How Music Conveys Political Ideology – YCP Department of History and Political Science (2024)

By: Ryan Mayfield

Abstract

Overthe course of history two stalwarts of public life, music and politics, havedeveloped an intimate bond. Wherever political actions can be found, music willaccompany it. Wherever music is observed, politics will accompany it is well.This trend has been observed from the ancient times of Plato – who warned ofthe dangers that music posed to the state – through the 20th century. Alsoworking in tandem with this trend is the pervasive opinion that music cansignificantly alter the minds of listeners. With these two ideas in mind, Ihypothesize first that listening to specific genres of music will significantlyinfluence the political ideology of the listener. The secondary set ofhypotheses are as follows: that rap/hip-hop, folk, blues and soul genres willbe positively correlated with a liberal ideology, that metal, gospel, andcountry will be positively associated with a conservative ideology, and thatpop, rock, and EDM will not be significantly correlated with any politicalideology.

Throughboth qualitative and quantitative methods, this paper helps to fill a gap inresearch regarding this topic by discovering a correlation between music genresand the political ideology of the listener.

Background

Thereare aspects found within the very structural makeup of musical compositionsthat allow for them to serve as vessels for political messages. Street (2003)describes the most basic aspect that lends itself to the conveyance of anideology: “music works directly on our emotions.” By doing this, songscan capitalize on the listener’s emotional state, swaying their politicalthinking to one side or the other or causing them to act out in a manner theyotherwise wouldn’t consider. Related are the musical concepts of burden andpresence. The burden contained within a song, according to Dewberry and Millen(20 14), is the “regular return or repetition of a theme or phrase.”‘This structural component of nearly all songs serves as the driving forcebehind a musician’s thesis; it instills his/her message in the listener withgreat effect. Dewberry and Millen (2014) also explain the concept of presence,which refers to the musical aspect that is immediately present within thelistener’s consciousness. Most times what is most present is the burden, therepetitive theme or phrase of the song. This gives music a “rhetoricalpower” and strengthens the political message as well (Dewberry &Millen, 2014). Trigg (2010) refers to the progressive nature that music iscapable of possessing. Songs hold the ability to emulate a forward momentumthrough their lyrics or melody. This allows music to actually move listeners todo something, potentially directing its audience to a specific goal that mustbe obtained. Given the inherent structural aspects of music that allow for itto be potentially conducive to political messaging, it follows that politicsand music should have some sort of long-standing relationship.

Thisrelationship between music and politics has been observed since the times ofantiquity. Fox and Williams (1974) relate the opinion of the early politicaltheorist Plato on the subject: “Any musical innovation is full of dangerto the whole State, and ought to be prohibited… when modes of music change,the fundamental laws of the State always change with them.” These thinkerssaw a link between different genres of music and a shift in the ideologicalperspective of governments.

Thehistorical association of music and politics continues on quite clearly fromthe time of the ancients to present day. A common way in which Plato’s quote isplayed out is through the campaign song. Street (2003) defines campaign songsas being “at the simplest level … a form of propaganda”, a sentimentthat is echoed even more strongly by Denisoff (1970) who states that campaign songsare a “potent weapon in the propaganda arsenal.” Politicians choosetheir campaign songs for a very specific and important purpose, they caneffectively convey an image of the candidate and evoke favorable emotions in astronger fashion than words alone (Street, 2003). More importantly, however,campaign songs can serve as a vehicle in the dissemination of a candidate’spolitical positions (Van Sickel, 2005).

