We are happy to announce the upcoming POP TALK 15: We are celebrating the Open Access publication of Popular Music and the Rise of Populism in Europe edited by Mario Dunkel and Melanie Schiller. This volume also marks the first publication in the interdiciplinary Music and Politics series with Routledge.
We invite you to our POP TALK 15 as series and book launch online event on 11 November 4-5pm CET. During this event, we will present the book and Luca Manucci (University of Lisbon) will lead a conversation with the authors and the audience.
Please register here.
About the book
The book focuses on the role of popular music in the rise of populism in Europe, centring on the music-related processes of sociocultural normalisation and the increasing prevalence of populist discourses in contemporary society. Based on shared research questions, an original theoretical framework and a combination of innovative methodologies that pay attention to the specific socio-historical contexts, taking into account musical material as well as processes of reception, the five chapters in this volume offer detailed analyses of the nexus of popular music and populism in Hungary, Italy, Austria, Sweden and Germany. All of these countries have seen a marked increase in populist parties and discourses over the last years, as well as significant interactions between populism and popular music.
Table of contents
Popular music and the rise of populism in Europe: An introduction
Mario Dunkel and Melanie Schiller
1. Populist discourses in pro-government, anti-government, and anti-elite songs in Hungary under the Orbán regime
Emília Barna and Ágnes Patakfalvi-Czirják
2. Playing “Italianness” in popular music: National populism and music in contemporary Italy
Manuela Caiani and Enrico Padoan
3. “I wanna get back home”: Performing a populist Austrian homeland in popular music
André Doehring and Kai Ginkel
4. Populism in the land of pop: The Sweden Democrats, popular music, and the performance of heroic averageness
Melanie Schiller
5. Pop stars as voice of the people: Xavier Naidoo, Andreas Gabalier, and the performance of populism during the Covid-19 pandemic
Mario Dunkel and Reinhard Kopanski
Afterword: Popular music and populism in Europe
Mario Dunkel and Melanie Schiller