World Music and Activism Since the End of History [sic]
Author(s):
Peter Manuel
Publication Year:
2017
Type:
journal article
Journal/Book Title
Music and Politics
Publisher
Editor(s):
Pages:
Volume:
XI
Issue:
1
Abstract:
While the decline of protest music in the USA has often been noted, a global perspective reveals that progressive, activist protest musics occupied lively niches in many music cultures worldwide (e.g., of Jamaica, India, Spain, Latin America) during similar periods, roughly the 1950s-80s. While on one level these music movements were embedded in particular socio-political movements, on a broader level they reflected an ardent commitment to the secular universalist ideals of the Enlightenment. The subsequent dramatic decline of all these protest musics—roughly since Fukuyama’s much-debated “end of history”—reflects a broader transformation of the global political climate. This transformation has both salutary aspects—notably the spread of democracies—and dismaying ones, notably the decline of Enlightenment metanarratives and their replacement by new tribalisms, which have found their own passionate expression in music.
Citation (Chicago Author-Date):
Manuel, Peter. 2017. “World Music and Activism Since the End of History [Sic].” Music and Politics XI (1). https://doi.org/10.3998/mp.9460447.0011.101.