You may say I’m a dreamer…

Former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil once said, “All politics is local.” He meant that even if the U.S. Senate is wrangling over international policy, ultimately it comes down to what the voters back home think about the various proposals. That is, if those senators want to get re-elected. By the same token, after reading Chapter 11 one could argue that all music is national.

While this chapter was a bit dense, its ideas are not that complex. Negus simply wants us to reconsider how we regard music, especially when it comes to how it is distributed and ultimately how it is mediated and articulated. There is nothing new about music being made to be political outside the sphere of the original intent of its creator. I disagree, however, that we cannot or should not attempt to discern that original intent. True, we bring our own thoughts and experiences, even biases, to such an undertaking, but as long as we are aware of this, we can at least make an attempt to do it as objectively as possible.

For example, when John Lennon released “Imagine,” it was a big hit, but also very controversial. The Viet Nam War was still going strong, but public support for it was lower than ever in this country. At the time, I was 12 years old and completely dedicated to all kinds of music, especially rock. My favorite activity was to catch a bus to Lake Street and visit The Wax Museum, where I would spend hours reading album covers and liner notes in an attempt to learn as much as I could about the various artists and producers. I usually ended my visit purchasing an album or two and at least two magazines (usually Rolling Stone and Crawdaddy).

By then I had read almost everything ever written about the Beatles, especially John Lennon. Granted, I was making my evaluations based on the writings of others, along with my own prejudices. When I heard “Imagine,” however, I knew it was a very different kind of song. An important song. An anthem for the ages. I was thrilled one day when I arrived at my Catholic elementary school to discover that we were going to study the song. Let’s just say that the nun taking us through this exercise would have given Herr Goebbels a run for the money to be named as Minister of Propaganda.

As 6th graders, when we analyzed the song we did not allow for mediation and articulation. Now I can look back and see that the school was attempting to do the same thing as the malevolent states, only on a tiny scale. Even though we were supposed to be deconstructing and analyzing the lyrics ourselves, we really were just being told what to think about the song.

As a Mass Media studies teacher, I also have students analyze pop music. While I have never approached it from this angle, I may want to try it next year. The students have already learned about the big media conglomerates, as well as the unhealthy relationship between the radio networks and the recording companies. The students understand how the current set-up is more about marketability and less about aesthetic quality, so they should be ready to tackle this particular theory and approach. I would want them to be able to identify how songs are mediated between the time the composer writes it and when it is ultimately recorded and distributed.

Also, I wanted to integrate into the curriculum some specifics regarding how some in power still want to take a song and co-opt it for their own political purposes. While there are tons of examples, one of my favorites is when Ronald Reagan’s re-election machine was gearing up, they attempted to get the rights to Bruce Springsteen’s song, “Born in the USA.” Actually, they just started using it without permission, and when he heard about it, Springsteen slapped them with a cease and desist order.

Apparently, no one in the West Wing had bothered to check the lyrics, or else they would have discovered that it was an anti-Viet Nam war screed. While the Reagan team was unsuccessful in articulating this song as a pro-America patriotic anthem, the attempt was there. I would want my students to learn from this example, and then research some other attempts at mediation and articulation, including appropriating a song for commercial purposes (which ultimately are political in nature).

Few in this class will remember when the Beatles song “Revolution” first came blaring from a TV as part of an ad campaign for Nike. This was an articulation of the highest order, primarily because they were taking the tongue-in-cheek lyrics and applying them unapologetically and with all seriousness to a new running shoe. To me, that marked the end. After that, I was no longer inspired to be in advertising, and moved out of the industry as quickly as I could.

Finally, I thought the portion of the chapter discussing the use of quotas by nations attempting to hang onto their cultural-specific music was interesting. It is difficult to imagine such an effort here. I can see it happening on a smaller scale, especially with the music of certain cultural groups, but I think the USA is too attached to the First Amendment to ever go along with mandated quotas regarding what we get to listen to during our own time.