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The social relevance of music does not emerge from melody or sound. Rather, as a system of signs, music exhibits individually specific characteristics of form and content that are loaded with assigned meanings by fans and critics, governmental bodies, and the media; these assigned meanings include political ones that vary according to point of view and circumstance. The assigned meanings can yield information on the shifting values and standards of particular social groups. In the 1950s, jazz music frequently carried idealistic connotations of democracy, civil society, and anti-racism among its followers, whereas rock"n roll fans associated their music with a vague concept of rebellion. Beginning in the early 1960s, cultural critics of various political stripes attributed a subversive potential to "beat" music. East of the Iron Curtain, beat music was seen as the sound of the Western capitalist lifestyle; in the West, it was sometimes seen as a vehicle for communist egalitarianism. However, those who saw no threat in jazz and beat music would eventually prevail. Meanwhile, political subcultures tried to extensively harvest the rebellious potential of rock music.

DOI: 10.1057/9780230611900_6

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