic term. It generates a dynamic debate within the community through which participants theorize relations of power, tradition, innovation, and politicization. Based on eighteen months of ethnographic research, I examine the processes of consolidation of neofanfarrismo as it transformed from a culturally nationalist revival of carnival traditions in post-dictatorship Brazil into an internationalist, musically eclectic, and activist movement. Grounding my analysis on my collaborators’ rejection of generic theoretical terms, I argue for the exploration of frames used by musicians themselves, such as the local concepts of “cultural rescue” and “cannibalism” in examining musical circulation.This dissertation moves away from the typical focus on lyrical content in studies of musical activism to address instead the instrumental force of loud, mobile, and participatory ensembles in the public commons, reframing sound studies by asking what role acoustic sound plays in shaping senses of the public and private. Embracing an instrumental form of musical activism that promotes social inclusion, occupation of public space, and participation in protest, these musicians theorize carnival as an ethical guide to action and view public festivity as itself a mode of governance. Resisting celebratory narratives, however, this study probes the possibilities, limits, and contradictions of the articulation of alternatives by a middle-class demographic entangled in the privileges of a capitalist city, and I foreground the implications of “alternative whiteness” in the study of Brazilian music. Through examination of feminist, class, and racial critiques of neofanfarrismo, I ask how diversification of the movement has altered its internal hierarchies and expressive practices. Lastly, in discussing the rise of the Honk Rio! Festival of Activist Brass Bands, I explore how this carnivalesque movement has been consolidated as a politically engaged socio-musical movement in global conversation with an international, “rhizomatic” street band network.
44 citations
TL;DR: Most leisure research does not consider collective action and social change, while most social movement research overlooks carnivality and spontaneity. A counter-example is the alternative bicyclin...
Abstract: Most leisure research does not consider collective action and social change, while most social movement research overlooks carnivality and spontaneity. A counter-example is the alternative bicyclin...
13 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the role and place of the street musician, their contribution to the urban soundscape and the ways in which this has been informed and re-shaped by recent advances in music technology.
Abstract: In this article, we will examine the role and place of the street musician, their contribution to the urban soundscape and the ways in which this has been informed and (re)shaped by recent advances in music technology. Despite their global omnipresence, street musicians have seldom been the focus of contemporary scholarly research on music-making and performance. Historically, the street musician has been perceived and depicted as a romantic folk figure, one moving through and working in the urban environment in an ad hoc manner. However, as our research reveals, through the diversification of street music and the steady uptake of new music performance technologies, street musicians are forging different forms of presence in contemporary urban settings, their music becoming an inextricable aspect of the contemporary urban soundscape. Drawing on face-to-face interviews and participant observation work conducted in Brisbane, Australia, during late 2010 and early 2011, we endeavour here to bring street music...
12 citations
Cites background from "‘A soundtrack to the insurrection’:..."
...documented in Mayhew’s (1985) London Labour and the London Poor, a vivid account of the working class urban experience in Britain’s capital during the 1840s and 1850s....
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Dissertation•
01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the economic and social bases of change as they were perceived by independent promoters, musicians and audiences within Cardiff's indie music milieu, and uncovered not only the evolving attitudes to "piracy" within independent operations, but also the manner in which sharing of music and the associated promotion and communication which operates within the Cardiff milieu transforms the circulation and sharing of the music itself, but facilitates new forms of social relations across online and offline spaces.
Abstract: The rise to prominence of digitised networks and platforms of wireless communication brings with it an increased focus on immaterial labour and production and the transformative effect that it has on economic, political and social relations, both within and across online and offline spheres. The creative industries of the UK are a particularly important sector in this respect, particularly the music industry, whose trajectory from pre-digital to digital modes of consumption and production has been swift and all-encompassing. This study sought to go beyond the traditional mainstream debates over the possibilities and the pitfalls of digitisation (i.e. online piracy and the vilification of those who engage in such practices), and understand both the economic and social bases of change as they were perceived by independent promoters, musicians and audiences within Cardiff’s indie music milieu. This research adopted a multi-method qualitative interpretivist approach comprising semi-structured interviews with musicians and promoters, ethnographic interviews with audiences and participant observation at live music events. It uncovered not only the evolving attitudes to ‘piracy’ within independent operations, but also the manner in which sharing of music and the associated promotion and communication which operates within the Cardiff milieu transforms not only the circulation and sharing of the music itself, but facilitates new forms of social relations across online and offline spaces. The de-commodification of music in its physical form, and its subsequent re-commodification across online and offline modes has resulted in dramatic shifts for the way music is promoted. This also raises important issues of ‘prosumption’ and the extent to which this is present, the changing economic and social value of music, authenticity and music in the digital age and the evolving position of physical forms of recorded music. Singular economic issues, such as piracy, cannot be addressed in isolation from the multitude of other implications arising from digitisation. A much wider understanding of these issues and their impact on musical enterprises, mainstream and independent, is required in order to address the full extent of changes afoot for both business and social interaction.
11 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the social movements and culture in Sweden, from the sixties to the nineties, from populism to the popular front, and the movements of black music from the New Negro to civil rights.
Abstract: Introduction 1. On social movements and culture 2. Taking traditions seriously 3. Making an alternative popular culture: from populism to the popular front 4. The movements of black music: from the New Negro to civil rights 5. Politics and music in the 1960s 6. From the sixties to the nineties: the case of Sweden 7. Structures of feeling and cognitive praxis.
493 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1996
TL;DR: McKay takes us on a vivid journey through the endlessly creative counterworld of punks, ravers, travellers, tribes, squatters and direct-action protesters of every kind.
Abstract: McKay takes us on a vivid journey through the endlessly creative counterworld of punks, ravers, travellers, tribes, squatters and direct-action protesters of every kind.
"The secret history of the last two decades.' Jon Savage
221 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1998
Abstract: Make more knowledge even in less time every day. You may not always spend your time and money to go abroad and get the experience and knowledge by yourself. Reading is a good alternative to do in getting this desirable knowledge and experience. You may gain many things from experiencing directly, but of course it will spend much money. So here, by reading music and social movements, you can take more advantages with limited budget.
164 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: We Are Everywhere as mentioned in this paper is a whirlwind collection of writings, images and ideas for direct action by people on the frontlines of the global anticapitalist movement, where those from below are not those who get to write history, even though they are the ones making it.
Abstract: We Are Everywhere is a whirlwind collection of writings, images and ideas for direct action by people on the frontlines of the global anticapitalist movement. This is a movement of untold stories, because those from below are not those who get to write history, even though we are the ones making it. We Are Everywhere wrenches our history from the grasp of the powerful and returns it to the streets, fields and neighbourhoods where it was made.
139 citations
TL;DR: The Electronic Civil Disobedience (ECD) as discussed by the authorsusion of computer technology with the more traditional forms of American civil disobedience has created new electronic and digital varieties of civil disobedience that take place on the net or in the matrix.
Abstract: Civil disobedience has been part of the American political experience since the country began Today, as we enter the next century, we are faced with the possibility and reality of a new, hybrid form of civil disobedience known as electronic civil disobedience (ECD) A fusion of computer technology with the more traditional forms of American civil disobedience has created new electronic and digital varieties of civil disobedience that take place on the net or in the matrix It is important to explore these new forms of civil disobedience in the context of more traditional actions We have only begun to realize the full potential of how computers will change political activism
76 citations