Music and the Other - The Special Issue of Patterns of Prejudice

The Special Issue of Patterns of Prejudice on music and the Other, which I guest-edited, is finally out.

Contents

Music and the Other: an introduction
Anton Shekhovtsov

Demonizing and redeeming the gaucho: social conflict, xenophobia and the invention of Argentine national music
Melanie Plesch

Rhapsody in red: Shostakovich and American wartime perceptions of the Soviet Union
Lawrence P. MacCurtain

Germans, Hungarians and the Zigeunerkapelle: performing national enmity in late nineteenth-century Transylvania
Marian Zăloagă

‘Gypsy music’ as music of the Other in European culture
Anna G. Piotrowska

Music as a weapon of ethnopolitical violence and conflict: processes of ethnic separation during and after the break-up of Yugoslavia
Catherine Baker

‘Onward Blackshirts!’ Music and the British Union of Fascists
Graham Macklin

The soundtrack of neo-fascism: youth and music in the National Front
Ryan Shaffer

Mwenye? Muhindi? Mwafrika? Creative encounters with Afro-Asians in Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya
Aaron Louis Rosenberg

Music and the Other: an introduction

My introduction to the Special Issue of Patterns of Prejudice on music and the Other is now available online:

Music and the Other: an introduction

Excerpt:

In the contemporary world, music has been used for an ever-growing number of purposes, a process that has followed closely the evolution of humankind itself. As apparently the most comprehensive study, at least to date, in evolutionary musicology shows us, music—from the emergence of human civilization—has been an essential component of most social behaviours: hunting, herding, story-telling, playing, washing, eating, praying, meditating, courting, marrying, healing, burying and so on. Music evolved along with humans’ neural and cognitive mechanisms, as well as with the advance of technology. Indeed, the history of humankind can be partially documented through the music it produced over the millennia, and the ways it used music for a myriad of purposes.

It is remarkable, however, how the uses of music persisted throughout human history. For example, the ancient Greeks considered Apollo a god of both medicine and music, the biblical David was said to rid King Saul of the evil spirit by playing on the harp, ‘Florence Nightingale brought music to hospitals during the Crimean War’, and, just a few years ago, Austria became the first country worldwide to officially recognize music therapy as a health profession. Similar persistence can be registered in many other instances.

I have a number of eprints, so the article can be downloaded for free via this link.

Online articles to be featured in the Special Issue of Patterns of Prejudice

In December this year, Patterns of Prejudice will publish the double Special Issue on music and the Other which I have guest-edited. In its Latest Articles section, the journal has already published three of the articles to be featured in the Special Issue:

Lawrence P. MacCurtain, "Rhapsody in red: Shostakovich and American wartime perceptions of the Soviet Union"

MacCurtain addresses the role of Russian classical music in brokering popular American perceptions of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. With the launch of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, the United States entered into an unprecedented wartime alliance with the Soviet Union, a state that had long conjured up domestic American anxieties, and was only recognized by the FDR administration in 1933. Specifically, MacCurtain examines how the composition and transport of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 to the United States in 1942 bolstered domestic commitment towards the wartime alliance with Stalin. By examining and comparing the critical and popular reception of Shostakovich's work in the United States, he found that the music possessed a populist appeal to the domestic audience that was seemingly capable of transcending the rhetoric and fear that previously defined the American image of the Soviet Union.

Catherine Baker, "Music as a weapon of ethnopolitical violence and conflict: processes of ethnic separation during and after the break-up of Yugoslavia"

