Acting in Concert: Music, Community, and Political Action / Edition 1

by Mark Mattern

Overview

In this lively account of politics and popular music, Mark Mattern develops the concept of "acting in concert," a metaphor for community-based political action through music. Through three detailed case studies of Chilean, Cajun, and American Indian popular music, Mattern explores the way popular muisicians forge community and lead members of their communities in several distinct kinds of political action that would be difficult or impossible among individuals who are not linked by communal ties.

More than just entertainment, Mattern argues that popular music can serve as a social glue for bringing together a multitude of voices that might otherwise remain silent, and that political action through music can increase the potential for relatively marginalized people to choose and determine their own fate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813524849
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	1450L (what's this?)

About the Author

Mark Mattern is an assistant professor of political science at Chapman University, Orange, California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction        
Chapter 1 Popular Music and Community
Chapter 2 Popular Music, Political Action, and Power
Chapter 3 El pueblo, unido, jamas sera vencido: Popular Music and Democratic Politics in Chile, 1960-1973
Chapter 4 Vamos a vivir: Resistance and Redemocratization after the 1973 Coup
Chapter 5 Laissez les bon temps roulez: Cajun Music and Cultural Revival
Chapter 6 Stirring Up the Roux: Negotiating Cajun Identity and Relations with Black Creoles
Chapter 7 Entering the Circle: Powwow Music in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin
Chapter 8 Music, Community, and Diversity
Notes      
Bibliography        
Index      

What People are Saying About This

Edward B. Portis

Edward Bryan Portis, Texas A&M University.

A highly readable, innovative investigation of the potential political implications of popular music.

George H. Lewis

George H . Lewis, author of Side Saddle on the Golden Calf: Social Structure and Popular Culture in American and All That Glitters: Country Music in America.

Political science has too often ignored the critical political dimensions of music in social life. Now Mark Mattern has given us a groundbreaking examination of the varied political functions of populist musics-from social glue to social dynamite-as reflected in three fascinating, diverse, and disenfranchised case-study communities. Acting in Concert is, truly, music to intellectual ears.-

Harry C. Boyle

Harry C. Boyte, co-author of Building America.

Acting in Concert is a powerful work that opens up new ways of thinking about the public dimensions of music. In an era when music is all too often packaged, standardized, and drained of energy and political passion. Mattern shows through vivid case studies and probing discussion of large ideas like politics and community that people's participation in the creation and experience of music can be a vital resource for democracy.