Takethe campaign songs of two 20th century American presidents for example. RonaldReagan’s 1984 presidential campaign featured Bruce Springsteen ‘s (1984)“Born in the U.S.A” as its primary soundtrack , a song whose hookrepeated “I was born in the U.S.A, born in the U.S.A” (Dewberry &Millen, 2014). The seemingly patriotic nature of this song served as theperfect lyrical representation of Reagan’s political vision, a renewed Americathat was strong once again. Bill Clinton’s official campaign song for both his1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns, “Don’t Stop” by Fleetwood Mac,accomplished the same goal of conveying his political message. The progressiveClinton sought to revamp a stagnating economy and to progress into the coming21st century, the lyrics of “Don’t Stop” perfectly encapsulated hispolitical visions (Dewberry & Millen, 2014). Fleetwood Mac lyricizes:“Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow, don’t stop it’ll soon be here, it ‘llbe better than before, yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.” These lyricseffectively convey the hope and optimism that Clinton wished to exhibit throughhis progressive policies (Dewberry & Millen, 2014). It is important tonote, however , that there are significant issues related to these campaignsong choices, an issue that will be discussed further in the limitationssection.

Thisphenomena of using songs to convey the political ideals of a particularcandidate can be taken even further, to a broader level, that being nationalanthems. National anthems tie

music and politics inmuch the same way as campaign songs do. They are equally a “potent weaponfor the dissemination of political ideas” as campaign songs (Van Sickel,2005). National anthems are a symbolic representation of a country and throughrepeated exposure they imbue a sense of patriotism and healthy nationalism. Tothat end, national anthems also indoctrinate the political ideals of a countryinto its citizens. Colley (2005) examined “God Save the Queen “, thenational anthem of the United Kingdom, and discovered that it served as apowerful way to legitimate and spread the monarchical political structure andthe ideals that go along with it. A lyrical analysis supports her assertion.Pertinent lyrics include: “Long to reign over us” and “Long mayshe reign.” The same conveyance of political ideals can be seen in the “StarSpangled Banner.” Of utmost importance to the conception of politics inthe United States is the highly valued trait of equality. The “StarSpangled Banner” combines this political ideal into its music bylyricizing: “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

Giventhe fact that music has been inextricably tied to politicians as adissemination device for their political positions , it should come as nosurprise that social movements utilize music in the same way. Eyerman andJamison (1998), suggest that music serves as a more effective way to articulategroup identities, thus lending itself to the formation of social movements.Mattern (1998) concurs, he explains that music allows groups to establishshared meanings and interests, their pragmatic use of music allows them toadvance their “pre­ established aims.” Trigg (2010) succinctly sumsup these sentiments by speaking of the great impact music can have on socialmovements as he states that “the song itself is a key part of the progressthat it seeks to effect. In a way it is that change.” This definitelyseems to be the case. The great social upheavals of the 20th century, as wewill see, have all been backed by extensive soundtracks.

Thefirst real instance in which a mass social movement used music to theiradvantage in the ways mentioned above was in 1934. At the time around 400,000mill workers joined forces and went on strike for better working conditions andhigher wages, the largest collective strike in US history (Roscigno & Danaher,2001). Roscigno and Danaher (2001) found a significant link between thepresence of radio stations, then a burgeoning industry, and the presence of alabor strike. If a Southern county had a radio station then it was extremelylikely that the textile mill workers of that county would go on strike(Roscigno & Danaher, 2001). These mill workers were significantlyinfluenced by the pro-labor music that was played on the radio, leading them totake political action and protest (Roscigno & Danaher. 2001). The role thatmusic played in creating conditions that were ripe for politically motivatedlabor protests cannot be understated, however, music played an even moreprominent role in the social upheavals of the 1960’s.

Musicbecame intimately connected with the social movements of the 1960’s, startingwith the anti-war movement. Brooks-Klinger (2008) captures this relationship:·’When you see footage from the 1960’s and early 70’s, it’s almost invariablyaccompanied by a protest song from that era.” Brooks-KJinger (2008) arguesthat music was essential to the anti-war movement, the relevant songs of theday fueled “individual and collective resistance” as well aspromoting “feelings of hopefulness and global humanity.” Classicsongs such as “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Feel LikeI’m Fixin’ to Die Rag” by Country Joe and the Fish, “I Ain’t MarchingAnymore” by Phil Ochs and many others all provided lyrics to theprotestors that promulgated their anti-Vietnam political messages. The lyricsof Country Joe and the Fish’s song say it all: “And it’s 1, 2, 3, What arewe fighting for? Don’t ask me, l don’t give a damn, Next stop is Vietnam, andits 5, 6, 7, Open up the pearly gates. There ain’t no time to wonder why,Whoopee! We’re all going to die”