Using illustrations from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and their aftermath, Baker argues that understanding popular music and public discourses about it can help to understand the dynamics of ethnopolitical conflict. Studies of war and conflict have approached music as political communication, as an object of securitization, as a means of violence and as a symbol of ethnic difference, while international law in the context of another case of collective violence, Rwanda, has even begun to question whether performing or broadcasting certain music could constitute incitement to genocide. Drawing on poststructuralist perspectives on the media and ethnicization in conflicts, Baker explores and interrogates the discourse of popular music as a weapon of war that was in use during and after the violent break-up of Yugoslavia. Music during the Yugoslav wars was used as a tool of humiliation and violence in prison camps, and to provoke fear of the ethnic Other in line with a strategy of ethnic cleansing; it was also conceptualized as a morale-booster for the troops of one's own side. A discourse of music as a weapon of war was also in use and persisted after the war, when its referent was shifted to associate music-as-a-weapon not to the brave and defiant ingroup so much as the aggressive Other. This was then turned against a wider range of signifiers than those who had directly supported the Other's troops and had the effect of perpetuating ethnic separation and obstructing the reformation of a (post-)Yugoslav cultural space. Despite evidence that music did serve as an instrument of violence in the Yugoslav wars (and the precedent of the Bikindi indictment in Rwanda), Baker concludes that music should be integrated into understandings of ethnopolitical conflict not through a framework of incitement and complicity but with respect for the significance of music in the everyday.

Ryan Shaffer, "The soundtrack of neo-fascism: youth and music in the National Front"


Shaffer examines youth involvement in the National Front and the development of neo-fascist music as a conduit for its ideas. Using rare publications and interviews with National Front members, he argues that youth had a profound impact on post-war British fascism by influencing fascist ideology and tactics. Following challenges from the Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism, the National Front started its own youth outreach programmes that reshaped neo-fascism and how neo-fascists distributed their message. In adopting skinhead style and music, the organization spread ‘nativist’ culture not only to gain supporters, but to counter multiculturalism in popular music and politics. Shaffer's article explains how neo-fascist youth created their own publications, clubs, concerts and even a record company to provide entertainment, spread ideas, raise money, recruit and build associations with like-minded neo-fascists in other countries. With these new tactics, the young National Front members redefined British fascism, which had lasting impact on radical groups in Europe and North America.

Free e-prints of some of my articles

I have a number of free e-prints of my articles published with Routledge. Here they are:

"The Palingenetic Thrust of Russian Neo-Eurasianism: Ideas of Rebirth in Aleksandr Dugin's Worldview", Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, Vol. 9, No. 4 (2008), pp. 491-506. E-print link.

Applying Roger Griffin’s methodological approach to generic fascism, the article analyses individual – socio‐political, cultural and esoteric – themes within Dugin’s doctrine, treating them as elements of a larger integral concept of rebirth that constitutes the core of Neo‐Eurasianism. The article highlights the highly syncretic nature of this ideological core, a direct result of the ‘mazeway resynthesis’ that has conditioned Dugin’s worldview. It argues that this process has been necessitated by his self‐appointed task of envisioning a new stage of history beyond Russia’s present decadent and ‘liminoid’ situation, one that he sees only coming about as the result of a ‘geopolitical revolution’. The variant of Eurasionism that results has the function of a political religion containing a powerful palingenetic thrust towards a new Russia and new West. In conclusion, it is suggested that the new order aspired to by Dugin could only be realised by establishing a totalitarian regime.

Conference: Fascist Ideologues Past and Present, Teesside University, 4-5 July 2013

Conference: Fascist Ideologues Past and Present
Teesside University
4-5 July 2013

This groundbreaking conference will present a variety of perspectives on leading fascist and far-right ideologues. Focussing upon the historical impact and contemporary influence of key radical right figures and 'intellectual' trends, such as transnationalism, metapolitics and White Power music, this event promises to bring together cutting-edge themes and speakers over two days of academic discussion.

With contributions ranging from internationally-renowned researchers to British postgraduates, this event is intended to serve several purposes: to examine the continuities and changes to (neo-)fascist ideology over the last century; to present reports and interviews on key aspects of the contemporary far-right – especially regarding the turn toward anti-Muslim prejudice and responses to Britain's PREVENT strategy – and more generally, to formally launch the UK's first research centre dedicated to these issues: the Centre for Fascist, Anti-fascist and Post-fascist studies at Teesside University.

