Political Agenda: Racism in the U.S. Music Industry During Cold War and Civil Rights Eras (Part 3/8)

Can music be political? Can politics be musical? Yes to both. Read more to find out how politics and music were reinforced by each other during the Cold War and Civil Rights eras: through protest songs, the anti communist agenda, and so much more.

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The politics of the music business was more divided than its economic counterpart; people used music to protest individual causes. Hence, the politics of the music industry caused more racial division in the United States, as opposing groups incorporated music to further their personal campaigns. For example, during the Cold War, the union of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) used music to preach an anti Communist cause (Dunaway, 283). During the Civil Rights movement, right wing protesters took advantage of the power of music; barbershop quartets preached Ku Klux Klan doctrines of racial supremacy throughout the United States (Dunaway, 285).

At this same time, there were also Civil Rights activists in the South that adapted past spiritual music and made a great impact on their communities (Dunaway, 284). As the non-violent tactics of music became less popular to use during marches from 1965 and on, activists formed a genre called soul music, which symbolized Black nationalism and cultural pride (Dunaway, 284). Evidently enough, throughout the Cold War and Civil Rights eras, there was continuous tension between the musical protests of right wing and left wing, White supremacy and Civil Rights activism, and Black oppression and Black pride.

The differences between the two eras however, were reflected by the change in the objective of political music; it shifted from cohesion and recruitment for the anti-Communist cause to the counteraction of despair at how slowly Civil Rights change was occurring (Dunaway, 287). On broader terms, political music served to describe a social problem in emotional terms (Dunaway, 286). Stephen Spender described the role of music during the Civil Rights movement as following: “Music is the most powerful of idealist drugs except religion” (Spender, 32). The idealism of Civil Rights music during this era of majority-White social pushback may have unified some groups of activists– but it also undoubtedly intensified racial division in the United States.

Bibliography

Dunaway, David King. "Music and Politics in the United States." Folk Music Journal 5, no. 3 (1987): 268-94. Accessed May 19, 2021. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4522239.

Spender, Stephen. "Poetry and Revolution." In The Thirties and After: Poetry, Politics, People (1933-75). New York: Vintage, 1972.

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