Music and Socialism since 1917

7-8 juillet 2016, Nottingham

University of Nottingham, UK
Keynote Eric Drott: ‘Music and Socialism: Past, Present and Future'

The rise of Occupy, Podemos, Syriza, Bernie Sanders and Corbynism for many indicates the emergence of twenty-first century socialism, but despite this renewed interest, the concept of socialism continues to receive little attention in musicological discourse.  Marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution, this conference will examine how music and socialism have been articulated at various historical and sociopolitical junctures, focusing on how composers and musicians have voiced their political engagement since 1917.

In contrast to the implicit radicalism of communism, socialism was initially championed as the more moderate and democratic means of effecting social change. The aim of this conference is to open up a dialogue between the creative and transformative inroads that socialism has made through music over the last hundred years, and the more adverse appropriation of music and socialist ideology by totalitarian regimes. The conference will challenge the semantic confusion over socialism and communism, and generate a more global understanding of socialism as an impulse that resonates beyond the Cold-War polarisation, and across many different cultures, societies and political systems.

The conference seeks to address (but is not limited to) the following themes:

What constitutes socialist music?

Rethinking Marx and critical theory

Music, protest, democracy: between moral imperative and social action

Composing socialism: mass communication and intellectual experimentation

Rethinking music in the Cold War: towards socialist commonalities

Pop and socialism

Sounding socialism on screen

Economy, capitalism and the music industry

Music and postsocialism

Social engagement or political commitment: liberals, radicals, progressives

Socialist or social?

Proposals should be sent to Spiric-BeardD -at- cardiff.ac.uk  by 11 January 2017.

More details can be found here:
https://www.the-imr.uk/danijela-spiricbeard/