Our People's Voice: Populism and Popular Music

Street, John (2026) Our People's Voice: Populism and Popular Music. Populism. ISSN 2588-8072

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Abstract

This article explores the relationship between music and populism. It is commonly assumed that popular music in particular is intrinsically populist. There is, though, no necessary link between the two, and this article examines how and when music becomes implicated in the populist politics of the right and the left. It does this by focusing on the rhetoric of song lyrics, on the stylistic forms of music’s political communication and on the organisational resources that music and musicians bring to populism. The article ends by considering the tensions between music as commercial product and music as political expression, and how this affects its relationship with populism. It uses the example of the English protest song as its main case study

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Publisher Copyright: © John Street, 2026. Published with license by Koninklijke Brill BV. This work is published by Koninklijke Brill BV. Koninklijke Brill BV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink, Brill mentis, Brill Wageningen Academic, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau and V&R unipress. Koninklijke Brill BV reserves the right to protect the publication against unauthorized use and to authorize dissemination by means of offprints, legitimate photocopies, microform editions, reprints, translations, and secondary information sources, such as abstracting and indexing services including databases. Requests for commercial re-use, use of parts of the publication, and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill BV.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	music,political rhetoric,protest movements,protest song,sociology and political science,political science and international relations ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3312
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy and Area Studies
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Competition Policy Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Cultural Politics, Communications & Media Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Policy & Politics Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Political, Social and International Studies
Related URLs:	https://www.scopus.com/pages/publication...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	14 May 2026 15:17
Last Modified:	26 May 2026 08:51
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/103035
DOI:	10.1163/25888072-bja10099

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