I qualified with a degree in Psychology and Sociology first, and then did a postgraduate degree in the Sociology-related subject of Social Anthropology. I qualified to be a Hypnotherapist and happily worked as that for a few years before deciding to become a qualified college teacher in Psychology and Sociology. I have been teaching for six years now, having now helped hundreds of students with essays and dissertations. I have always mixed academic teaching with creative writing. I have written several cultural documentaries for television and three graphic novels so far. I specialise in: Media-related Sociology research; Social theories; therapies in Psychology and qualitative research techniques, but have written research papers on dozens of subjects, including History.

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Music and national identity

This essay will seek to consider some aspects of the relationship between music and notions of national identity. It will draw heavily upon the ideas and writings of Martin Cloonan and Benedict Anderson in this effort. There will also be an effort to look at a particular piece of music, in order to consider what the lyrics may reveal that relates to the central concern.

Firstly, what do we mean by the words music, nation and national identity? Benedict Anderson, in his seminal book “Imagined Communities”, offers this: "I propose the following definition of the nation: It is an imagined political community - and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign." (1991:15) By “imagined”, he means that they are a product of the mental effort of the people in that nation. What music is may seem obvious. But nothing should be left to assumptions when trying to define terms used in an effort at analysis. Theodor Adorno, in his analysis “On popular music” (1941) makes it clear that music comes in different forms and has different impact and meanings to various groups in a society. British scholar Martin Cloonan has written a key text in the recent analysis of this area: “State of the Nation: ‘Englishness’ pop, and politics in the mid 1990s”. He has brought the reflections of Adorno, Anderson and others up to bear upon very recent times in the UK, and made a definite argument for one type of connection between music and national identity

Specifically Cloonan looked at British music in the 1980s and 90s and notions of “English” national identity. Note the last sentence starts with “British” and then instead states “English”, as if there was no difference between the two. This is one of the key points of Cloonan: the terms English and British are often used interchangeably, even among intelligent commentators. Cloonan looks at this phenomenon as it concerns music. He reports on comments such as one referring to The Kinks’ songwriter Ray Davies as: "The inventor of Britpop, the ever-so-English lyrical genius" (1997: Part Four, point I. At URL: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2822/is_n2_v21/ai_20781355). Apart from the simple observation that this may be explained by noting that “Engpop” just sounds awkward compared to the stylish sounding “Britpop”, the conflation of these two terms reveals much. The way that music journalists write about their subject is likely to reveal some of the dynamics of what Benedict Anderson is referring to in his emphasis on the imagined.

By using “English” and “British” interchangeably it indicates that they consider England to be Britain, or at least the only part of it that can also stand for the whole. Cloonan notes: “…the Scottish bands Runrig and The Proclaimers could never be put forward as being British; their Scottishness is worn on their sleeves. Similarly, Super Furry Animals and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci get described as Welsh, but rarely as British.” (1997: Part four, point i). England is, of course, the dominant partner in the UK, in terms of physical size, population, GDP, language, etc. Benedict Anderson may point to language as being the essential factor though. Music is in part a vehicle by which language is conveyed. It is more than this of course, but Cloonan indicates that it was lyric-based music in the 90s that appeared to be what was chosen as best defining Englishness. Discussing bands such as Pulp, Suede, Blur, etc he notes that: “What they have in common is that they are particularly literary forms of popular music”. (1997: Part three, point v).

Therefore this lyric-based music has come to be seen as defining the national identity of the English more than what Cloonan refers to as “Nonarticulated” music forms: jungle, techno, rave, etc. Is it coincidence that these downgraded forms are ones that are more associated with Britain’s ethnic minorities. Cloonan has noted that especially the bands Blur and Oasis were seen as having a direct lineage back to the “golden age” bands like The Kinks and The Beatles. Therefore an effort was made to draw an imagined line of continuity between various bands that in their music and attitude can be seen to be quintessentially “English”. The quote from the singer of Blur, Damon Albarn, that starts Cloonan’s text indicates this: “If you draw a line from The Kinks in the Sixties, through The Jam and The Smiths to Blur in the Nineties, it would define this thing called Englishness as well as anything.” (1997: Introduction).

