Protest Music in Politics Around the World
In this course we will examine how marginalized populations around the world use music to interpret, explain, and respond to political, racial, socioeconomic, and gendered inequities. Because music is produced for a wide audience, it is important to the construction of group identity, and a useful means of protest. We will discuss the domestic politics of countries such as Nigeria, Jamaica, the US, and Brazil, primarily through comparative politics literature, but also with scholarship in sociology and critical race and gender theory. We will compare how power in various forms is used to repress, and how music challenges existing hegemonies.