Policy, Research & Politics
Moroccan rapper gets year in prison for critical video
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- Tuesday, 26 November 2019
Moroccan rapper Gnawi knew the police would come when he and two friends released an unusually outspoken video exposing their country’s problems with migration and drugs and expressing frustration with the king.
How Taylor Swift Dragged Private Equity Into Her Fight Over Music Rights
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- Tuesday, 26 November 2019
A little over a week ago, a troubling alert appeared on the smartphone of an executive at the private equity giant the Carlyle Group: The firm had been invoked by Taylor Swift.
‘I am explaining the truth and they want to put me in jail’
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- Tuesday, 26 November 2019
Pablo Hasél (real name Pablo Rivadulla) is a rapper and a pro-communist who performs “forbidden songs” which Spanish authorities believe glorify terrorism. Freemuse spoke to Hasél ahead of the MUR Festival in Palma de Mallorca.
Turkmenistan stages first opera after 19-year ban
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- Tuesday, 26 November 2019
Older spectators leaving the theatre late on a cool Tuesday night voiced a nostalgia for the long-taboo art form while younger spectators enthused over the performance.
À Hong Kong, les manifestations réveillent la scène underground
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- Tuesday, 26 November 2019
Depuis plusieurs mois que la population s'oppose au gouvernement, les artistes de l'île, notamment dans le secteur du hip-hop, ont eux aussi adopté des positions politiques dans leurs chansons.
Hope and desperation inspired Hong Kong’s ‘national anthem’, says incognito composer
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- Tuesday, 12 November 2019
City needed a protest song to unite it, says the anonymous writer behind the tune sweeping the barricades.
Following Tradition, Chilean Musicians Lead in Anti-Inequality Protests
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- Tuesday, 12 November 2019
On Monday, amid mounting conflicts between the Chilean people and military police, social justice-minded rapper Ana Tijoux dropped “#CACEROLAZO.” The song’s title name checks the Latin American protest tradition of banging pots and pans in the street.
Music and politics have never been mutually exclusive, and nor should they be
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- Tuesday, 12 November 2019
Music as a means of social commentary is nothing new, so why are people still surprised when a musician gets political?
'It's possible to live together in peace': the Turkish rap epic taking on the government
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- Tuesday, 12 November 2019
Amid conflict in Syria, stifled free speech and oppressive machismo, rappers in Turkey are speaking out to hold their country – and themselves – to account.
More Articles...
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- The Banjo and the Ballot Box
- Report of the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights
- Placing her politics over her music, star Denise Ho defies China
- White Supremacy Tried to Kill Jazz. The Music Triumphed.
- Queen empêche Donald Trump d’utiliser sa musique à des fins politiques
- When making music means torture and exile
- Music is a vital urban resource. How do we plan for it?