Cloonan mentions that this effort has been criticised. He mentions another commentator who noted: "The music-hall inflections of The Kinks and The Small Faces were nostalgic first time round; there is more than a hint of insularity about their wholesale readoption three decades on" (1997: part four, point v). The implication is that England was unsure of its present and future and looking to its imagined past in order to reassert its image of itself. However, the music of the 90s was looking back to a time, most particularly the music of 1965-67, that had already a heavy dose of nostalgia in it. So we are in a position of “double fantasy”, to use the title of a later John Lennon album. It is an effort at imaging an identity by borrowing from a mythical time that was, in itself, already borrowing from imagined times before it. All these interconnected imaginings are woven together into a chronological fabric that is made to look far more deliberate than it probably is. Anderson says: “It is the magic of nationalism to turn chance into destiny.” (1991:12).

Anderson indicated that in his view the nation is also imagined as sovereign, that the sovereign state is the basic unit of a nation’s freedom in the modern world. Perhaps there is a feeling of threat to sovereignty when many “outside” forces are pressing down. In 1990s England this would include the perceived “flood” of immigrants and the apparent break-up of the larger unit in which it is dominant. In such a time, the music produced, and the way it is received/consumed is likely to reflect this perceived threat to national identity. Cloonan notes how this can easily develop beyond nationalism: “As Englishness involves a form of exclusion, it is axiomatic that the non-English will be amongst those excluded. This can soon lead to xenophobia, if not outright racism.” (1997, Part four, point iv).

In songs such as Blur’s “Magic America” Cloonan thinks he sees one version of this xenophobia: Anti-Americanism. The song is a sarcastic portrayal of a country with a low quality, mass produced culture. Of course this is to be put in contrast with the supposedly more deep, authentic characteristics of “high culture” Britain. Britpop was taken to heart as a British reaction to US grunge music that had dominated for a few years by that point. Cloonan notes the military metaphor used in regard to this musical reaction in such comments as: "a patriotic task-force . . . assembled to repel the US grunge invasion." (1997, Part four, point iv).

As mentioned, it is the “nonarticulated” forms of music that are the most associated with Britain’s ethnic minorities, which have been far less held to be characteristically “English”. The notable exception to this is rap music, in which the spoken word is prominent. Yet there has been little effort made to champion British or English rap bands as demonstrating national identity. Perhaps this is because rap is seen as a Black American phenomenon. This conveniently forgets that Rock ‘n’ Roll has largely Black American roots too. Nearly every one of the big 60s bands in the UK drew great inspiration directly from Black American music. This feeling of rap not really being “English” is found even amongst ordinary young fans. A recent comment on the internet site “Urban Music Forum” notes from one fan:

“…british rap culture don't exist. Look at the clothes, all are probably, new Era caps, akademics, NBA etc...The youth is taking on US culture, i think it is just fashion/face. There is nothing UK about our Hip Hop beats. It has all been done b4. Grime is our only form of originality. I make hip hop beats myself, i ain't gonna lie and say i'm different to what is already out there…” (http://www.majorfm.com/forum/thread2349.html)

However another fan on the Bandlink.net site offered a more positive opinion on this issue, and even performed a similar act of imagining by linking the most recent developments in British music to those of the 60s: “…now in the noughties [sic] finally there is a British response to rap, and the British rap is better than a lot of the american rap, just like in the sixties the British rock and roll was the best.” (http://www.bandlink.net/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=31631). But even they fall short of saying that this very recent music, such as that by the rapper called The Streets, will one day come to be seen as “quintessentially English”, as bands of the 60s have. Notice also that the word being used in all these is “British” not “English”.

In such considerations we see efforts to use music or other forms of mass media as a tool for creating identity at the national level. That it happens without most people noticing its effect does not make it any less powerful. Anderson notes this in relation to fiction, but it could just as well refer to music: “…fiction seeps quietly and continuously into reality, creating that remarkable confidence of community in anonymity which is the hallmark of modern nations." (1991: 36)

Anderson relates how in a modern nation state that no one can personally know everyone else, there are just too many fellow citizens. But via these media an individual can share an imagined sense of community with them, so that: “…he has complete confidence in their steady, anonymous, simultaneous activity" (1991:26). As mentioned, it was printed books that first made it possible for people to share a sense of community with people, beyond those they have actually met. Later, technological advance meant that mass-produced music could also perform this function.

We turn now to look at the lyrics of one of the songs by white American rap music artist Eminem. We shall try to analyse the song in relation to various points that have already been made. Eminem is a significant figure in contemporary popular music. A “white boy in a black person medium” is the common image of him. He writes:

“proud to be citizens of this beautiful country of our's”

In this he speaks of an imagined community, of the USA that is “ours”, though somewhat ironically perhaps. Us being the American people, the imagined community that are his listeners. Anderson writes about the novel Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal, written in the Philippines in 1887: “While Rizal has not the faintest idea of his readers' individual identities, he writes to them with an ironical intimacy" (1997:27-28). We can see exactly the same stance taken by Eminem more than 120 years later. This perhaps illustrates Anderson’s point that it is in the modern nation state that this type of imagined community via mass media has come to exist. We take that type of community for granted now, as natural, without evening realising it, just as at one time the divinity of kings was taken for granted as a frame of reference for ordinary living. The assertion of Anderson is that it is actually a product of sociological developments.

This type of statement is further shown by these lyrics:

“I never would've dreamed in a million years i'd see, so many motherfuckin' people who feel like me, who share the same views and the same exact beliefs…”

But of course he doesn’t “see” them in general. Even someone who has tens of thousands of fans attend their concerts, will never actually see the majority of their fans. Again it’s the imagined community of people who share the same views and beliefs.

“if I was black, I wouldve have sold half”

Here Eminem demonstrates an awareness of the racist nature of the USA, where black people are still not accepted by some as fully part of the national identity. Cloonan’s points regarding it being mostly music made by white people as being considered really English seems to have a baring here. Eminem also faces up to the position of being white in a musical medium that is mostly associated with black people. He cites the help he was given by ‘Dre’, a black man, and in doing so posits an America of his imagining where white and black work closely in mutual support of each other in a spirit of fraternity. The importance of hip-hop to Black America is noted by Errol A. Henderson:

“Arguably, hip-hop has become a conduit for African American culture to a greater extent than even jazz.” (http://www.nbufront.org/html/fvwin98/errol1.html)

Concerning the importance of class in music, Cloonan writes: “the mid-1990s, England remained a country where class was a key determinant of life prospects, and this has been reflected in discussions of English pop.” (1997, part 4, point vii). Eminem indicates an awareness of class differences in the USA by the following lyrics:

“I ain't have to graduate from Lincoln high school to know that, but I could rap, so fuck school”

Rap, as a somewhat alien and certainly suspect musical form for a white boy, provided his escape route from the conventional route of education, job and social respectability. Eminem shows an awareness that he has bucked the system in a rather lucky way, and come to use a new set of imagined beliefs and traits to define himself. He also shows that the imagined community of his fans came to like him because they imagined that they saw themselves reflected in Eminem:

“they connected with me too because I looked like them,
that's why they put my lyric's up under this microscope, searchin' with a fine tooth comb,”

This further reminds us of Cloonan’s observation: “Thus there is a sense in which pop's Englishness is a common man's…Englishness, rooted in the (mythical) streets which are used to back up its claims to realism.” (1997, Part four, point vii). Cloonan’s emphasis on the importance of lyrics in popular music is perhaps also relevant here. Eminem further indicates that he knows that it is the lyric content of his songs that have proven problematic:

“all I hear is, lyrics, lyrics, constant controversy”

Again there is a reflection of the class and racial differences in the USA, and of their intermingling, in such words as:

“surely hip-hop was never a problem in Harlem, only in Boston, after it bothered the fathers of daughters starting to blossom,”

As hip-hop or rap is seen as this alien musical form it is therefore something that does not fit in with the imagined reality of educated Boston white girls. But Eminem is white and eloquently verbal and recognises that he somewhat mixes up these neat categories of imagined community:

“just look at me like i'm your closest pal, the
posterchild, the motherfuckin' spokesman now for...”

He specifically outlines a rebellious and subversive purpose, and paints a picture of leading an attack on the very centre of the imagined American community, to demonstrate a dissatisfaction with the way it is managing this national community, or the type of national identity that it is creating:

“So to the parents of America, I am the aimed at little Erica, to attack her character, the ringleader of this circus of worthless pawns, sent to lead the march right up to the steps of congress, and piss on the lawns of the White House”

Although it is unlikely that Eminem has read Adorno, can we not see something in his critical attitude of the American capitalist system that reminds us of Adorno’s writings? Adorno was indicating that popular music is a form of creating passivity amongst the masses. In this analysis the idea of music creating or reinforcing an image of national identity would be merely one more false ideal. One that is erected, more or less consciously by the dominant class, in order to make sure that people continue to passively accept the capitalist system. (Adorno, 2002)

But Eminem seems to honestly believe that his lyrics and music can have the effect of galvanising his listeners to a more critical attitude. Perhaps this is giving him more than he is worth, perhaps it is more cynical an exercise on his part than that. At the very least though Eminem’s music, with such memorable phrases as “democracy of hypocrisy” is reflecting the general decline of faith in the government of the USA. A process of imagining such pillars as the White House and the president no longer at the heart of the imagined community, but indeed its enemies. Cloonan cites Stuart Hall’s comment that: "Everywhere the question of Englishness is in contention." (1997, Conclusion). Eminem is showing that the question of Americanness is also in contention, when even the “sacred” institutions can be, literally, pissed on. Compare this attitude with the lyrics of Edward Elgar of 1902, which show a strident nationalism fully confident in itself, revealing an imagined community of a very different character:

“Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free, How shall we extol thee, Who are born of thee? Wider still and wider, Shall thy bounds be set; God, who made thee mighty, Make thee mightier yet” (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/NATMUSIC.html)

The play on the words United States of America of the lyric below indicates that this modern doubt in the central authorities puts even the basic ideal of the community of the USA under threat:

“to spit liquor in the faces of in this democracy of hypocrisy,fuck you Ms. Cheney, fuck you Tipper Gore, fuck you with the freest of speech this divided states of embarassment will allow me to have”

It is not united, it is “divided”; it is not even America anymore as it was imagined to be in the past, now it’s just an ‘embarrassment’. But even then he ends on a playful optimistic note in saying:

“hahaha, i'm just playin' America, you know I love you...”

But what “America” is he referring to here. It’s surely not the America of the hypocritical White House, or of the snobbish white middle-class elements, or the America that is racist. There is something beyond all that that he still loves. Eminem has still an image in his head of an America that is worth loving. And what would that America be?

In conclusion, this essay has attempted to look at the relationship between music and national identity. Some key ideas and writings that help us understand the relationship have been described and considered. A song has been focused on in terms of how it may demonstrate some of this dynamic relationship. National identity has been thought of as creation in the minds of those who share a certain bounded community. A creation that is partly created and reinforced by mass media, of which music is just one form. A sense of “Englishness” or “Americaness” is something that is fundamentally ambivalent and open to change. Cloonan paraphrases Parekh in noting: “…national identity has been made and can be remade”(1997, Conclusion). This is perhaps the positive conclusion that can be made: we can make our own sense of who we are. Eminem seems to understand that.

Bibliography

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Anderson, B. (1991) Imagined Communities. London: Verso.
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Savage, Jon. (1991) England's Dreaming. London: Faber and Faber.
White, H and Murphy, M. (eds) (2001)Musical Constructions of Nationalism: Essays on the History and Ideology of European Musical Culture 1800-1945. Cork: Cork University Press
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