In the 20th century, with the rise of popular music and the blossoming of various music genres, artists began publicly voicing their thoughts through music. While politically engaged music has existed long before, for the first time artists started singing about their personal accounts and political ideas, even when they go against the majority. During the 20th century, there was a rise of anti-war music (especially during the war in Vietnam) and the whole anti-establishment genres (the punk movement). The musicians in these movements composed some of the songs that are considered anthems to the political struggle, while simply voicing their own ideas. Through all of this, we can spot the way personal ideas, politics, and music have become intertwined during the 20th century, and how one's personal music expression becomes the political idea for the whole movement.
Explanation:
While previously, folk and traditional songs have been reflecting the political situation (for example, many of Irish traditional ballads are talking about life under the British rule, e.g. Wind that shakes the bearly or Walls of Athenry), the common man rarely expressed political ideas through popular music, espeically if it went against the establishment. Yet, in the 20th century, musicians started to personally compose songs that regard the political situation, combining their own political ideas with popular music. Leaning on the idea that personal is political, we can see how their personal opinions and music is intervened with the politics of the world, and how the expression of one can become a symbol of the wider political fight.
The whole subculture of Punk connected to punk rock music started as a way to express various political, anti-establishment, and anti-governmental ideas. While punk started in the 70s as a primarily independent and self-produced music genre, it quickly rose to fame and their political messages spread. The Sex Pistols’ famous song God Save the Queen that critique the British politics and imperial family (rather unheard of beforehand) became popular, and are even today considered not only as of the anthems of the punk but also as the anthems of the anti-governmental sentiments. We can see on the example of punk how independent, very personal, and small subculture got more and more into the mainstream while promoting political messages and serving as one of the loudest political voices of the generations.
During the Vietnam war, various popular musicians wrote protest songs that went into history of the 20th century. All these musicians were personally against the war, they used the platform that they have to voice it through the music, as seen in the songs such as Blowin’ in the Wind (Bob Dylan), Ohio (Niel Young), and Give Peace a Chance (John Lennon). The songs didn’t only come from the traditionally anti-establishment genre of rock’n'roll, but there were also many antiwar songs in other genres including folk (Pete Seeger - Bring ‘em Home) and jazz (Nina Simone - Backlash Blues). Vietnam war music and art really show us how the music portrays public opinion. For almost the first time in history, the majority of the people were radically against the idea of their government and nation, and the musicians managed to put these personal sentiments, losses of the people, fears and confusions about the cause of the war into the art, all while politically engaging themselves in the various protests that were going on around the US.
Politically engaged music doesn’t have to have an only anti-war message or go strictly against the government – it can also call for certain changes and sing about certain causes. Today we have more and more politically engaged music that talks about everyday personal problems with racism, homophobia, and LGBTI+ issues, environmental issues, etc. It wasn’t so common for musicians to talk about such a variety of problems, but during the second half of the century, especially in the 80s, we have more and more songs concerning the various problems - feminism (Sisters are Doin’ it for Themselves by Eurythmics & Aretha Franklin), pollution (Breathing by Kate Bush), and African-Americans in the US (Black Man by Stevie Wonder), to name some. These are all even more personal political accounts of the musicians as the songs talk directly to their own troubles and struggles, trying to pose the message to everyone about what is a political subject. The Smiths’ song Meat is Murder is maybe one of the best examples of this. Morrissey, the frontman of the band, is vegan in his personal life but through his music – such as these songs from 1985. - he poses the problem as the wider political question, sending the direct message through his music.
Through all these examples we can see how personal opinions and voices can become political through the music, and how much music of the 20th century has helped some people voice their own ideas and present them globally.
