MUSIC: Two short essays exploring violence and privilege in music
by Kate Horobin
Open Book Exam Essay 1
‘Art is not blameless. Art can inflict harm’ (Taruskin, 2007). Music has had a long association with violence and harm. Can music be inherently harmful (as Taruskin believes)? What, if any, ‘controls’ should we put in place?
The violence that is associated with music is not limited to music inspiring aggressive actions - violent music has also been produced from a hateful place within the artist. This essay considers how ideas of violence and harm have been related to music over time and explores the notion that music can be ‘inherently harmful’, as Taruskin suggests.
In Thierry Cote’s article Popular Musicians and Their Songs as Threats to National Security: A World Perspective, he notes that ‘popular music has an emotional or affective power. Popular music appeals ‘to the emotive and the passionate’. Cote argues that by ‘creating feelings…that are real for the listeners’, popular music ‘occupies a key place’ in the listeners life. Because of this, when this music has violent connotations, there is a danger that the listener can become inspired by the aggressive nature of the music. An example of this involved American criminal Charles Manson. In the article Charles Manson: How Cult Leader’s Twisted Beatles Obsession Inspired Family Murders, Kory Grow describes how the ‘subliminal’ messages within The Beatles’ White Album led Manson to believe that he was being told to commit murder. ‘In Manson’s mind,’ Grow says, ‘… Helter Skelter foretold a bloody, apocalyptic race war. But when the battle never began, he decided to kick-start it with the murders.’ Thierry Cote explains that ‘lyrics can be used to transmit a message…to listeners, paint a picture of the world as it is and as it should be’. By popular music’s lyrics having such a power over emotionally vulnerable listeners, the music could incite brutality and ‘inflict harm’, as Taruskin maintains.
As well as music inspiring violent acts, some music has also been written with violence in mind. Hate speech music is used to promote homophobic, racist, sexist and anti-Semitic ideals. Spencer Kornhaber talks about this in his article Getting Hate Speech Off Music-Streaming Services, where he discusses the removal of over thirty artists which were considered to be producing ‘illegal content that incites violence against race, religion [or] sexuality’ on Spotify. Whilst it was important that these musicians were removed from the platform, Kornhaber mentions that ‘the fact that the bands were available to stream in the first place speaks to the challenges on stemming hate speech on new, supposedly democratizing technology platforms.’ The difficulty in being able to police this violent music nowadays makes it easy for artists like these to slip through the cracks and produce their music freely. By streaming their music, Kornhaber states that they are able to ‘court enormous potential audiences worldwide’, creating a danger of harmful ideas being spread. Kornhaber gives the example of ‘the man who massacred six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in 2012’ who ‘played in racist hardcore bands’, further proving that music can be ‘inherently harmful’.
To add to this, music can not only be harmful in a domestic sense – it has also been used in an aggressive manner during warfare. As Suzanne G. Cusick explains in her article Music as Torture / Music as Weapon, there was a ‘systematic use of music as a weapon of war’ from the US soldiers during the Iraq War. The soldiers’ ‘calculated use of music in “detainee interrogations”’ takes advantage of playing violent and controversial pieces of music ‘repeatedly, at a high volume inside of shipping containers.’ By using ‘extreme’ music to trigger ‘sensory disorientation’, Cusick explains that the soldiers were successful in producing ‘psychological disintegration’ within detainees. Jonathan R. Pieslak also talks about this in his article Sound Targets: Music and the War in Iraq, explaining how it would often be artists such as Eminem, Metallica and DMX that were played in these situations. The violent lyrics paired with the excruciating volume were not only used to torture detainees, however, as Pieslak describes a similar strategy being used in the December 1989 ‘Operation Just Cause’. In an attempt to draw out and arrest Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, the US soldiers ‘surrounded the Nunciatura’ and ‘played hard rock/heavy metal music (AC/DC, Motley Crue, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, etc) through loudspeakers.’. Much like in the torture of detainees, the relentlessly loud music had a degrading impact on those inside the embassy. This use of violent music within warfare further proves the association between music and violence.
The question of censorship is difficult concerning music. The growing popularity of streaming services such as Spotify, Soundcloud and Deezer makes it difficult to keep track of the spread of violent music, since nowadays nearly anyone can upload their own music. For example, as Kornhaber states, ‘The racist music industry…had faced challenges in distribution and funding in recent years – but is finding new life thanks to digital downloads’ and goes on to say that ‘streaming, which is supplanting downloading in popularity, could create a similar dynamic.’. Another difficulty in censoring such music is the issue of subjectivity – what one person may find violent might not be the same for another person. It would be effective to have more active policing of this music, such as issuing songs with accurate ratings depending on how violent they are deemed to be. However, it is hard to determine if the complete censorship of violent music would be more damaging than it would helpful, as music is arguably open for interpretation. As well as this, musical artists such as Metallica and The Beatles did not intend for their music to be used to fuel violence, so would it be correct to censor it?
