Our Subversive Voice? The history and politics of English protest music

音乐被广泛认为是一种政治沟通的形式。然而，尽管学术界对音乐的政治用途越来越感兴趣，但我们对音乐如何准确传达政治思想，价值观和情感的理解仍然模糊不清。对政治音乐的研究--尤其是抗议歌曲--往往认为，只要有事业，只要有良心的歌手，歌曲就不可避免地会出现。我们认为，这是错误的，抗议歌曲更好地理解为一个特定的政治和音乐时刻的一部分，由多个过程和突发事件介导。这个更复杂的故事对于理解音乐家为什么以及何时介入政治以及这些介入所采取的形式至关重要。这个项目将通过关注抗议歌曲的现象来加深我们对音乐的政治用途的理解。它将以三种方式做到这一点。首先，它将提供一个更广泛的历史视角的抗议歌曲，用它来提炼什么是抗议歌曲的意思，并强调它可能采取的多种形式。抗议歌曲不仅限于民间音乐，而且几乎可以在所有类型的音乐中找到-从侧面民谣到音乐厅讽刺，从摇滚到污垢。其次，该项目将确定，理解和解释这些歌曲产生的条件（政治，技术，文化和经济以及美学）。最后，该项目将加强对这些歌曲作为一种独特的政治传播形式如何发挥作用的理解，带来新的理论和方法，以突出声音、旋律和节奏的作用。正如西蒙·弗里斯（Simon Frith）（1996年）所说，歌词“是一种修辞或演说的形式”，抗议歌曲可能会影响人们说话的方式，就像他们如何投票或组织一样。本研究以英国为个案，回答了以下三组相互关联的研究问题：1。从更长远的历史角度来看，抗议歌曲是什么样子的？这里的附属问题包括：一旦我们看到抗议歌曲的范围随时间变化，我们对抗议歌曲的概念或定义是否会改变？从世纪到今天，抗议歌曲的发展趋势和模式是什么？早期的抨击与现代形式的音乐抗议有多大的可比性？当代抗议歌曲属于“民族”传统还是属于另一种音乐传统？技术（从录音到互联网）是如何改变抗议歌曲的性质和影响范围的？抗议歌曲作为一种艺术形式有它自己的历史吗？2.抗议歌曲的创作、传播和欣赏需要什么样的条件？这里的附属问题包括：歌曲是如何与更广泛的修辞和政治文化互动的？有“良心”的个体表演者有多重要？抗议歌曲如何与基础设施条件相互作用（和冲突），例如公共空间/场地/平台，政治组织，国家监管机构和音乐行业中介机构和网络的可用性？ 3.抗议歌曲是如何传达思想的，如何最好地分析它们？这里的附属问题包括：旋律和节奏是如何联合收割机来传达意义和重要性，并感动或动员听众的？抗议歌曲最好被认为是一种与演讲、小册子和博客一样的政治沟通方式，还是它们以完全不同的方式表达？抗议歌曲能够传达什么样的政治思想？这又能告诉我们什么关于政治思想的本质？抗议歌曲采用了什么样的修辞--什么样的表演和说服手段？作为这项研究的一部分，该项目将通过组织表演、对表演者的采访、播放列表、歌曲创作研讨会、移动的展览和从业者研讨会产生重大影响。

Music is widely acknowledged as a form of political communication. However, despite an increasing scholarly interest in the political uses of music, our understanding of how exactly it communicates political ideas, values and sentiments remains obscure. Studies of political music - and the protest song in particular - have tended to assume that, where there is a cause and a singer with a conscience, songs will inevitably appear. This is, we argue, mistaken, and protest songs are better understood as part of a specific political and musical moment, mediated by multiple processes and contingencies. This more complicated story is essential to understanding why and when musicians intervene in politics and the form taken by these interventions.This project will deepen our understanding of the political uses of music by focusing on the phenomenon of the protest song. It will do this in three ways. Firstly, it will provide a wider historical perspective on the protest song, using this to refine what is meant by a protest song and to highlight the many forms it may take. Protest songs are not confined to folk music, but are to be found in almost all genres of music - from broadside ballads to music hall satires, from rock to grime. Secondly, the project will identify, understand and explain the conditions (political, technological, cultural, and economic, as well as aesthetic) in which such songs are produced. Finally, this project will enhance understanding of how such songs work as a distinct form of political communication, bringing new theories and methods to bear to highlight the role of voice, melody and rhythm. As Simon Frith (1996) has argued, lyrics 'are a form of rhetoric or oratory', and protest songs may affect how people speak, as much as how they vote or organise. Focusing on the single case-study of England the project answers the following three sets of inter-related research questions: 1. What does the protest song look like when viewed in a longer-term historical perspective? Subsidiary questions here include: Does our concept or definition of the protest song change once we look at its range across time? What are the trends and patterns in the development of the protest song from the 17th century to the present day? How comparable are early broadsides with modern forms of musical protest? Do contemporary protest songs belong to a 'national' tradition or to a different sort of musical tradition? How have technologies (from recording to the internet) changed the nature and reach of the protest song? Does the protest song have its own history as an art form? 2. What conditions are necessary for the creation, circulation and appreciation of protest songs? Subsidiary questions here include: How do songs interact with the wider rhetorical and political culture of which they are a part? How significant are individual performers with a 'conscience'? How do protest songs interact (and clash) with infrastructural conditions such as the availability of public spaces/venues/platforms, political organisations, state regulators and music industry intermediaries and networks? 3. How do protest songs communicate ideas and how can they best be analysed? Subsidiary questions here include: How do melody and rhythm combine to convey meaning and significance, and to move or mobilise listeners? Are protest songs best thought of as a mode of political communication alongside, say, speeches, pamphlets and blogs or do they speak in radically different ways? What kinds of political ideas can and do protest songs communicate - and what might this tell us about the nature of political ideas? What kinds of rhetoric - what means of performance and persuasion - do protest songs employ? As part of this research the project will create significant impact through the organization of performances, filmed interviews with performers, a playlist, a songwriting workshop, a mobile exhibition, and a practitioners' symposium.