An in-depth consideration of the relationship between music and violence

Music and violence have been linked since antiquity in ritual, myth, and art. Considered together they raise fundamental questions about creativity, discourse, and music's role in society. The essays in this collection investigate a wealth of issues surrounding music and violence—issues that cross political boundaries, time periods, and media—and provide cross-cultural case studies of musical practices ranging from large-scale events to regionally specific histories. Following the editors' substantive introduction, which lays the groundwork for conceptualizing new ways of thinking about music as it relates to violence, three broad themes are followed: the first set of essays examines how music participates in both overt and covert forms of violence; the second section explores violence and reconciliation; and the third addresses healing, post-memorials, and memory. Music, Politics, and Violence affords space to look at music as an active agent rather than as a passive art, and to explore how music and violence are closely—and often uncomfortably—entwined.

CONTRIBUTORS include Nicholas Attfield, Catherine Baker, Christina Baade, J. Martin Daughtry, James Deaville, David A. McDonald, Kevin C. Miller, Jonathan Ritter, Victor A. Vicente, and Amy Lynn Wlodarski.

Susan Fast's profile page

Kip Pegley's profile page

SUSAN FAST is a professor at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and author of In the Houses of the Holy: Led Zeppelin and the Power of Rock Music. KIP PEGLEY is an associate professor at Queens University and author of Coming to You Wherever You Are: MuchMusic, MTV and Youth Identities.

"This collection of essays facilitates a critical and nuanced approach to understanding music and violence and the points of convergence with society and politics."?Elisabeth Woronzoff, Popmatters

"This collection of essays facilitates a critical and nuanced approach to understanding music and violence and the points of convergence with society and politics."?Elisabeth Woronzoff, Popmatters

"Those who still doubt music's potential for inflaming, cultivating, and justifying aggressive behavior (in addition to its use as a mediator and pacifier) should read this book."?Gavin Douglas, Ethnomusicology