Dark Side of the Tune: Popular Music and Violence
by Bruce Johnson & Martin Cloonan
(Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2008)
Reviewer: Annemette Kirkegaard, University of Copenhagen
The jacket illustration of this book refers to the famous painting The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch, displaying small human beings tied to musical instruments reminiscent more of medieval torture chambers than of popular stereotypes of pleasure. This is of course no coincidence as the subject of this book connotes all the many instances in which music is anything but good and instead becomes dark. Unfortunately, this is a very current theme as stories of atrocities, including music torture in prison camps in Guantanamo and Iraq, are daily news.
Introducing the key issues of the book Bruce Johnson and Martin Cloonan (in ‘Musical violence and popular music studies’) set out to examine how popular music is essentially tied to violence. Through clear and considerate readings of the present position of popular music studies (PMS) the authors present their agenda, which is to prove that not only in extraordinary cases is there a connection between popular music and violence, but also relations to violence are inherent in popular music. Their argument is based on an empirical examination of popular music history, building on a fundamental focus on music as sound, which introduces the central trope that ‘Sound is a potential weapon’ (p.12) As such, the usual reading of popular music as a solely positive force connected to anti-hegemonic struggles and good causes is challenged as the general resistance towards any kind of censorship in relation to popular music is questioned.
The book takes us in a hasty tempo through numerous comparisons of the connection between M/V in the modern era, starting in chapter 1 ‘Context: The Sound of Music’ with an investigation of the physical meanings of violence and pain related to music. For PMS this is new territory to embark upon and the sources of inspirations are primarily collected from music psychology and music therapy. Through important insights, the paradoxical relation between pain and pleasure is explored, and examples are drawn from heavy metal and rap, which also include empirical studies of how pitch, voice quality, volume and physical positioning are agents in the interpretation of sound. The chapter ends with an attempt to define the three keywords of the book ‘Music/Musicality’, ‘Popular’, and ‘Violence’. As a working thesis it is claimed that there are no clear connections or definitions of what kind of music is violent or pain-inflicting, and that in principle (i.e. given the right conditions) any music might prove to be violent and inflict pain.
Chapter 2 ‘Music and Violence in History’ traces the historical roots of violence and popular music. Drawing on many examples and providing rich empirical evidence, a large scale survey is built up. Despite efforts to define violence, the cases, however, display a certain lack of focus as they stretch from musics causing violent effects (as for instance the Piper from Hamlin whose flute makes the children disappear) to war anthems and the use of Abba in Iran. The chapter introduces the perennial question about music and responsibility, emphasising that the use of musicality by the armed forces in all epochs in history is a ‘testimony to its value in mobilizing aggressive esprit ‘ (italics in the text) (p.35). It soon becomes clear that this chapter, with its cultural history approach, develops into a broad master narrative and an historical tour de force giving many examples and themes, which include reflections on orality and literacy in European history and its inherent power relations.
Having defined the ‘Modern Era’ in relation to ‘cultural and material changes dating from the late nineteenth century’ (p. 49), Chapter 3, ‘Technologized Sonority’ proceeds to present cases of the mixture of sound and technology, taking its examples from war history. In the First World War the sound of the battle stands out through its horrific and deafening loudness, while the soundscape of the Second World War was significant in terms of the dominant role of the radio in transmitting sounds of music as well as speeches and on-location reports. In both instances sound attacks the ‘body and mind’ and termed ‘aural assaults’ (p.53-54). The chapter ends with a rather superficial listing of post-modern developments, including digital resources and mobile, transportable means of sound reproduction.
The second half of the book is devoted to an empirically based study of the link between music and violence, again covering a broad scale. Chapter 4, ‘Music accompanying violence’, introduces the assumptions of causality in relation to music (p.65) and through historical and contemporary examples, the authors prove that ‘Popular music’s fascination with violence has increased’. (p.68) This is substantiated by a longer examination of fairly well known cases of music representing violence, film music as an obvious example. Yet beyond representing violence, music can also become a soundtrack to violent acts: here the conspicuous case of music in concentrations camps is mentioned. The chapter also proposes one of the main arguments of the book, namely that the association of music and violence is not seen as grotesque and extraordinary, as understood by Susanne Cusick and Szymon Laks, but rather that the link is mundane and ubiquitous (p 73). Consequently, another central question of the discourse ‘does violent music cause violent behaviour?’ is raised. Finding material in such diverse cases as jazz, the assassination of John Lennon, the authenticity in rap discourse, Scandinavian Black Metal, the Roskilde mosh-pit accident in 2000, and the second Woodstock in 1999, crowd dynamics are generally understood to be the cause of the casualties.