Call for Papers: Teenage Kicks: The Representation of Youth Subcultures in Fiction, Film and Other Media

Call for Papers: Teenage Kicks: The Representation of Youth Subcultures in Fiction, Film and Other Media

An interdisciplinary conference at Keele University, Staffordshire, UK

11-13 July 2013

Speakers include:

• Alan Fletcher (author of Quadrophenia, and The Mod Crop Trilogy)
• Don Letts (director of The Punk Rock Movie, The Clash: Westway to the World, and Subculture)
• Alex Wheatle (author of Brixton Rock, East of Acre Lane, and The Dirty South)
• Professor Scott Wilson (author of Great Satan's Rage: American negativity and rap/metal in the age of supercapitalism)

Conference Website: www.keele-conferencemanagement.com/teen2013

Call for Papers: Performing Prejudice

Call for Papers: Performing Prejudice

We would like to invite scholars to a symposium on performing prejudice at Newcastle University on the 22nd July 2013. We are interested in submission of short papers, position papers and/or roundtable discussions to enable the exchange of ideas.

The aim of this symposium is to exchange ideas and develop a nuanced understanding of performances of prejudice and how these manifest themselves in community encounters with the legal, cultural and policy environments. We would like to hear from those interested in the performance in songs, music, recordings, community narratives, cultural texts (broadly defined), where they construct conflict between ethnic, religious or racial groups, particularly in the social life of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. A key focus of this symposium will be the exchange of ideas focused around the question of conflictual agency in the performance of prejudice. We are interested in hearing from scholars from any area of the arts, humanities and social sciences, but are particularly interested in those whose work engages methods such as critical discourse analysis, performance studies, media analysis, sociological and socio-legal approaches. We envisage publishing an edited collection of essays based upon work to emerge from the symposium.

CfP: Patterns of Prejudice - Special Double Issue on Music and the Other

A special double issue of Patterns of Prejudice on music and the Other

I will guest edit a special double issue of the journal Patterns of Prejudice on the role of music in the demonization of the Other, to be published at the beginning of 2013.

Since the end of the nineteenth century, music has played an increasingly prominent role in constructing national identities and promoting various types of nationalist projects. Some of these projects turned to (largely re-invented) musical folk traditions as evidence of the rootedness and longevity of their nations. Later, music was often employed to show the grandeur of nation-states and empires. With the rise of illiberal nationalisms, many composers and performers contributed to the formation of ‘closed’, exclusivist concepts of national identity.

However, no matter how deeply involved particular composers or musicians might be in promoting illiberal social, cultural or political projects, music cannot, as such, be regarded as nationalist, racist or xenophobic. The racist or nationalist associations of a piece of music might arise from the lyrics that accompany it, but often are constructed from without, from the larger social, historical, political or cultural context. For example, the reasons why ‘Giovinezza’ is banned in Italy or Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen is rarely heard in Israel do not have much to do with the music itself, but rather with the memories these works evoke, the historical or cultural baggage they bring with them. The majority of punk fans don’t listen to the songs of Skrewdriver or Macht und Ehre, not because they are ‘bad’ punk rock but because the band members are racist.

This special issue will feature original research articles focusing on historical and contemporary instances of intersection of music and nationalism. We are particularly interested in contributions that address the following issues:

* musical works as lieux de memoires
* appropriation of folk music in nationalist narratives
* music and racial or ethnic conflict
* the role of music in the demonization or stigmatization of ethnic, racial or national communities
* xenophobic tendencies in contemporary musical genres such as Punk, Industrial, Hip-Hop, Neo-Folk, Dark Ambient, Black Metal and others
* the use of music by historical and contemporary far right movements, organizations and parties

Proposals for articles (500 words) addressing these and related issues should be submitted by e-mail before 15 June 2011. All final contributions must be the original work of the author/s; they will be subject to peer review and the editors’ decisions will be final. Please send proposals to Anton Shekhovtsov (anton.shekhovtsov@gmail.com) and Barbara Rosenbaum (b.rosenbaum@dsl.pipex.com).

