PEACE THROUGH MUSIC AND ITS INFLUENCE

John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Bed Peace

PEACE THROUGH MUSIC AND ITS INFLUENCE

INTRODUCTION

Music is a universal language. It can be heard and enjoyed by everyone regardless of their age, race or background. Because of this, it has become an influential part of our everyday lives. The influence behind music is massive and goes beyond just as a form of entertainment. It is a form of art that cuts through to create and express emotions through rhythm. The music industry "is not a unitary form of art, but rather refers to fundamentally distinct types of activities that fulfill different needs and ways of being humans" (Turino 2008: 1). It consists of genre, influential artists and creative visual representation of the music it portrays. As Turino (2008) puts it in his first chapter of Music as Social Life: The Politics of Participation, music is a "powerful human resource" that is used as a mode of communication and to achieve various means in life. In the 1950s and 1960s, many people used music to express their emotions to burn the people's spirit into creating actions. The era of mass participation, music is seen as medium "directed to changing the mind and actions of politically influential leaders" (Street, Hauge & Savigny 2008: 269). Over the years, music is still used to create influence to encourage mass movements and gain supporters through nonviolent actions. In this essay I will aim to answer the question as to what extent can music and its influence create political and social change through nonviolent practices.

My argument for this research essay is that music has a powerful influence on social moreover political movements. But rather than use of force and coercion to achieve certain goals, it focuses on nonviolent modes of practice through emotions and community building. I will attempt to raise questions on how the activities of music and musical influence can be understood as a form of non-violent social and political participation. In this essay I firstly describe the concept of nonviolence. I will try to differentiate how nonviolence practice is an approach to demonstrate a certain level of dissent without usage for force onto another person or property. Furthermore, I will argue how music and its influence is used in the practice of nonviolence. I will render this argument based on the case study of the 1969 Bed-In Movement that was staged by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The usage of this example is because it was a nonviolent movement popularized by a famous musician that era to show discontent on the Vietnam War through modes of nonviolent. The reason for narrowing down the perimeter of this research is to give a clearer value of to what extent music and its influence has impacted social and political change. This study is imperative because it will give added value of how people perceive music and its influence to create social and political change.

THE CONCEPT OF NONVIOLENCE

The concept of nonviolence blooms from the ideology of dissent. Dissent is often thought of as a kind of discourse in political theory. It is "a practice – often verbal, but sometimes performative – that challenges the status quo" (Martin 2013: 3). Dissent is believed to disrupt the current normative or ways people uphold their livelihood such as their values, customs, traditions and the authorities that set these values into play. The failure to appreciate the centrality of dissent is because of the lack to examine the nature and place of dissent, primarily as a dynamic of individual expression rather than core of democratic life. This is why 'dissent' is believed to go against contemporary political theory. Dissent brings about a certain level of expressive practices. These practices are aimed to bring changes through influence and modes of psychological expressions rather than by force and coercion. Thus, this leads to the understanding of the concept of nonviolence.

Many scholars have written on the practice of nonviolence. Among some of which included Étienne de La Boétie, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. de La Boétie (1975) introduced the politics of obedience through his writings dated back in the mid-16th century. He argued that tyranny could be brought down not through aggression but through the practice of nonviolence. The basis of his argument is that a government only has the power that is given to it by its people through support and confidence. This power however can be taken back by the people itself. The system of government is also what makes up the democratic system whereby the government is chosen and made by majority of the community. What this statement missed to point out is the fact that majority of people does not sum up to all and the minority of non-supporters are what creates the room for considerable dissent and opposition. de La Boétie further explains that power and despotism can be overthrown by non-violent practices whereby no usage of force is used. Although this timeless methodology is idealistic and oversimplified, but is has opened up ways for discussions and better understandings on the study of nonviolence. Henry David Thoreau in his 1849 writings in Civil Disobedience (2015) also supported the notion of non-violent refusal to cooperate and abide to oppressive governance.