Resistance music

While there have been a few threads about protest songs, I've pulled blanks on my searches for discussion about resistance music (made or adopted by a national people in response to imperialism, oppression, captivity, genocide, internal strife like military dictatorships, etc, more on a movement level though perhaps consisting also of standout protest songs in a more Dylan sense). This can be a thread for that in general, but I wanted to pose a particular question that I thought might garner some interesting replies here.

In a nutshell, I'm curious about the general sonic makeup of resistance movements around the world, by necessity in the popular recording era (although unrecorded, otherwise well documented movements would be welcome). What got me wondering was this passage about the peculiarity of the Korean resistance music of the Japanese occupation period (basically 1905-45), written by the scholar John Lie:

"The Korean elite’s embrace of changga [a composite genre consisting of western and Japanese choral and folk music] transformed it, paradoxically, into resistance music. Changga was the music of the educated, but it was the same demographic that led the independence movement in early colonial Korea, and the association between anti-Japanese, pro-independence politics and changga remained an enduring motif in modern Korea. Already by the 1900s, the very idea of political or movement music (undongga) was inextricable from changga. Sentiments critical of Japanese rule were often articulated in changga, not in Korean folk (as educated Koreans were likely to denigrate peasant music)."

In selecting a vehicle of critique against imperial overlords, to reject one's own national musical lineage in favor of foreign music – specifically that imposed by the aggressor nation – does seem a bit peculiar. But I'm wondering if it really is unusual at all. It's well documented how a thriving underground congregated around the smuggled music of the Beatles in Soviet Russia, and in Czechoslovakia around that of the Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa, which makes plenty sense symbolically but I think is still notable for their use of national second parties. I wish I knew more about how Taiwan responded to Japanese rule during the same period that Korea suffered, but I do at least know that popular covers of Japanese hits were commonplace (unsurprisingly, given how Taiwan remembers their occupation with as much fondness as Koreans do theirs contempt).

So, if you happen to be familiar with the resistance music of any oppressed people, how would you characterize it? A return to national musical roots, a capitulation to/.subversion of the oppressors' music, or a turn towards the sounds of second or third party nations? Or at least, since these things are rarely so cut and dry, what was the dominant trend?

It's an interesting question but I think the further in to the recorded era you get, the harder it is to answer.

I've always thought the idea the Soviet Union was shaken by samizdat copies of the White Album is massively overstated - the most important underground figures tended to have a closer relationship with the historically Russian idea of 'bardic' poet/singers but they were also absolutely influenced by Dylan, Baez and, later on, indie rock. Chechen singers like Imam Alimsultanov were deeply rooted in regional folk traditions but made music that wasn't particularly dissimilar to a lot of Russian acts.

In Poland, folk music was central to a lot of resistance movements but the most famous song of the era, and the one most closely associated with Solidarity, was based on L'Estaca by Luis Llach - which had in turn been a song of resistance against Franco. At the same time, you had thriving new wave and reggae scenes drawing on the anti-authoritarian themes of both.

Music is seen as critical to the independence movements of the Baltic States and tended to be focused on nationalist folk anthems but the staging point for a lot of the main protests at which they were aired were contemporary pop festivals because they gave people a chance to gather in large numbers.

Going back a bit, Calypso was hugely important to resistance to British rule of Trinidad in the 1920s and 1930s and did form a distinct national genre with roots in historical traditions but the lyrics were probably more important than the idea that it was a uniquely Trinidadian thing to rally around.

Idk, if there is a trend it seems to be 'use whatever works'.

wonderful reply, thank you – can't wait to get into some of this stuff. and yeah, makes perfect sense that a longer recorded history/better distribution makes for greater diversity of the styles in play

check out the Paredon label:

http://www.discogs.com/label/61411-Paredon

no discussion of this kind of thing is complete w out covering Victor Jara imo

Tropicalia as a resistance to the military junta poses a similarly knotted tangle what with all the appropriation/references to "imperialist" cultures (which they got a lot of shit for from ardent leftists, who preferred - according to Tropical Truth anyway, iirc - more "trad"/folk styles)