Who Makes the Nazis?

This blog is highly recommended -

Who Makes the Nazis?
Keeping an eye on the neo-fascists burrowing their way into a subculture near you

Who Makes the Nazis? is a site focused on the fascist presence in various 'transgressive' (by their own estimation) musical subcultures. The claim is that at the fringes of these milieus, ideas about the sanctity of art and the irresponsibility and fundamental 'amorality' of the artist provide perfect cover behind which fascist and pro-fascist ideologues are allowed to spread their ideas. Currently these cultures include 'post-industrial', 'martial', 'neo-folk', 'apocalyptic folk' and 'darkwave', among others. It is not a matter of condemning these subcultures, which in fact contain many non-fascist, liberal, socialist, anti-fascist, etc., supporters, but rather of drawing a clear line between the fascists and non-fascists within them by showing the latter the nature and extent of the problem, in the hope that they will themselves marginalise and ultimately reject fascist participation in their 'scene'.

(Just in case you don't know: "Who Makes the Nazis?" is a title of one of the Fall's songs.)

Apoliteic music (comment 1)

I have received many responses to my recent article on apoliteic music. Due to time constraints (unfortunately, time is not cyclic for me!), I could/can not answer all the responses, but I would like to comment on some of them here, in my blog. The first comment is on Kevin's response.

Hello Anton,
I just finished reading your article "Apoliteic Music" and found it quite interesting. Especially the topic of Apoliteic and its relation to Jünger and Evola. Although I'm not convinced many (perhaps only a handful really) understand Ernst Jünger in the neofolk/industrial movement, despite his name dropping.

You are absolutely right. I asked a few artists who participated the Der Waldgänger compilation, and they told me that they had not read Jünger's Der Waldgang. I am sure, however, that some of the bands (or at least some of their members) did read this work: e.g. Von Thronstahl and Lady Morphia, while other artists might have read some other Jünger piece(s). As for genuine understanding of Jünger: well, let us think who is Jünger for an average apoliteic artist. He is a German nationalist, a Warrior, and a writer who glorified Aristocratic Values and criticised the decadence of the modern world. For some artists this short profile is sufficient, and since Jünger is an icon in specific "highbrow" circles, it is "trendy" and "cool" to refer to him. However, in the terms of the musical scene, the apoliteic message does not suffer much from such a sketchiness: only a true gourmet can distinguish between allegedly similar wines, and these people are rare.

I would almost contend that the "non political" answers to right wing allegations you mention with for example Folkstorm have more to do with being not able to provide appropriate answers or using fascist imagery for "shock value" and purely aesthetic purposes.

There are two issues: (1) reaction to the challenges of modernity and (2) employment of fascist imagery for aesthetic purposes. Since the first issue is dealt with in your article (on which I will comment later), I will consider only the second issue now.
Saying that fascist imagery is presented just for "aesthetic purposes" is a common excuse within the apoliteic Neo-Folk/Martial Industrial scene. I would not take it at face value.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s fascist imagery was rather popular among certain British bands and artists: Sex Pistols, Siouxsie Sioux, Throbbing Gristle, Joy Division and some others. It was time of "high Thatcherism" and left-wing cultural rebellion against the bourgeois society. Sex Pistols wore t-shirts with swastikas and at the same time sang "God save the Queen, and her fascist regime". That was what I call the "spit in the face of bourgeois society". The case of apoliteic music is totally different. There is not just imagery but the message articulated through music, lyrics, interviews, band names, album and song titles, cover art, style of dress, live performances. Back in the times of "high Thatcherism" fascist symbols were shocking and often "pointed cultural strikes", but now we have a scene with its own values, icons, and norms. It is important to stress that apoliteic bands and artists are explicitly perceived as (metapolitical) fascists by their numerous fans too: see, for example, such Last.fm groups like Neofolk Against Tolerance, Intolerance, White Europe, Corneliu Codreanu, and Honour, Heritage and European Pride!.

