Ethnicity and Nationality, and its Relation to Protest Music

Feature Article 9:

              The subject of music and its relationship to ethnicity and nationality brings an curious convergence to its connection to protest.  Ethnic and national identity share many aspects, though they are not one and the same.  Nationality is often associated with a fealty to specific governance, geographic location, and political ideologies (like democratic or communist political structures) while ethnicity is defined by shared genealogies, mores, language, and religious followings. As we can already see, many of these systems overlap, and where they do not, it is possible to draw correlations.  Mexican nationality and Latino ethnicity are one such case.  While a person can belong to both these categories, it is entirely possible to identify as one while being excluded from the other. Immigration, indigeneity, and race are a few instances where these two markers divert.  The relationship these identities have, whether in concert or in conflict, become profound matters of emotional expression observed through music.  National and ethnic musical expression can run in agreement with political forces, such as the pre-World War I isolationist sentiments of the United States government and the majority of public opinion, which by extension promoted the election of Woodrow Wilson to a second term specifically based on the platform to keep America out of the conflict.  They can also run contrary, such as the patriotism expressed during the Vietnam conflict and the United States position to remain in the in order to protect American democracy.  At the start of the new millennium, globalism, neo-liberalism, and mass migration appeared to end the relevance of nationalism. As Lonán Ó Brian writes, this was “inevitably answered by the reversion to a heightened sense of nationalism and, by extension, a reinvigoration of the myth of white ethnicity.” Nationality and ethnicity are closely interlinked, but in what contexts, and why?[1]

              Music expression and its performative connections to group identity in the individual examples can be seen throughout the course of human history.  The Ancient Greek wrote prose about the conflicts between Apollonian and Dionysian ideals.  The roots of Nietzschean discourse trace this difference to "the quarrel between Apollo and Dionysus is the quarrel between the higher cortex and the older limbic and reptilian brains"[2]. In Nietzsche's words, the Dionysian is a state of intoxication where one feels "united, reconciled, and fused with his neighbor."[3] Alfred, Lord Tennyson writes in his Idylls of the King, a cycle of twelve narrative poems describing the legends of King Arthur, published between 1859 and 1885 of this Dionysian state.  The poetry and songs ascribe an irrepressible, uncontrollable exuberance to those who are under the control of music.[4] In the first example from Ayşe Çelikkol in her studies of this work, the prose of Gawain marching through the forests reads,

 And Gawain went, and breaking into song

 Sprang out, and followed by his flying hair

 Ran like a colt, and leapt at all he saw,[5]

She continues on, “The Arthurian order tolerates and even cultivates irrepressible spontaneity because loyalty to the ruler, if it is to be genuinely patriotic, must appear authentic and unforced. A subject who cannot help but burst into a patriotic song thus makes a good citizen of the Round Table, albeit a bad hunter.”[6] These historical and legendary accounts of patriotism and its emergence in musical expression provide us with compelling links to modernist diasporas in how protest intertwines with and opposes protest sentiments, nationalism, and ethnicity.

              Nationalism as a political policy was a rising force as early as the 18th century.[7] One particularly compelling account of the importance of nationalism in connection with the heritage and ethnic preservation of a population is its connections with Polish nationality of the 18th and 19th centuries.  Karol Kurpiński writes about the importance of this preservation, stating, “In a word, an ancient little song from any country that sings of the famous history of its nation—be it Scottish, Swiss, Slavonic, American—stirs us to dream; what then about the songs relating the famous history of our own fatherland?” [8] This time period includes a multitude of music expressing Polish history and legends, complimented by modern composers and performers of the period, like Chopin.  These songs of national pride are understandably powerful in the case of Poland, considering its complicated background of conquest and oppression to neighboring powers.  With this compellation of national music, older Poles gain attachments because the pleasantest moments of their lives are reconnected and imperceptibly linked through certain melodies heard or repeated from their youth.  The power of patriotic songs compel the people, especially soldiers. Kurpiński notes of the national opera, Łokietek[9], “After two bars, you already understand everything; your heart quivers, you are transported despite yourself; and if you can break free from the distraction for a moment to behold the entire assembly, you will marvel that all share a single emotion.”[10] These examples highlight the significance of patriotic music to the nation-state in constant conflict and danger of extinction.  The Polish preservation through nationalistic music expression through the 19th century is a prime source of protest in a pro-governmental position, where the oppressed sing to uphold their societal and governing bonds against foreign influence.