Thesocial movement that is most closely associated with the conveyance ofpolitical messages through music, however, is the Civil Rights movement. Trigg(2010) states that “Civil Rights songs are progressive: they seek to movesociety forward,'” and Roscigno and Danaher (2001) add that the repetitivesinging of these songs forms a ritualistic bond between members of the group,whether they are black or white. The forward moving aspect that Trigg (2010)speaks of can be seen in Civil Rights staples such as “A Change is GonnaCome” by Sam Cooke, “We Shall Overcome” and “Michael Row theBoat Ashore” by Pete Seeger. Clearly, these songs achieved their politicalgoals.

Ofcourse, not everyone is supportive of this association between music andpolitics. There have been many other instances of criticism since Plato’sinitial statements. Critics have always been concerned about music’s potentialmind altering and behavior changing powers. Peterson and Christenson (1987) aswell as Denisoff (1970) dictate the opinions of several individuals regardingrock music as being both “Atheistic and Communistic “or “turning theyounger generations rabid.” Fox and Williams (1974) also encountered asimilar sentiment. Some individuals thought that music of the 60’s and 70’s would“destroy America as we know it.”

Theseopinions then physically manifest themselves in the form of censorship. Thiscensorship was not so much a banning of specific words that are said but abanning of broad political ideals. It was initially seen in the era ofMcCarthyism in which McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committeeblacklisted the Weavers, a popular group headed by Pete Seeger, who professedleft-leaning sentiments (Denisoff, 1970). McCarthy was afraid of the politicalmessage that could be conveyed through their songs. In more recent times ClearChannel, a large radio company, banned all of their stations from playing musicthat was deemed un­ American in the wake of 9/11 (D’Entremont, 2003).

Hypothesis

Withthat background in mind, the fact that politicians and countries officially usemusic to convey their political messages and that the success of the 20thcentury’s greatest social movement heavily relied upon the fact that music canradically alter the listener’s thoughts, my hypothesis is as follows. It ishypothesized that there will be a significant correlation between the listeningof certain genres of music and the political ideology of the listener. Morespecifically, it is hypothesized that rap/hip-hop, folk, blues and soul genreswill be positively correlated with a liberal ideology. Metal, religious andcountry music will be positively associated with a conservative ideology.Finally pop, rock and EDM will not be significantly correlated with anypolitical ideology.

Literature Review

Inorder to either confirm or deny the hypotheses, we turn to the existingliterature for potential answers. However, there has been a gross lack ofresearch done on this subject. Only five studies that are at all related andonly three of them attempted to tie music genres to political ideology. None ofthe studies are able to prove any causation, and a correlational relationshipwas the best that any could do.

One of the more common relationships that is observed between music genres andpolitical ideology, at least anecdotally, is the relationship between countrymusic with conservatism. Van Sickel’s (2005) research finds that this may notactually be the case. Van Sickel (2005), cognizant of this anecdotalrelationship, executed a content analysis of every number one country hit from1960-2000, 1,217 songs in total. After coding for twenty broad political themes(patriotism, race, poverty and equality among others), Van Sickel (2005)underwent a manual analysis of the lyrics of all 1,217 songs. His findingsindicated that only 73 songs, a mere 6%, contained references to any of thetwenty political themes, and when they did it was rarely in a strong manner(Van Sickel, 2005). Several of the songs expressed conservative values, such as“Okie from Muskogee” and “The Fightin’ Side of Me” both by MerleHaggard, which served as a response to the anti-war movement of the 1960’s (VanSickel, 2005). However several songs like “Harper Valley P.T.A” whichspoke of breaking the traditional role of women, confounded both anecdotalevidence and the author’s hypothesis (Van Sickel, 2005). There are some majorlimitations to this study though. By examining only the number one hits, YanSickel excludes thousands of other country songs that have conveyed politicalsentiments. Fox and Williams’ (1974) study found a small but positiverelationship between country music and a liberalism, which is in conflict withSickel’s results. Overall, Yan Sickel ‘s (2005) research doesn ‘t set a goodprecedent for my hypothesis. If no political content is found in the countrygenre it cannot sway the ideology of a listener.