Richard Taruskin, who made the statements present in this question, stated in his article Music; Music’s Dangers and The Case for Control that the most important form of control we can exert on violent music is ‘self-control’, and that ‘censorship is always deplorable, but the exercise of forbearance can be noble’. Although the idea of complete censorship could be damaging to musical artists, it should instead be important to recognise violence in music as a listener and raise awareness of aggressive music.
Open Book Exam Essay 2
How are systems of social and economic privilege reflected in music and music-making? You should refer to authors and examples covered on the module in your answer.
Although music is becoming more inclusive, there are built-in privileges in the subject that limit how some people listen to and create music. The following discussion seeks to draw into focus what these limitations are, and how they are reflected in music nowadays.
It is an often-debated idea that classical music was primarily made for and by the upper classes of society. During the nineteenth century, only those of upper-middle class status could access the education needed to better their composition. In Class, Control and Classical Music, Anna Bull mentions ‘the relative homogeneity of the social scene of classical music, formed predominantly of those in the professional, upper middle, or upper classes.’. This explains why the composers included in the canon are all white, male musicians. By being required to have this social privilege in order to compose classical music in the nineteenth century, the music which is taught primarily is only from a small group of people that had that privilege and does not give a fair representation of classical composers.
This framework does not only exist within the composing ‘canon’ of classical music, however, as there are also prominent issues of inequality within orchestras. In his article Gender Inequality in Classical Music, Edgary Rodriguez comments that although women are often seen playing within the orchestra, ‘Less than 10% of conductors around the world are women’. The privilege of gender is reflected here. Some of those who have this privilege, such as Conductor Vasily Petrenko, believe that this statistic is so because ‘[Orchestras] react better when they have a man in front of them…a cute girl on the podium means that musicians think about other things.’ - Anita Awbi responds to this in her article The Musical Gender Gap, where she says that ‘Petrenko’s statements about women conductors…were pretty extreme’, and that these opinions ‘inevitably encourage unhelpful generalisations’. It could be damaging to women studying music that there are not as many female conductors as male, as they could see themselves as not being represented and it is important for young musicians to have someone like them to look up to.
As well as the gender privilege reflecting on those who perform and make music, there is also a ‘white framework’ which exists within music. In Lucy Green’s chapter Music Education, Cultural Capital and Social Group Identity (within the book The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction), she mentions that universally, schools have always been ‘overwhelmingly concerned with Western Classical Music’ and that ‘Western Classical Music was accepted as the most valuable and relevant curriculum content for all children in many parts of the world’. By primarily teaching this form of music over others, white privilege is being reflected. This can have a similar damaging effect as the misrepresentation of women within classical music, as it does not give young musicians somebody like them to look up to.
Education also plays a role in reflecting how privilege impacts music. Ian Pace remarks in his article The Insidious Class Divide in Music Teaching that ‘93% of the general population in Britain attend state school’, and in music academies such as Britain’s Royal Academy of Music, state school students only represented ‘38.1% of the school’s population in 2012-13.’ This is largely due to the idea of ‘musical standards’ which exist in musical education. These ‘standards’ include knowledge of ‘music theory’, ‘notated music’ and ‘reading more than one clef’. Whilst these are all taught in state school, there is no doubt that they are taught to a higher standard to students who attend private school. Therefore, those who have economic privilege have an advantage when it comes to this knowledge, allowing them to have a higher chance of attending music academies. This ties into the idea of ‘cultural capital’ - the notion that those who are knowledgeable about cultural matters are of upper and middle classes. This creates another form of privilege.
As mentioned earlier, the majority of students who attend musical academies come from private schools due to the standard of learning that they are exposed to. Since private school is expensive to attend (the average day school price is £14,102 per year and boarding is £32,259 per year, and the average salary in the UK as of 2021 is £25,971 per year;), most families cannot afford to let their children attend. However, private school students are over-represented in Musical Academies. This shows that if you do not come from a wealthy family, you will not be as likely to receive further education in music and is another reflection of how economic factors limits those who can study music. Another example of this relates to access to music lessons. According to the collaborative Musician’s Union article Access to Music Lessons Dying out for Poorer Families, ‘41% of those from lower income families’ say that ‘lessons are beyond their household budgets’. They say that this will then lead to ‘those from low and mid-income families [being] more likely to teach themselves, missing out on the benefits of a specialised tutor’ and that this exposes ‘a clear need for music provision in school’.
Some people suggest that we should stop teaching classical music altogether. However, it would be more beneficial to broaden the access that students from poorer backgrounds in particular have to musical education. Although classical music has become more accessible through music and video streaming services, by implementing ideas such as more in-depth teaching of music theory in state schools and giving more focus to other areas of music aside from theory such as composition and performance, there would be an opportunity for students to feel less excluded when learning about classical music. Social and economic privilege are constantly reflected in music, and it is our job to ensure that the teaching of music is made more inclusive in the future.
