By: Khalil Farah
“Our greatest enemies are Pershing missiles and Western music”
-A. Vellamaa, Russian CP official:
Mr. Vellamaa’s remarks were far from hyperbole, and reflected an historical trend of artist-led revolution, a tradition that has been repeated in the past few months in the Arab World. Even Mark Twain might not have realized how literal he was being when he said that “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”
In the discussion of the recent Middle East revolutions, one repeatedly read that the Internet, and specifically social networking sites, was responsible for rallying popular dissent against the dictatorships. This claim, however, fails to understand that the content being distributed by these sites was more important than the method of distribution. More specifically, music, and particularly rap music, was the foremost expression of youth outrage against the government.
Tunisian rappers had used their position and popularity to be a voice of dissent against the government long before revolution had broken out in the streets. Tunisian rapper “Balti” has been performing for years, even being arrested in 2005 for his anti-governmental lyrics. His music was recorded in secret studios and distributed via Youtube, reaching over 350,000 views. When asked the role he believed rap played in the revolution, he claimed it “contributed to break the fear barrier among the youngsters” (CNN). Also, a mere few weeks before the revolution in Tunisia broke out, another rapper known as “The General” was arrested for his anti-governmental lyrics. His newest single was titled “President, your People are Dying” and addressed the rampant poverty and unemployment under President Ben Ali. He sings “This is a message from one of your children/ who is telling of his suffering/ we are living like dogs, half of the people live in filth and drink from the cup of suffering.” Rappers served as a megaphone for the youth who were increasingly frustrated with the regime.
The mistake most commentaries make is they attribute the revolution to YouTube rather than the song. They correlate the success of the revolution with the increasing availability of the Internet. The Internet really though, is just a new vessel for old ideas. Examples throughout history from USSR, to Chile, and even to Vietnam-era America echo the role of music rather than technology in the recent Arab revolutions. They inexorably point to music and its poetics as the fuel for societal change.
Under the oppression of the USSR, an underground rock scene developed in opposition to the government. Rock albums were banned in the country; so to evade the censors people began copying the few tapes smuggled in from the West on tape-to-tape recording devices. One Czechoslovakian psychedelic rock band, The Plastic People of the Universe, became so popular through illegally copied and distributed music that their arrest spurned a human rights movement culminating in “Charter 77,” one of the most inflammatory documents critical of totalitarian governments ever published. It became impossible to ignore the fact that rock music was vital to overthrowing Communism.
Moreover, in Chile under the dictatorship of Pinochet, folk musicians used public gatherings to bring together oppositional forces. Even when the lyrics were politically muted, their existence contrasted the regime’s attempt to control all aspects of national culture. Even before the Internet, music found a way to spread itself and to rally dissent.
Governments consistently underestimate the power that music has in rallying opposition to itself or its policies. Even in America, the opposition to the Vietnam War was as fueled by the music of its time as artists such as Bob Dylan spoke out against the militaristic culture the Cold War nurtured. People often discount rap as shallow and unimportant, but around the world, rap music has shown itself to be an undeniably potent force for social change and the next logical progression in the centuries-long triumph of art over politics.
