Dr. Gerard Yun's Community Music Blog — Discoveries, Reflections, and Reactions to Music and Community
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Unpeaceful Music
Hi there, hope you're all doing well,
My chapter to read for the readings was on Unpeaceful Music - it was written by George Kent (I tried to look him up but couldn't find any information on him. I'm going to keep looking into it though.)
The main theme of this chapter was defining the idea of "peaceful music" and the different ways unpeaceful/hate music have been used against groups of people throughout history. The first type of unpeaceful music mentioned is 'repellent' music. it is categorized as not peaceful because of how it's used, and not the music's content. An example they gave was some shop owners using classical music to make teens leave their stores.Another example they gave was sirens (found in Norse mythology) luring sailors to their death with their songs and music.
Another type of unpeaceful music is 'militaristic' music. The examples they gave were anthems that promote the use of violence or non-passive actions. Many national anthems, such as the anthems of the US, France, and New Zealand all have some kind of violent imagery attached to them pertaining to war or conquering land/people.
The last type of unpeaceful music is hate/hateful music. This has been used by many different people throughout history - from politicians, democratic parties, and by religious organizations. One religious organization that is known for this is the Westboro Baptist church, who write parodies of popular songs to enforce their views and beliefs on others. The video tagged below is of one of those parodies. I found this song a few years ago after I watched a TED talk with the woman on the far left - she left the church/cult and renounced its teachings. She was ex-communicated and forbidden from speaking with her family. The WBC have been writing these parody songs and singing them outside of the funerals of soldiers and gay individuals such as Matthew Shepherd, a young gay man who was violently beaten and left tied to a deer fence to die by two boys who thought that Shepherd was 'hitting on them'.
The chapter states that peace is not "about the absence of conflict but about handling conflict in mature/productive and nonviolent ways." Unpeaceful music is music that supports or encourages violent behaviours or mindsets. Hateful music strengthens ties between the collaborators, but at someone else's expense. I also found another song that is an example of just this, which is also tagged below.
One thought on “Unpeaceful Music”
Interesting! I think particularly of the Nuremberg Rallies (Germany 1923-1938) where militaristic music – often Wagner – was specifically used to incite a mood where hate speech would be comfortably received and adopted.
Does Kent define “peaceful” music or does he use the definitions of “unpeaceful” music to make that definition by elimination?
BTW, Kent is a Professor Emeritus in the Dept of Political Science, U of Hawaii; also working at U of Sydney in the Dept of Peace and Conflict Studies and the Dept of Transformative Social Change at Saybrook in California.
His book chapter was presented as a paper in 2008 in Leuven at a conference of the International Peace Research Association entitled “Building Sustainable Futures: Enacting Peace and Development.”
Interesting! I think particularly of the Nuremberg Rallies (Germany 1923-1938) where militaristic music – often Wagner – was specifically used to incite a mood where hate speech would be comfortably received and adopted.
Does Kent define “peaceful” music or does he use the definitions of “unpeaceful” music to make that definition by elimination?
BTW, Kent is a Professor Emeritus in the Dept of Political Science, U of Hawaii; also working at U of Sydney in the Dept of Peace and Conflict Studies and the Dept of Transformative Social Change at Saybrook in California.
His book chapter was presented as a paper in 2008 in Leuven at a conference of the International Peace Research Association entitled “Building Sustainable Futures: Enacting Peace and Development.”