THINK that Beyonce’s political statement at the Super Bowl was a one-off in today’s pop world? Think again – a new book by Manchester Metropolitan University lecturer Dr Pete Dale, published today, suggests that pop stars are just as political now as they were in the 60s or during the punk era.
Popular Music and the Politics of Novelty is published by Bloomsbury, and explored the notion that with popular music supposedly obsessed by “retromania”, and accused by critics of a “slow and steady fading of the artistic imperative to be original,” the message is clear: popular music is in a rut. But is that really the case?
Dr Pete Dale says: “When, if ever, did the political engagement kindled by popular music amount to more than it does today? The sixties? The punk explosion of the late 1970s? Despite an on-going fixation upon these periods in much rock journalism and academic writing, this book demonstrates that the utilisation of popular music to promote political causes, on the one hand, and the expression of dissent through the medium of ‘popular song’, on the other hand, remain widely in practice today.”
Dr Dale is a senior lecturer in the Department of Contemporary Arts at Manchester Metropolitan’s Cheshire campus.
He added: “This is not to argue for complacency with regards to the need for expressions of political dissent through popular culture. Rather, the book looks carefully at actual usages of popular music in political processes, as well as expressions of political feeling through song, and argues that there is much to encourage us to think that the demand for radical change remains in circulation. The question is, though, how necessary is it for politically-motivated popular music to offer aesthetic novelty?”
You can preorder the Book HERE