Belcherand Haridakis (2011) examined the potential relationship between specific musicgenres and ideology in more general terms. Belcher and Haridakis (2011)examined the relationship between 28 different genres and political groupmembership or activism on a college campus. Belcher and Haridakis (2011) foundthat of the 261 respondents, after running regressions and controlling forvarious factors, those who listened to alternative and Christian rock were morelikely to be involved with a political group. Conversely, those who listened topop and rock exhibited a negative relationship with on-campus political groupactivities (Belcher & Haridakis. 2011). In terms of political activism,alternative, rap and trance exhibited a positive correlation while pop and rockshowed a negative correlation (Belcher & Haridakis, 2011). This researchshows that alternative, Christian rock, rap and trance mobilized listeners toact politically. However, it does not show the ideological leanings of thoselisteners.

Nrerland(2016) makes an attempt at tying music genres to political ideology through hisresearch. However, it is only observational and correlational. Nrerland (2016)conducted a survey on members of the youth wings of five Norwegian politicalparties, ranging from the far left Communist party to the far right Fascistparty. Participants were asked to rank 41 music genres in order of theirfavorite to least favorite (Nrerland, 2016). The left leaning partiesidentified indie rock, punk and protest songs amongst their top five favoriteswhile the right leaning parties identified mainstream rock, hip-hop and danceas some of their common favorites (Nrerland,2016). If specific genres were toinfluence the ideology of the listener, as I am hypothesizing, then the leastfavorite genre rankings should be the inverse of the aforementioned favoriterankings. Indeed, that was the case as Nrerland (2016) found that the left leaningparties consistently ranked dance related genres as their least favorite, whichwas a favorite of the right wing parties, and the right wing parties rated punkas one of their least favorite genres, a favorite of the more liberal parties.Additionally, Nrerland (2016) found that, when asked the question “Would yousay that music has had any influence on your political engagement or on youropinion of a political issue,” liberal parties responded in theaffirmative 54% of the time. Nrerland ‘s (2016) results show at least a strongcorrelational relationship between several music genres and political ideologyas well as the phenomena of music impacting the political positions of thelistener.

Despitebeing conducted several decades apart, Stringer (2017) and Fox & Williams(1974) conducted their research into this topic using similar methods. BothStringer (2017) and Fox & Williams (1974) used undergraduate collegestudents as their population with Stringer (2017) using a sample of 448 and Fox& Williams (1974) using a sample of 730. Both studies utilized a Likertformat to measure music genres; Fox and Williams (1974) conducted a Likertassessment to determine favorability for a genre while Stringer (2017) used theLikert scale to determine the amount of time spent listening to certain genres.While both researchers used similar methods, different results were obtained.

Foxand Williams (1974) found that conservative students liked “currentpopular hits” and “easy listening” significantly more thanliberal students at a rate of 28.7% more and 26.2% more respectively. Liberalstudents, on the other hand, enjoyed folk, blues and protest musicsignificantly more than their more conservative peers (Fox & Williams,1974). Fox and Williams (1974) found no relationship of statisticalsignificance in regards to the enjoyment of either rock or country music.