Chapter 5, titled ‘Music and Incitement to Violence’ examines how music can urge to violence and draws on cases from Rwanda through racist organisations and so called Hate Music. The responses to the incitement are separated in two: first the onset of ‘Moral Panic’ (p.105), in which a well known but accurate example is the Tipper Gore initiative PMRC, which resulted in the advisory labels ‘explicit lyrics’. However, the words and the calls for violence are to a large extend ‘only’ a role play, in which performers who lead perfectly normal lives (Whatever that may be?) dress up for ‘violent’ performances. In this way the chapter documents that the ‘usual suspects’ are not the problem, and that not everyone who listens to ‘hate music’ commits murder (p.116)’. The second kind of response to incitement is ‘Denial’, which advocates that there is absolutely no correspondence between music and violence and that every kind of music therefore should be protected ‘by principles of free expression’ (p.116). Not willing to enter the debate on censorship, the authors simply conclude that music modifies behaviour.
As the book separates incitement from arousal, the chapter ‘Music and Arousal to Violence’ takes to the reader on to new levels. Audiences may well be co-performers, but ‘Incitement to violence, however, does not necessarily arouse anyone to violence’ (p.123) The arousal is corporeal and attached to the body, and since the group dynamics of game play and music have a great deal in common the cases lead up to a section on the relation between music and game (130-36). Again the theme of role playing is invoked and heavy metal is seen as a ‘game’ of working out dreams, fantasies, and never really taking it seriously. Finnish Eurovision winner, Lordi, is a typical case. (p.134), suggesting that ‘music is generally understood by fans as a specific closed system with boundaries’ (p.133)
Importantly the authors emphasise that it has never been documented that a ‘musical text’ in itself was the ‘originary cause in a sequence of events leading to uncontained social violence.’ (p.139) It is, however, always ‘crucially framed by a context’ (p.139) While this could seem to indicate that the musical text is not in itself communicative and able to convey messages, the authors nevertheless suggest that sonority (p.140) has a special quality that can produce an ‘affective platform’. This makes sonority superior to lyrics, since the research has documented that ‘the forms of musical ‘texts’ which most frequently actually cause violence, contain no message or intent of incitement to that end.’(p.139)
In the most sinister chapter of the book on ‘Music as Violence,’ hard core evidence of the all but innocent role of music and music making in relation to war and conflict is described and its role as a sonic weapon examined. A special concern is given to music as torture which can have as its goal disorientation, humiliation and outright pain. Tragic cases from US prison camps and cruel war crimes in Africa and the Balkans are mentioned. A critical question, which is unfortunately not asked, concerns the agency behind these uses. Who invents, so to say, the weapon? By now the discussion gets increasingly complicated, and, as a consequence, the section on ‘musical pain’ takes the form of a discussion. The difficulty lies in the fact that so many factors are at work in the ensuing debate, and the reasons for the efficiency of music as torture and weapon touch upon issues such as ownership, freedom of expression and control over the individual lives, because ‘Any imposed music is always an act of violence’. Debateable as this statement is, the situation calls for policy in the field.
In the eighth an final chapter, ‘Policy,’ the need for regulations in relation to the role of music is examined. Since by now anybody through the development of new technology has access to ‘the weapon’, the situation increasingly calls for action. The authors appeal to popular music scholars to begin to act politically, and like the Society of Ethnomusicology, who made a clear statement on the use of music as torture, popular music scholars should care more and dismiss the often flippant or humorous responses to music and violence.
Dark Side of the Tune is an important and very interesting book and in no way hard to read as it gorges itself on a long chain of empirical material which is appropriately open to readers for further investigation. It is also a very broad study, still it does hold on to its goal and sticks to the proposed agenda. It is, nevertheless unavoidable that a book which aims this high in creating a comprehensive and almost ‘universal’ survey of its subject, will also have readers asking ‘why is this or that case or perspective not mentioned?’ Having already referred to the problem of making the scope perhaps too broad, I will not join in on that chorus, but rather limit my critique to noting that gender perspectives are totally absent in the book. This is apparently not just a minor slip or a small forgetfulness. Rather it appears to be a deliberate choice, and as such open to critical remarks. In a book which addresses the issue of music’s complicity and causality in relation to a very broad definition and application of violence, the changes in gender roles allegedly tied to popular culture as for instance in aggressive rap lyrics and the undeniable violent issue of rape and sexual harassment, should have been brought to the fore. Rape is part of some of the cases as is ethnicity and race, but it remains one of the weaker points that this otherwise systematic and stringent discussion omits such issues.
The relation of violence and music is the central question in the book and defined as ‘Musical violence is about the attempted exercise of power over someone else and the soundscape’ (p.147) Still, the scope of the discussion remains loose. Perhaps it after all becomes too broad with examples covering self-hurt, suicide, mosh-pit aggression, wartime use of music, torture, excessive use of ipods and just too much noise. But the book certainly succeeds in drawing our attention to the central discussion of the complicity of music in violence and to a more nuanced understanding of the causality between music and violent acts.
In an ethnographic reading – and also in the theoretical points set up by the authors - music is part of social life, as such integral to human organisation and therefore violence occurs in music as in real life. The book is highly recommended.