              Another, more curious source of these ethnic and nationalistic expressions present in the case of Latino music in the Australasian areas.  There are several points of migration that occur in the Latin American countries during the 1970s as a result of political asylum from oppressive governments. Chilean and Argentinian refugees populated the countries of New Zealand and Australia during this time, and as a result, created cultural centers for Latin musical expression.  These politically motivated communities may only have been seeking safety from oppressive regimes, and not necessarily been patriotically driven, but nonetheless, their collective societies built national and ethnic identities within the countries that they settled.  Dan Bendrups writes in his study of this topic,

“Many of the early 1970s migrants to Australasia were refugees who, for political or economic reasons, were unable to return to or maintain contact with their homelands. Their participation in music performance was therefore predicated on the basis of two distinct but entwined forces: the collective need within the multinational Latin American migrant community for music to articulate a shared sense of cultural identity, and, conversely, the local mainstream reception of 'Latin' music as globalized commercial music, which provided commercial opportunities for migrant performers.”[11]

One of the interesting results of this immigratory example of ethnic and national identity is the deeper sense of unity this people group develops outside of the nation from which this identity derives.  Because of the displacement, these people groups look to connect, especially those who were unable to learn a new language or even have the time to experience the new social norms that they were ensconced with.  The example Chilean musician Alex Vargas makes is one of his father’s, who was 38 when he migrated.  Unable to do much beyond work and attempt to socialize with those who understood him, he found himself in closer ties to other migrants then he ever would have otherwise. Vargas states, “…we became more representative of our country after migration than we had ever been previously… You get more communication between people within the community, and we ended up mixing with people who, back in Chile, we would never have talked to. (Interview with the author, 14 December 2001)”[12]  The connection through Latin music and its commercial appeal in the Australasian regions through which the migrants found themselves has created a second generation of those who now have a different sense of national identity, and this music preserves these sentiments in nuanced ways. As Bendrups concludes, “For their Australasian born children and for second-stage migrants post-2000, the music also reflects the interests and desires of a growing intergenerational and multi-layered community striving for a sense of shared identity and belonging.”[13]

              The United States has one of the more complicated relationships with immigration and indigeneity, or at least as multi-faceted as other continental American nations.  The U.S. has experienced a wide range of migratory populations, and with them the struggles of oppression and challenge to gain inclusion in the national identity.  One of the longest lasting migratory people groups are those of the African Americans that suffered under American chattel-slavery. For some 300-plus years between the Caribbean, North, and South American regions, this type of forced migration disallowed connection to the nations from which they were taken and the countries to which they now called home.  The music of these people groups developed into what Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. DuBois would identify as the Sorrow Songs[14] (read the series on this music here) and would eventually play a part in nearly every permeation of popular music in the United States, including gospel, Motown, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, rap, and many more.  Native American populations experience similar tragedy in the relationship with European settlers, and the music from these populations continue to struggle for preservation, though in recent years, many of the indigenous nations have made strides through conventions and conferences. [15]             

              In 1968, Stephen Erdely compiled a list of “Singing Societies” in Cleveland, Ohio, and the surrounding vicinities.  This fascinating census included a wide variety of migratory societies in the United States that sought to preserve their nationalities through music preservation.  His research cites, “The collection of traditional songs and instrumental music now contains over 2,700 items.”[16]. The groups include Hungarians, Slovakians, Irish, Rumanian, Croatian, Scottish, and Finnish collectives.  Their activities produced folk operettas, concert performances, instrumental study, and benefits in order to keep their native music alive.  The American propensity to preserve national identity of the country of origin as a characteristic of national pride in an entirely different nation creates a diverse set of standards when considering values, inclusivity, and cultural appropriation.