Stringer’s(2017) research found a predictive relationship between five genres andpolitical orientation. Those five genres were as follows: rap/hip-hop, rock,alternative, pop and religious music (Stringer, 2017). Additionally, havingconducted her research during the 2016 presidential campaign season, Stringer(2017) was able to discover correlations between several genres and candidatepreference. On the Democratic side, Clinton supporters correlated positivelywith rap/hip-hop and negatively with rock music while Sanders supporters onlycorrelated negatively with religious music (Stringer, 2017). On the Republicanside, Trump supporters correlated positively with rock music while Cruzsupporters correlated positively with religious music and negatively withrap/hip-hop (Stringer, 2017). The findings of both Fox and Williams (1974) identifieddifferences in genre popularity across ideological lines, and Stringer (2017),who showed correlations between genres and candidate preference, either liberalor conservative, lend credence to the possible existence of music to politicalideology relationship.

OriginalResearch and Limitations

Sincethe research I am conducting is original, in order to more accurately test myhypotheses research was done on the obstacles that other studies have faced inthe hopes of avoiding some during the research for this study. Music as a wholeposes certain risks and problems to study ranging from the message music candeliver to the voices of singers which all need to be kept in mind to ensureaccuracy.

Inorder for a piece of music to convey a message that could influence theideology of the listener, the lyrics first must be intelligible. Some of theprevious researchers, Stringer (2017) and Fox & Williams (1974), alsoidentified this as a major concern in their respective studies.

Foxand Williams (1974), in particular. identify this concern by stating that theoutput of musicians are “frequently incomprehensible andunintelligible” and Denisoff (1970) further contextualizes this argumentby giving the example of “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, a Bob Dylansong, which he says contains “nearly unintelligible lyrics.” Fox andWilliams (1974) effectively sum this point up when they say that“political argument can scarcely be advanced by the “sh-boom,sh-boom” lyrics of the fifties.” These assertions can be adapted tomore modern times with regard to rap lyrics, lyrics that are often said so fastthat they can’t be understood.

Ifa musician is able to clearly enunciate their lyrics to the listeners, thelisteners then must be able to interpret the meaning of said lyrics in order togarner some kind of political message. The interpretation of lyrics has also beidentified by researchers as a potential hindrance to the conveyance ofpolitical meanings, with several factors contributing to this difficulty.

Denisoffand Levine (1971) provided the initial research into the arena of lyricalinterpretation and their findings are still considered to be an authority.Denisoff and Levine (1971) sought to investigate the lyrical interpretation ofthe song “Eve of Destruction”, a protest song by Barry McGuire thatcriticized many developments of the 1960’s, most particularly the Vietnam Warand racial violence. Denisoff and Levine (1971) distributed a questionnaire in1965 (during the height of the song’s popularity) to college students at a SanFrancisco university, a population they deemed would be more supportive of sucha song due to their liberal leanings. Denisoff and Levine (1971) discoveredthat only 14% of respondents correctly interpreted the theme of the song. Theirfindings have been anecdotally replicated several times among other musiciansand politicians. Denisoff (1970) relates the story of Glen Campbell who covered“Universal Soldier”, a decidedly anti-war song, Campbell was quotedas saying: “Draft card burners should be hanged.” ObviouslyCampbell didn’t understand the meaning of this song. Dewberry and Millen (2014)show this trend amongst politicians who incorrectly use campaign songs whosetrue meanings run antithetical to their campaign platforms. Reagan incorrectlyinterpreted “Born in the U.S.A” as being an intensely patriotic song,when in reality it is an anti-Vietnam War song. Clinton also incorrectlyinterpreted his campaign song of “Don’t Stop” as being progressive,in reality it was about overcoming an unfaithful relationship a theme Clintonwould wish to forget.

Thereare several factors that contribute to an incorrect interpretation of lyrics.Perhaps most common is the influence of the listener’s personal background wheninterpreting lyrics. Root (1986) identified three aspects of audience responseto a song: taste, judgement and occasion. Of the three occasions is the mostpertinent to an incorrect interpretation of song lyrics, due to personalfactors. Root (1986) writes that “what seems maudlin and sentimental undercareful analysis may be moving and evocative in a private, intimate moment“, in other words personal factors and emotions of the listener can changethe meaning of the song. Wolfe and Haefner (1996) showed how this can play outthrough their study of the Beatles song “All You Need is Love.” Theyasked students to interpret the meaning of the song’s lyrics and severalresponded that it made them think of a deceased friend or relative, not at allwhat the song is really about (Wolfe & Haefner, 1996).

Afinal way in which lyrics can be interpreted incorrectly is due to theinfluence of the artist. Many times a listener’s perception of the artistsignificantly changes their interpretation of their song’s lyrics. Root (1986)writes that many times a “songwriter may create a persona in thecomposition which clashes with the persona of the performer.” When thishappens, listeners are unable to remedy the two personalities, and insteadinterpret the lyrics through their perception

of the performer.Platoff (2005) shows how this can happen through his analysis of two similarsongs released in generally the same time, “Revolution” by TheBeatles and “Street Fighting Man” by The Rolling Stones. Both songs spokeof the protests during 1960’s and both in some way expressed either the band’slack of involvement or lack of desire to participate. In“Revolution”, John Lennon lyricized “don’t you know you cancount me out,” of the protest, and Mick Jagger in “Street FightingMan” sang “cause in sleepy London town, there’s just no place for astreet fighting man”(Platoff, 2005). Despite expressing similarsentiments, the Beatles song was eviscerated in the media and the RollingStones song was not. This was due to the Beatles being seen as spokespeople fora generation, in this case they were in conflict. While the Rolling Stonesweren’t and they were also perceived as having more in depth lyrics, thelisteners assumed that what Mick Jagger said wasn’t really what he meant(Platoff, 2005). So, if listeners can both understand what an artist is sayingin their musical composition and then accurately interpret the lyrics, they maybe prone to the political influence of the song. However, lyricalinterpretation and deciphering cannot occur if the listener doesn’t have accessto the music in the first place. We have seen the impact censorship can have onthe dissemination of music through Denisoff’s (1970) and D’Entremont ‘s (2003)research. but other issues regarding the access of music, such as cultural,class based and media related, exist as well.

Formany years certain types of music were excluded from the public consciousnessin the United States due to cultural reasons. Denzin ( 1970) explains that“Negro blues, long the expressions of the suppression of blacks inAmerica. have only recently been seen as indicators of the shifting nature ofNegro culture.” lt took popular white artists, such as Elvis Presley. toget “black music” into the public sphere, beforehand this type of musiccouldn’t politically influence anyone because it wasn’t heard. Related tocultural issues is the issue of class, certain genres are closely associatedwith the upper class, for a variety of reasons. Nrerland (2016) saw this in hisstudy of Norwegian politicians. Those from more affluent and well-educatedbackgrounds tended to enjoy classical music, jazz and traditional music more.Perhaps this is because a certain amount of wealth is required to go to aclassical orchestral concert, an ability lower income people don’t have. Thiscan significantly curtail the ability for classical music to convey a politicalmessage on a wider scale.

Finally,in terms of access to music, a paradoxical relationship with the media has beenobserved by several researchers. Technology has advanced to a point in whichmedia outlets have become extremely numerous as well as extremely accessible. Nearlyeveryone has access to unlimited options on their smartphones. However, theproliferation of media has not necessarily led to an increase in politicalmusic or the dissemination of it. Stringer (2017) and Brooks­ Klinger (2008)write about this paradoxical trend in their research. Brooks-Klinger (2008)sees this trend as exhaustive to listeners, the breadth of media optionsoverwhelms individuals to a point in which they either don’t receive themessage of songs or they simply don’t care in general. Stringer (2017) talks ofmedia as being a “two-way street”, media can influence us, as my hypothesisstates, but we also possess a capability to influence the media that wereceive. Perhaps the music doesn’t influence political ideology but apre-existing ideology influences the musical choice.

Afinal limitation exists within the music itself, the very musical sound thataccompanies lyrics holds the potential to change lyrical meanings. The melodyand rhythm of a song, the

actual musical soundthat is heard can serve as hindrance in primarily two ways. First, the musiccan actually nullify the lyrics completely. Prinsky (1987) exemplifies thisbelief in his study, finding that most teenagers ignore lyrics altogether.Denisoff and Levine (1971) illuminates this belief further by referring to aninterpretation of music as “background noise.” Some people don’tactually listen to what is being said in the songs at all , the music simplyserves as a sort of white noise that is mindlessly played in the background(Denisoff & Levine, 1971).

Thesecond way in which the music itself can act as a hindrance is through itsability to change the meaning of the actual lyrics. The divergence between thisability of music and the prior is that the lyrics are heard and they areinterpreted. they are not blocked out by the music,

however they may beinfluenced incorrectly by the music. Peterson ( 1971) illuminates this trend bystating that “the meaning of lyrics depends as much on what the audiencehears as on what the lyricist intends.” Pedelty and Keefe (2010) furthersupport this assertion by stating that “people react as much or more tothe ‘feel’ of a given song as to the manifest meanings of the words.”

Dewberryand Millen (2014) provide a prime example of this phenomena in the hit song“Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People. Driven by an upbeat, positiveand poppy sound the meaning of the song was widely perceived to be positive,however the lyrics reveal that it is about an angry teen contemplating a schoolshooting (Dewberry and Millen. 2014). Clearly this is quite the barrier to thedissemination of political ideology in song, if the melody and rhythm cancompletely change the lyrical meaning, then the political statement cannot bereceived accurately.

Giventhe great deficit of research into the topic due to the difficulties ofstudying music in general, as seen above, any conclusion in either a positiveor negative direction regarding my hypothesis cannot responsibly be made. Theresimply is not enough existing literature to confidently make a claim in eitherdirection. Therefore, original research had to be conducted to contextualizethe literature review and to aid in the conclusion of my hypothesis. Asmentioned above many obstacles were also faced during this research such as howit is very important to acknowledge that my sample size is severely lacking.Twenty-one respondents is not nearly enough to make any type of claim forcausality, thus I am only showing and arguing for correlation, it is also notenough to be representative of the general populous. Additionally, the sampleskewed highly liberal due to the fact that the demographics of the study werecollege students at a liberal arts campus, thus limiting the ability to drawcorrelations between music genres and a conservative ideology.

Methodology

Ashort survey containing nine questions was distributed across the history andpolitical science department at York College of Pennsylvania. Included in thesurvey were questions to identify three general categories: political ideology,music preference and demographic controls.

Todetermine political ideology a 6 point Likert scale was utilized as well as aparty identification question. To determine music preference participants wereasked to rank 10 genres of music from favorite to least favorite. Demographiccontrols included questions regarding gender, ethnicity, age and family income.In total 21 responses were collected, on which a bivariate correlationalanalysis was conducted in order to illuminate any potential correlations betweenideology and music genre.

Results andDiscussion

Thebreakdown of political ideology, and party identification for that matter,skewed highly liberal, potentially due to the sample being entirely composed ofcollege students. The results of both political ideology questions can be seenin the chart below.

Table I : Responses to political ideologyLikert scale.

Table 2: Response to party identificationquestion.

Inorder to determine music preference, the respondents were given 10 genres torank order of most favorite to least favorite. “1” being mostfavorite and “10” being least favorite. The genres included in the survey areas follows; rock, pop, metal, EDM, soul, blues, folk, rap/hip-hop, religiousand country. For the sake of conserving space, each genre’s ranking won’t beenumerated here in a table format rather the top and bottom three will belisted. Coming in at the top of the rankings was rock, 8 number one votes, thenpop and rap/hip-hop with 5 votes apiece. At the other end of the spectrum wasreligious music, with 10 last place votes, then metal, 5 last place votes, withcountry and EDM tying at 2 last place votes apiece.

