Strange Bedfellows? Rap and the Political Right
Hyper-masculinity, sexism, homophobia, offensive speech and distrust of institutions are some of the traits shared by rap culture and the American far right.
Iain Ellis
Born in Manchester and raised east of London, Iain Ellis spent his formative years playing, performing, and consuming a heavy (if not healthy) diet of punk rock music and football. Little has changed since. In 1986, the young man went west to find his dreams in Bowling Green, Ohio. Instead, he picked up a PhD in American Culture Studies, writing his dissertation on 1980s American Punk Culture. In 2000, he traveled further west, settling in Lawrence, Kansas, where he currently teaches English and Youth Culture Studies at the University of Kansas. An avowed arrested adolescent, Iain continues to follow music and sports with a passion, performing and recording periodically with his Ohio-based Britpop band, piss artists, and playing weekly with his Lawrence football team, The Sweepers. When he grows up, Dr. Ellis hopes to head further west. You may also enjoy his book, Rebels Wit Attitude: Subversive Rock Humorists.
Subversive Strumming: Fear and Loathing of the American Folk Music Revival
For the American political right of the post-war era, folk music more than rock ‘n’ roll was regarded as a national threat – but not because of the songs’ lyrics.
Holy Rollers: American Pentecostalism’s Musical Offspring
First-born Holy Rollers of American Pentecostalism include rebels Sister Rosetta Tharpe, B.B. King, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Ray Charles.
The Rise of Rock ‘n’ Roll Nation and the Far Right Reaction
American anxieties about the rise of rock ‘n’ roll nation were exploited by the far right, relating the music’s lyrics, sounds, dances, and subcultures to ubiquitous worries about communism and the developing civil rights movement.
The Alt-Right’s Roots Go Deep in Co-Opting Pop Music
As with the Nazis and Goebbels and the Ku Klux Klan, the alt-right’s desire to co-opt pop music for their purposes requires ideological and ethical gymnastics.
Retrofuturism: How the Alt-Right Learned to Love Depeche Mode
For Richard Spencer and today’s alt-right, ‘80s British synthpop bands like Depeche Mode satisfy their retrofuturist cultural fantasies.
The Kids Are Alt-Right: How Punk Got Co-opted by Fascism
Like political populism, punk’s traits and tenets are sufficiently vague, contradictory, and unmoored to be vulnerable to co-option by all political opportunists—including the fascist alt-right.
Pub Rock Guitarist Wilko Johnson Was an Inspiration to a Generation of “Twitchy Dorks”
Guitarist Wilko Johnson of pub rock band Dr. Feelgood created a polyrhythmic down-and-up chop on open chords that inspired Paul Weller (the Jam), Hugh Cornwell (the Stranglers), and Jon King (Gang of Four) – and many more.
Public Image Limited’s Keith Levene and the Post-Punk Revolution
Post-punk is one of the most adventurous genres in rock history, and Public Image Limited’s Keith Levene is one of its greatest trailblazers.
Who Put the Pop in Gen Z’s Pop Punk?
Although beloved by millions, Gen Z’s pop punk may also be punk’s most hated form, yet its roots are deep in “pure punk” soil.
Punk Literature 101: Recommended Readings
Stimulated by, then stimulating, certain writings, punk has been a change agent of literature, injecting energy and disruption into multiple genres.
Punk Wouldn’t Have Spread So Far Without the Sh*t Media
Simultaneously inside and outside by either choice or circumstance, punk has always had paradoxical – sometimes hostile – relations with TV, radio, and the internet.
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