Many of these groups, including South and Central American immigrants seek to resist the oppressive nations they fear, yet pursue to preserve the ethnic cultures that they identify their origins with. This circumstance is often the exact opposite in the nations which they seek refuge from, as Nationalism and “Ethnic Cleansing” is a common source of asylum. This can easily be seen with the Muslim Shia and Sunni populations of the Middle East and Southern Asian regions. The Minorityrights.org website notes,

“The cycle of violence, rebellion and crackdown by authorities which has marked much of Burma’s history following the end of civilian rule, as well as the particular repressive and systematic measures against Muslims – and Rohingya in particular – resulted in waves of hundreds of thousands, perhaps even over a million, fleeing to Bangladesh in the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s. In 1991, for example, a crackdown on Rohingya may have resulted in as many as 250,000 refugees taking shelter in the Cox’s Bazaar district of neighboring Bangladesh.”[17]

              Conflicting ideologies between the right to protest and the sense of national identity is a pervasive theme in the cultural aspects of the United States.  Musical expressions of these confluences appear in the years leading up to the U.S. involvement in World War I, with songs like “I Didn’t Raise my Boy to be a Soldier”, by Alfred Bryan and Albert Piantadosi published in 1915. "Let Us Have Peace," by George Graff and Ernest Ball and recorded by Reginald Werrenrath in 1917, takes a religions stance in protest of war.[18] These were not the only examples, as Robert Mortimer composed “Stonewall Wilson”, a song written in 1916 depicting President Wilson as a keeper of U.S. peace, and other voices that opposed the country’s stance, like Frederick Wheeler’s “Wake Up America”, that spoke of the devastating consequences of the U.S. did not enter the war. Most of these songs were patriotic and part of a pro-government public stance towards a political isolationist sentiment of the period. As the U.S. entered the war, the public statement and musical tone shifted yet again, remaining pro-government and patriotic, but with music stating a vastly different message.  “When the United States declared war with Germany in 1917, partly in response to German attacks on United States shipping, it was realized that the popular attitudes about the war needed to be turned around. Songs were one means of changing people's minds.”[19]  These examples depict how pro-government protest, in the case of the public voice to support the U.S. decision to remain neutral in global conflict, then the shifting of gears in order for those sentiments to remain pro-government is in stark contrast to the protest movements that would emerge post World War II.

              By the 1960s, nationality and American protest movements would be in direct conflict with political establishment.  The anti-government and pro-government protest movements of the decades to come would show how complex the topic of nationality had become in the modern era.  The 1969 Woodstock Festival brought the voices of youth in the United States together for three days of peace and music in order to persuade the change of governmental policy, while many Americans looked on with the sensation that these actions were anarchist or in support of communist or socialist sentiments. Protest music of the late 20th century/early 21st century from groups like Black Flag, Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, and NOFX would espouse anti-policy rhetoric. At the same time, public distain for “big government” and bureaucracy would fuel additional distrust of authoritative figures and organizations.  The disorientation between these two entities being: the anti-government protest of civil rights injustices of the music platforms are still representative of national and ethnic pride of the parties that they represent, while the small government and deregulation voices of conservative political entities are more in the interest of private sector profits than the freedom associated with American identity. Carlos Maza recently characterized this in his video about anti-politics, stating,

“Noam Chomsky calls this "government is the enemy" idea "anti-politics," and it's become one of the most dominant forces in American media. But anti-politics isn't actually about fighting tyranny or protecting individual liberty -- it's about making sure democracy doesn't get in the way of corporate power.” [20]

Protest music and modernity face new evolutions in the face of globalization and the resurgence of nationalism. In the case of Rage Against the Machine, the sentiments of anti-government in the sense of the oppression and disenfranchisement of ethnic minorities, specifically Native Americans are not to be misconstrued with the small government policies of the Reagan administration of the 90s, and the generally policy of the American Republican Party. Both are positions that question the quality and integrity of national pride, but the content of these arguments have reached new intricacies.  While Rage Against the Machines lyrics in “Take the Power Back” ask its audience to,

“To expose and close the doors on those who try

To strangle and mangle the truth

'Cause the circle of hatred continues unless we react

We gotta take the power back”[21]

Music inspired by the Tea Party; the notoriously anti-government right-wing conservative political entity inspire songs that question governmental power in a disturbingly similar yet opposing fashion. The Huff Post recently compiled a list of Tea Party inspired music. From their website: According to Jeremy Hoop, "'Rise Up' is dedicated to all American Patriots committed to constitutionally limited government, founding principles, personal responsibility, and eliminating corruption, not just in government but also on the individual level as well." Sample lyric:

              "Take back the power we gave away.