Afterthe raw data was tabulated and the necessary coding changes were made, abivariate correlational analysis was conducted. Due to how the ideologicalresponses were coded, a positive number will indicate a correlation between thegenre and a liberal ideology while a negative number will indicate acorrelation between the genre and a conservative ideology. The results of thiscorrelational analysis can be found in the table below.

Theresults of my correlational analysis have yielded mixed results in regards tomy hypotheses. The primary hypothesis was found to be true, there is somecorrelational relationship between political ideology and the music listenedto. According to the analysis several genres showed a strong and significantcorrelation, anything over +/-.15 is deemed significant, with their respectiveideologies. Country was revealed to have a moderate to strong relationship witha conservative ideology, resulting in a value of -.352, as well as metal at-.203. Both of these findings support my hypothesis that country and metalwould influence the listener towards a conservative ideology. On the other sideof things, rap/hip-hop showed a significant but weak relationship with aliberal ideology, resulting in a value of .182. This is in line with my hypothesisthat rap/hip-hop would influence the listener towards a liberal ideology,however it is weakly supported. Pop, at .445, and rock, at .216, showed thestrongest relationships with the liberal ideology. However this goes against myhypothesis which predicted these two genres to be relatively neutral. The folkgenre went against my hypothesis, although weakly, due to its -.167 value whichshows a correlation with the conservative ideology. Soul, at -.004, EDM, at-.030, blues, at .033, and religious, at .067. all showed essentially norelationship in either direction.

Severaloutside factors can potentially explain the results of my survey. First, someof the strongest of relationships, seen in pop and rock correlating stronglywith a liberal ideology. could be explained by the outside factor of age. Thesample for this survey was comprised of an exclusively younger demographic, ademographic that also tends to be more liberal, young people also probablylisten to mainstream genres, such as pop and rock. That could also explain theweak and non-existent relationships seen as well, particularly in regard tofolk, soul and religious music, not many people of this generation,irrespective to ideology, listen to those genres, therefore there wasn’t muchof a relationship at all.

Thehypotheses were all partially supported and partially refuted. I hypothesizedthat folk, rap/hip-hop, soul and blues would be significantly correlated with aliberal ideology. This was supported by my results for rap/hip-hop and weaklyrefuted by my results for soul. folk and blues. I hypothesized that country,metal and religious music would significantly correlate with conservatism. Thiswas supported by both the country and metal results, however it was weaklyrefuted by the results for religious music. Finally, I hypothesized that pop,rock and EDM would have no bearing on political ideology. This was stronglyrefuted by my results for pop and rock but was supported by my results for EDM.

Conclusion

Inconclusion, based off of both the qualitative and quantitative research, theredefinitely seems to be at least a correlational relationship between certaingenres of music and political ideology. The observational evidence that linksmusic with politics is compelling and once the pervasive notion of music’smind-altering powers is added into the equation. the argument gets evenstronger. Some of the previous research, as well as aspects of my originalresearch. back up the correlational link between music and political ideology.Several genres have been found to have a correlational relationship , at thevery least, with certain ideological positions, from my study pop, country,rock and metal all correlated significantly with either ideology. However, itis very important to note that none of the aforementioned studies or researchhave proved causality, only correlational link has been discovered. At thispoint it would be irresponsible to claim that genres of music can cause a shiftin political ideology. In order for that claim to be made additional research,explained below, needs to be conducted.

Further Research

Giventhe fact that there is relatively little research and that none of the researchcould establish causation, I believe that further research into the topic isneeded. Specifically, further research needs to be conducted in a manner thatmay be able to prove a causal relationship between certain genres and politicalideology. Perhaps this research could come in the form of a study of teenagers.whose minds are starting to form their political beliefs. who are randomlyassigned a certain genre to listen to extensively. The impact of the genrecould be clearly seen as a casual mechanism of ideology then. Whatever themethod, further research should be conducted in this area to conclusively provethat certain music genres dictate particular political leanings.

References

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