Has music ever changed the world?

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There were some interesting posts made in my recent thread about the horrible little punk poseur who was throwing lit cigarettes at passers by in Stadelhofen last week, in which it was suggested that punk was an important 'movement' which, in some ways, changed the world.

It's an interesting idea, and one which, quite obviously, appeals to many of us. We all like to think that the musical movements we liked when we were spotty, argumentative youths had some impact upon the world at large, that our stand against 'the man' actually made a difference , that the bands whose LPs we played to death on our beat-up old record players were actually saying something important. But did they, did it and were they?

Take punk, for example. Despite my comments in the other thread, I do sometimes enjoy listening to and singing along with the Sex Pistols. They are funny, noisy and very entertaining. Their music wasn't particularly original, their lyrics were incoherent and consisted, to a large extent, of puerile attempts to shock with tasteless references to concentration camps and abortion, but they're just the thing to put on when you're feeling a bit fed up and need cheering up.

But did they change the world? Was the world, in 1982, say, much different from the one into which the Sex Pistols had burst five years earlier? Did the Sex Pistols bring down the government, put the conservative establishment in its place or energise a disgruntled British youth into an organised movement of protest, progress and reform?

Or did they just provide the soundtrack to a dreary era of industrial decline, community decay and apathy that culminated in 18 years of Conservative rule, call centres outsourced to India, Pop Idol and shell-suits? Did anything really change?

I've chosen the Sex Pistols as an example as they came up in the other thread, but the same could be said about hip-hop, thrash metal, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the blues, reggae, the hippy movement, acid house, David Hasselhoff... are any of these any more than mere entertainment? Or have they changed - can they change - the world in any kind of meaningful way?

Right, I'm off now to dig up my Megadeth t-shirt and persuade myself that the native Americans really are better off these days because Anthrax sang a song about them in 1987...

What do you reckon?

2
DJ Bobo definitely makes the world a worse place!

3
Music , rather than changes the world, shows us the changes in the world.

4
I don't know if music ever changed the world, but it has definitely changed mine....

Thanks Billie P. and John B.

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I'm not sure that any music changed the world. Society yes, the world - not so sure. But it definitely opened my eyes up to issues that I'd not have been all that aware of, particularly punk beyond the first wave from the early 80s.

And as Bertrand says - music has changed my world. In ways I can't even begin to express.

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Nothing changes the world is how I feel. Although music can change the world inside our head I like music that screws my head without the use of chemical substances.

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new musical movements appeal to the young and pliable. The establishment and the powerful don't find (insert at will) elvis, motown, mammas and papas, beatles, pistols, clash etc on radio 4 when they were current even though they are now often on Desert Island Discs

What happens is that music defines a time and raises issues with the young. People that can anticipate this, like Malcolm Mclaren and the awful fellow Louis Walsh, can make lots of dollars

oh, and it's great. Music is calorie free, guiltless pleasure everyday but sadly, hasn't changed the world

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Hm, but if music changes us, maybe it does indeed change the world indirectly.

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Aaaah, but Pink Floyd and a joint is a right of passage :-)

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Ah yes, Pink Floyd (gonna go put some on now) but personally seems like a strange pairing with a Sunday Dinner...

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You don't say...

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Yep, a real bugger to try and light....

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If anyone has any non-anglo examples of world-changing music, btw, I'd love to hear about them...

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Okay, seriously, according to some, yes.

100 Songs that changed the world

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Yes right after Bill Haley's "Rock around the clock".and also this punk would still be recovering,maybe, from some sever beating

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Reading some of the responses, and thinking - yes, I can think of one instance where music changed the world. At least in America.

Race issues. White men playing black music opened up doors for these two races to socialize, something which was mostly unheard of and in some places illegal when it began happening.

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I was thinking about revolutionary songs that were used to rallying people to the movement. This type of songs used to be like our modern social networks, spreading the word and mobilizing people.

I can give the example of the french resistance during WWII, the song "Le Chant des Partisans" was broadcast by BBC (this is the anglo-saxon touch).

If you pay attention to the lyrics and the rythm , it's a very moving song.

Therefore, I do believe that it had an impact on french resistance.

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Nice link - thank you!

I was going to respond that, in my opinion, only one of the examples in the top ten was a world-changing song (Strange Fruit), as opposed to a music-changing song (all the others in the list), when I saw this post from evilshell:

I suspect you may have found something there, and it ties nicely to ashishshah's list, in which Billie Holiday's song is claimed to have kick started the Civil Rights movement.

Would these changes have happened anyway, though, even without white interest in black music? Or did the increased visibility of black performers - and their willingness to share their situation with a growing white audience - help make black issues a mainstream concern?

Can the same be said for hip-hop? Has hip-hop helped bring communities together?

An excellent point - thank you!

Reading your post, I realise that I have concentrated a little too much on modern popular music (and its related fashion and youth movements), and have ignored the power of patriotic and revolutionary music.

Does anyone have any other examples of these?

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Excellent point

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...like eminem?