Mixing Pop and Politics

The political has always been part of popular music, but how does that play out in today’s musical and political landscape? Mixing Pop and Politics: Political Dimensions of Popular Music in the 21st Century provides an innovative exploration of the complex politics of popular music in its contemporary formations.

Amid the shifting paradigms of power in the 2020s, the chapters in this book go beyond the idea of popular music as protest to explore how resistance, subversion, containment, and reconciliation all interact in the popular music realm. Covering a wide range of international artists and genres, from South African hip-hop to Polish punk, and addressing topics such as climate change and environmentalism, feminism, diasporic identity, political parties, music-making as labour, the far right, conservatism and nostalgia, and civic engagement, the contributors expand our understanding of how popular music is political.

For students and scholars of music, popular culture, and politics, the volume offers a broad, exciting snapshot of the latest scholarship on contemporary popular music and politics.

Catherine Hoad is Senior Lecturer in the School of Music and Creative Media Production at Te Kunenga Ki Pūrehuroa/Massey University, Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Geoff Stahl is Senior Lecturer and Programme Director of Media & Communication, Te Herenga Waka/Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Oli Wilson is Associate Professor in the College of Creative Arts at Te Kunenga Ki Pūrehuroa/ Massey University, Wellington New Zealand., Massey University, Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand.