Johnson Cloonan 2009 Music Accompanying Violence
Music Representing Violence
Central aim: avoid assuming direct causality; violence and music have accompanied each other, not proven as a direct cause. Focus on relationships that range from incidental to potentially collaborative.
Crime ballads as a basic category: early modern sensational narratives of violent figures (e.g., Dick Turpin, Jack Sheppard, Jonathan Wild) tied to the rise of capitalist social tensions (enclosures, privatization of rights) and the public theatre of crime.
1780 Gordon Riots: music and popular theatre of crime as metaphors of agency for the underclasses; violence in public squares paralleled by evolving capitalist oppression.
Shifting visibility: as state violence moved behind a silent system, the public theatre of crime diminished; celebrity criminals migrated to frontier mythologies and mass media, linking violence to modern celebrity culture.
20th-century intensification: mechanization of war and growing mass mediation of music increased interest in musical representations of violence; war imagery in songs (e.g., trench songs, tank crew songs) reflects industrialized conflict.
Representations in popular media:
Film music and violence use both diegetic and extradiegetic scores to shape power relations (A Touch of Evil; Psycho; Jaws; Dr. Strangelove).
Later films (The Innocents, Clockwork Orange, Mean Streets, Silence of the Lambs, etc.) feature morally ambiguous or incongruous musical cues that heighten psychological tension and suggest that appearances can be deceiving.
Concept of anempathetic music (Chion) and the potential of music to carry pain or violence via incongruity; Be Cool and Madonna’s American Life cited as contemporary examples.
Music and violence in social conduct:
Nazi camps: music used to control, torment, and psychologically manipulate prisoners (marching songs, camp anthems, forced performances).
Terezin (Theresienstadt) as propaganda and cultural display; Swing groups and classical repertoires juxtaposed with extermination machinery.
The paradox: music, a sublime human expression, became entangled with genocide. This informs caution against simplistic cause/correlation claims about ‘violence and music.’
Broader implications:
The “banality of evil” thesis is challenged by the ubiquity of music in violent contexts; the link between music and violence is ordinary and widespread, not exceptional.
Two preliminary hypotheses for further work:
Late 20th-century western culture shows increased fascination with violence representations in mainstream media.
Attitudes toward violence become more ambivalent/complex, with traditional public morality challenged.
Taxonomies: Music as the Muse of Modern Violence
A spectrum exists from coincidental to collaborative links between music and violence; causality remains contested. The most contested point is whether violent music causes violent behavior.
Fortuitous end of the spectrum: violence in the music world itself (musicians and audiences as victims or perpetrators) across genres and eras (jazz, rock, punk, metal).
Violence against musicians and by musicians is widespread across styles and eras (examples include jazz murders, police beatings of artists, and notable assassinations).
Notable cases and patterns:
Jazz-era violence and censorship a long-running thread; punk-era theatricality and the growth of a violence-as-genre aesthetic (Sid Vicious, Pete Doherty).
Gangsta rap and associated violence become markers of cred/authenticity; police surveillance of hip hop culture; legal cases involving artists (e.g., Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg) reflect ongoing tension between music and violence.
Extreme metal (Norwegian Black Metal) linked to real-world violence and criminal activity; Beasts of Satan in Italy tied to murders; multiple cases across Europe and the US.
Self-harm and violence among fans (Goth subculture, Emo) show statistical associations with self-injury; linkage is mediated by self-esteem and subcultural identification, not simple causation.
Audience and performer risk: high death rates in pop music (drug/alcohol abuse) and concert-related injuries (moshing, crowd crushes) demonstrate how crowds, venues, and media environments contribute to violent outcomes.
Important caveat: statistical associations do not imply causation; refutations emphasize multi-factor models (self-esteem, environment, subculture, economic conditions).
The case for correlation without simple causation is reinforced by examples of incitement (explicit calls to violence on stage) versus arousal (music that primes feelings of aggression without explicit instruction).
Case Study: Woodstock 1999
Event scope: July 1999, Griffiss Air Force Base, Rome, NY; about attendees over three days; two main stages, large camping areas, and a separate Action Lounge.
Early stage conditions: extreme heat, dehydration, inadequate water and sanitation, and polluted logistics; long delays and a perceived lack of safety and basic services.
Violence and disorder: on Sunday, Limp Bizkit and other acts are linked with ramped up mosh-pits, merchandise destruction, and widespread vandalism; sexual assaults documented; rioting culminates in fires and mass property destruction.
Casualties and costs: several hundred injuries treated on-site, multiple hospitalizations, two deaths, dozens of arrests; on-site vendors and security faced significant strain; water and food prices criticized as exploitative.
Contributing factors:
Organizational deficiencies and commodification ("Commercialstock"); inadequate infrastructure and crowd control; high temperatures and heat-related stress.
Crowd dynamics and ritualized performance elements (moshing, drumming circles) that create emotional intensity and collective identity unrelated to explicit on-stage incitement.
Media coverage and participant memory shaped by a mediated Woodstock myth vs. the on-the-ground reality; nostalgia versus commodification of countercultural ideals.
Theoretical framing (Vider’s self-categorization, memory effects): crowd violence reflects complex social identities and commemorative narratives rather than a simple cause-effect link.
Key takeaway: Woodstock 1999 illustrates the ambiguity of music’s role in violence; large-scale festivals generate conditions for violent outcomes through logistics, crowd dynamics, and aspirational narratives rather than direct musical incitement alone.
Causality: Incitement vs Arousal
Two distinct but overlapping categories emerge:
Music that explicitly incites violence (onstage calls, perverse prompts, explicit encouragement).
Music that arouses violence (affects listener arousal, mood, and susceptibility to violence, without explicit instruction).
Case evidence suggests that neither category alone explains violence at music events; context, crowd, environment, and cultural expectations play crucial roles.
Takeaways for quick recall
Causality is not established: music and violence often coexist without a direct causal link; many mediating factors exist (economic conditions, crowd dynamics, media narratives).
Representations shape perception: film, theatre, and mass media use music to sculpt power relations and ethical ambiguities around violence.
The modern violence-musical landscape is diverse: crime ballads, war songs, cinema scores, subcultural violence (punk/metal), fan self-harm, and crowd disasters all contribute to a nuanced picture.
Woodstock 1999 serves as a cautionary example of how scale, logistics, and myth-making interact with musical performance to produce violent outcomes, not simply because of the music itself.
Key terms to remember
Anempathetic music: music that communicates pain or violence through incongruity with the on-screen events.
Diegetic vs extradiegetic music: on-screen (within the film’s world) versus non-diegetic scores; both can shape violence perception.
Material and symbolic violence: economics of music events and the symbolic promise of transcendent experiences through pop culture.
Self-categorization theory in crowd violence: how social identities of crowds influence violent behavior.
Mosh-pit culture: a localized, often cooperative crowd dynamic that can nonetheless produce serious injuries in large-scale events.
Note: All dates and figures are cited from the chapter text as contextual anchors, e.g., the Gordon Riots occurred in , public executions waned by with the silent system, Woodstock , etc.