It's not too late - Grab your tea and follow me"[22]

These are two striking examples of the differences in protest music as it relates to nationalism and ethnicity in today’s atmosphere. The connections to identity, and our desire to engage in social change while supporting our ‘tribe’ creates a complicated narrative that can seemingly contradict itself.  Walter Clark relates a few noteworthy mechanisms in reference to social sensibilities of nationalism.  The framework of three concepts: use, distancing, and nostalgia, are important tools in the construct.  “Use” refers to the extension of serviceable quality. In the case of anti-government rhetoric, the Tea Party might consider this the regulatory restrictions that in practice protect citizens from corporate abuses, can be re-appropriated to serve as constraints to notions of choice and freedom.  “Distancing” and “nostalgia” can be construed as the relationship between Hoop’s imagery of “it’s not too late”, indicating a return to a more favorable condition, and “follow me,” suggesting that these ideologies can remove us from the problem.  As Clark writes, “These three operations are indeed salient characteristics of… musical nationalism and disclose the desire of… elites to detach themselves from the… culture they were simultaneously promoting to the status of national ethos. (Clark 174)[23]

These themes may seem terribly complicated, but in truth, they are as part of human, nature as they were identified in our ancient cultures.  The nuances today that exist between pro and anti-governmental protest music as it relates to nationalism and ethnicity have largely the same communal concerns with its participants as has endured throughout human history. Looking back upon the words of Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King”, Çelikkol reflects,

“The exuberant singing in the hall captures the link between music and memory. By calling to memory the stirring of the banners after twelve battles, the patriotic song not only derives from but also contributes to the making of a collective memory for the Arthurian realm. Collective memory defines the parameters of an imagined community: those who hear and replicate heroic narratives about the twelve battles constitute the Arthurian "nation, " and the narratives themselves provide a history of the policy.” (Çelikkol 247)

The central question for society today is, to what source do we want these sentiments of nationality to circle back to? What nostalgia are we attempting to revive through our patriotism? And lastly, how does the current narrative speak to our sense of identity when we expose it the culture that surrounds us?

              Protest music is often meant to challenge, but it has also been a vehicle to promote and, in some cases, prevent change. From the ethnic challenges of displaced Latino music in Australasia, to the desperation of Polish culture to preserve its heritage, to the convolution of modern anti-government politics of the United States, the sounds of the people still know how to express dissonance with harmony, while still leaving abstractions.  From Kurpiński, p183:

If some composers are reproved for images that are occasionally inaccurate, we would reply that every proficient artist, when imitating, ought to beautify nature. A shooter imitates the speech of birds to the point of deceiving them. What would be thought of a musician who used the same method? The truth would be perfect, but the image would be wretched.[24]

Enjoy the listening example of from Rage Against the Machine’s 1992 song, “Take the Power Back” while we share contemplation of what protest and music will look like in the days to come.  Thanks for reading!

https://youtu.be/rqkMsXcHQYg

Sources for this article:

·       Introduction: Sounding and Silencing Ethnicity in the 21st Century Author(s): Lonán Ó Briain Source: The World of Music , 2017, new series, Vol. 6, No. 2, Sounding Ethnicity: New Perspectives on Music, Identity and Place (2017), pp. 7-17 Published by: VWB - Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44841943

·       Chapter Title: Karol Kurpiński on the Musical Expression of Polish National Sentiment Book Title: Chopin and His World Book Editor(s): JONATHAN D. BELLMAN and HALINA GOLDBERG Published by: Princeton University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1vwmh1b.12

·       Latin Down Under: Latin American migrant musicians in Australia and New Zealand Author(s): DAN BENDRUPS Source: Popular Music , May 2011, Vol. 30, No. 2, Special Issue on Crossing Borders: Music of Latin America (May 2011), pp. 191-207 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23360186 p193

·       Preface: What Makes Latin American Music "Latin"? Some Personal Reflections Author(s): Walter A. Clark Source: The Musical Quarterly , Fall - Winter, 2009, Vol. 92, No. 3/4, Latin American Music (Fall - Winter, 2009), pp. 167-176 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27751860

·       Dionysian Music, Patriotic Sentiment, and Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" Author(s): Ayşe Çelikkol Source: Victorian Poetry , Fall, 2007, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Fall, 2007), pp. 239-256 Published by: West Virginia University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40347116

·       Paglia, Camille (1990). Sexual Personae: Art and decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. New York: Vintage Book. ISBN 9780300043969.