Finally, why should we isolate "aesthetic purposes" from fascism? Were not modernist buildings, massive marches, fims, etc. built, arranged and shot in the interwar period for genuine aesthetic reasons? As Roger Griffin argues,

[Italian and German fascist parties] became the protagonists and animators of a vast programme of cultural production, the most conspicuous of which took the form of ‘spectacular’ or ‘aesthetic’ displays of revolutionary energies (Roger Griffin, A Fascist Century: Essays by Roger Griffin. Ed. by Matthew Feldman (Houndmills and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), p. 192.).

The issue of the "aesthetic" use of fascist imagery surely deserves further discussion. However, the argument that the employment of fascist imagery by specific Neo-Folk/Martial Industrial acts pursues an "aesthetic" aim and therefore has nothing to do with fascism is misleading: both Italian Fascists and German Nazis were committed to the aestheticisation of social life.

Apoliteic music

The December 2009 issue of Patterns of Prejudice features my article on apoliteic, or 'metapolitical fascist', music -

Anton Shekhovtsov, ‘Apoliteic music: Neo-Folk, Martial Industrial and “metapolitical fascism”’, Patterns of Prejudice, Volume 43, Issue 5 (December 2009), pp. 431-457.

Abstract

Shekhovtsov suggests that there are two types of radical right-wing music that are cultural reflections of the two different political strategies that fascism was forced to adopt in the 'hostile' conditions of the post-war period. While White Noise music is explicitly designed to inspire racially or politically motivated violence and is seen as part and parcel of the revolutionary ultra-nationalist subculture, he suggests that 'metapolitical fascism' has its own cultural reflection in the domain of sound, namely, apoliteic music. This is a type of music whose ideological message contains obvious or veiled references to the core elements of fascism but is simultaneously detached from any practical attempts to realize these elements through political activity. Apoliteic music neither promotes outright violence nor is publicly related to the activities of radical right-wing political organizations or parties. Nor can it be seen as a means of direct recruitment to any political tendency. Shekhovtsov's article focuses on this type of music, and the thesis is tested by examining bands and artists that work in such musical genres as Neo-Folk and Martial Industrial, whose roots lie in cultural revolutionary and national folk traditions.

The fully reference-linked version in PDF can be found here (subscription required), or you can read the article here.

Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World

Wikipedia says that the US punk band (and I would say the best US punk band) Ramones' eponymous album (1976) featured presumably the first references to Nazi themes in punk music. Significantly, these very first references were 'tongue-in-cheek'. One song from the Ramones album is of particular interest to me -

Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World

I'm a shock trooper in a stupor, yes I am
I'm a Nazi schatze, y'know I fight for fatherland
Little German boy
Being pushed around
Little German boy
In a German town
Today your love, tomorrow the world!

Originally, however, the song was titled "I'm a Nazi, Baby" and it started with "I'm a Nazi baby, a Nazi, yes I am". The Ramones' producer insisted the lyrics were changed, but the band turned back to the original lines on live versions of this song (check the 1977 CBGB video). The Ramones' vocalist, the late Joey Ramone, was Jewish, y'know.

The song was covered many times by other bands, most notably Metallica, although there exist even more unusual versions of the song (check, for example, the amateur piano version). Quite recently "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World" was covered by the US band Cult of Youth, and I consider their version most interesting. The thing is that the Cult of Youth is a "metapolitical fascist" band, so when they play the Ramones' song they actually deprive it of any irony.

If you enlarge the image of this Cult of Youth guy, you will see an element of the tattoo on his left hand. This is a Star of Chaos. Although this symbol originates from Michael Moorcock's fantasy books, it was actually popularised through role-playing games, especially the Warhammer 40K series. It is also interesting that the Star of Chaos is now widely used among the European New Right (who can be considered "metapolitical fascists"), see for example Troy Southgate's Tradition & Revolution forum or Aleksandr Dugin's International Eurasian Movement's web-site.