Rage Against The Machine or the Sound of Resistance

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2,0, University of Bonn (Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Keltologie), language: English, abstract: Historically seen, music has always accompanied humanity in large part. People have different soundtracks for many parts of their lifes. Music is an important part of our everyday life and of our culture. It is able to form identities and a feeling of togetherness.

The topic of this term paper is music and especially the function of music within a cultural setting. Music has the ability to be used politically, to affect people and to manipulate people. Music can also be used as a social protest - as resistance. At the same time music and politics are going hand in hand for many years.

Musicians, or bands are used for political purposes in many different countries. During the late 1990s the British band Oasis helped Tony Blair and his party in their election campaign. Having said that musicians play songs against certain campaign or ban the usage of their music for political purposes, like the band Queens who did not allow President Trump to misuse their music for his intentions.