·       Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy and the Case of Wagner, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vintage Books, 1967), p. 37.

·       Kohn, Hans (2018). Nationalism. Encyclopedia Britannica

·       The opera Król Łokietek (King Ladislaus the Elbow-High) by Józef Elsner (1818)

·       Du Bois, W. E. B. (1903). The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-0140189988.

·       https://www.nmu.edu/nativeamericanstudies/conferences

·       https://minorityrights.org/minorities/muslims-and-rohingya/

·       Carlos Maza, “Anti-Politics And The "Nanny State", Premiered Sep 20, 2020: https://youtu.be/N8ba5umiqHY

·       Library of Congress, Songs of the Peace Movement of World War I, https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197516

·       Take the Power Back, Rage Against the Machine. Songwriters: Timothy Commerford / Thomas B. Morello / Zack M. De La Rocha / Brad J. Wilk, Take the Power Back lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing

·       Jeremy Hoop, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-best-or-worse-of-musi_n_675651

NOTES

[1] Lonán Ó Brian, The World of Music, 2017, new series, Vol. 6, No. 2, Sounding Ethnicity: New Perspectives on Music, Identity and Place (2017), pp. 7-17 Published by: VWB - Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung

[2] Paglia, Camille (1990). Sexual Personae: Art and decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. New York: Vintage Book. ISBN 9780300043969.

[3] Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy and the Case of Wagner, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vintage Books, 1967), p. 37.

[4] Ayşe Çelikkol, Dionysian Music, Patriotic Sentiment, and Tennyson's "Idylls of the King", Victorian Poetry, Fall, 2007, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Fall, 2007), pp. 239-256 Published by: West Virginia University Press

[5] Alfred Tennyson, The Coming of Arthur (11. 319-321) in The Poems of Tennyson, ed. Christopher Ricks, 3 vols. (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1

[6] Çelikkol, 245

[7] Kohn, Hans (2018). Nationalism. Encyclopedia Britannica.

[8] Karol Kurpiński on the Musical Expression of Polish National Sentiment Book Title: Chopin and His World Book Editor(s): JONATHAN D. BELLMAN and HALINA GOLDBERG Published by Princeton University Press

[9] The opera Król Łokietek (King Ladislaus the Elbow-High) by Józef Elsner (1818)

[10] Kurpiński 185

[11] Latin Down Under: Latin American migrant musicians in Australia and New Zealand Author(s): DAN BENDRUPS Source: Popular Music , May 2011, Vol. 30, No. 2, Special Issue on Crossing Borders: Music of Latin America (May 2011), pp. 191-207 Published by: Cambridge University Press

[12] Bendrups, p196

[13] Bendrups, p205

[14] Du Bois, W. E. B. (1903). The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-0140189988.

[15] https://www.nmu.edu/nativeamericanstudies/conferences

[16] Stephen Erdely, Research on Traditional Music of Nationality Groups in Cleveland and Vicinity, Ethnomusicology, Vol. 12, No. 2 (May, 1968), pp. 245-250 Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of Society for Ethnomusicology

[17] https://minorityrights.org/minorities/muslims-and-rohingya/

[18] Library of Congress, Songs of the Peace Movement of World War I, https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197516

[19] Library ‘’

[20] https://youtu.be/N8ba5umiqHY

[21] Take the Power Back, Rage Against the Machine. Songwriters: Timothy Commerford / Thomas B. Morello / Zack M. De La Rocha / Brad J. Wilk, Take the Power Back lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing

[22] Jeremy Hoop, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-best-or-worse-of-musi_n_675651 

[23] Preface: What Makes Latin American Music "Latin"? Some Personal Reflections Author(s): Walter A. Clark Source: The Musical Quarterly, Fall - Winter, 2009, Vol. 92, No. 3/4, Latin American Music (Fall - Winter, 2009), pp. 167-176 Published by: Oxford University Press

[24] . - In Paris, at a rehearsal of the opera Zemire et Azor, when the echo aria had been repeated, a certain amateur asked Grétry why he had not used female voices instead of the flutes and horns answering Zemire’s words. He replied: “There would be too much truth and little illusion” (Essai sur la musique, vol. 3)