Master Thesis
THE PERCEPTION OF OPINION LEADERSHIP FOR POLITICAL AND CIVIC
PARTICIPATION
AMONG DANCE MUSIC ARTISTS
Emilija Kučytė
Political communication
Student identification number: 10841830
Thesis supervisor: Dr. M.E. Wojcieszak
Word count: 1443
2 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Abstract
This research combines the fields of entertainment, politics and media. The patterns of political participation are especially changing among youth. In this context popular artists, acting as opinion leaders, have the forum to shape the public opinion and instigate political behavior. Thus by conducting qualitative interviews with dance music artists, this thesis provides an insight on their motives to act as opinion leaders, who stimulate civic participation among their fans. It has showed that the motives to instigate political engagement depend on the interplay between the views towards the freedom of speech, hierarchy and representation in democracy; the level of interpretation of an artist as a public versus private person and the level of perceived influence of artists. The motivation was moderated by the medium and the level of issue controversy.
Keywords:
Political participation, media, music, entertainment, civic engagement, opinion leadership
3 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Introduction
“I am a D.J., I am what I say[..]
I've got believers
I've got believers in me”
- David Bowie.
In this song the late David Bowie talks about the influence of a DJ, a face of now billion dollar growing industry and the genre most popular among the millennial generation.
Among other forms of entertainment, music has always had an important role in influencing the political landscape, mobilizing nations or being a form of protest, while becoming “the voice of the generation” (Van Zoonen, 2005). Whilst the civic and political participation patterns in the western democracies are changing, especially among youth, this thesis looks on what political and societal role may the music of the modern day play into it.
It is claimed that various civic participation forms have become more preferred than conventional political participation (Bennett, 2008; Russell J. Dalton, 2008). In fact, data points to a decreasing rate of conventional political participation among western societies: a steady drop of the worldwide voting turnout by 10 points since the 80s, institutional trust and party membership reaching an unprecedented lows (Hooghe & Marien, 2013; L. Street, NW,
Washington, & Inquiries, 2014). These trends are especially permeated among youth
(Bennett, 2008; Lopez & Donovan, 2002). Instead young people willfully engage in various forms of civic participation, based on ‘involvement’, ‘voice’ and ‘output’ within communities, both offline and online (Bang, 2003; Bennett, 2008; Russell J. Dalton, 2008;
Wheeler, 2012). However, as long as government, other social groups and institutions remain in the central of the democratic process, it is important to bridge the disengaging youth
(Bennett, 2008). 4 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Observers note, one of the ways to stimulate electoral and civic participation is by connecting politics to the everyday culture (Bennett, 2008; Van Zoonen, 2005). Noticeably the domains of politics, entertainment and media have begun to overlap, thus celebrity politics has become of particular interest, due to it’s potential to influence electorates and shape political discourse (Bang, 2003; Marsh, ‘t Hart, & Tindall, 2010; J. Street, 2004a;
Wheeler, 2012). In fact, prior research on the effects of celebrity involvement and endorsement of civic and political activism proved celebrities being capable of influencing attitudes and stimulating political engagement among the younger citizenry (Austin, Vord,
Pinkleton, & Epstein, 2008; Jackson, 2008; Jackson & Darrow, 2005). Moreover, along with the rise of social media, artists and musicians have gained an even more direct platform to engage with their fans and disseminate messages to a broad spectrum of people.
While an impressive body of studies (mostly before the social media era) has investigated the opinion leadership, it’s effects of disseminating the messages to the broader constituencies and validity among nations (Katz, 1957; Nisbet & Kotcher, 2009; Valente &
Pumpuang, 2007; Weimann, 1991), but there is a gap of literature adressing the incentives and motives of the opinion leaders themselves (Weimann, 1991). Furthermore, while the literature of celebrity politics has looked at the effects on attitudes, behaviours and normative implications (Marsh et al., 2010; J. Street, 2004b; Van Zoonen, 2005; Wheeler, 2012) the perspective of celebrities, artists or musicians themselves in their perception on their role in stimulating political and civic participation has been overlooked.
Therefore I begin drawing upon existing literature on celebrity politics and opinion leadership to approach the general research question: To what extent are dance musicians opinion leaders who consciously stimulate civic engagement among youth? With the current study I extend the line of qualitative research by relying on semi structured interviews to examine the perceptions, incentives and determinants of artists in stimulating political and 5 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION civic engagement. Furthermore, I look at what possible part the contemporary music could play as a possible avenue for civic engagement and – in so doing – this thesis offers a greater understanding of the interplay between politics and entertainment in the in the context of
Digital Age and changing patterns of political participation.
Theoretical Framework
The relocation of political and civic behaviour (Bennett, 2008) has to be researched in the context of broader societal changes. Due to the rise of Internet and social media, the way people exchange, consume and seek for information has changed, which subsequently gave more influence to the electorates and peer networks (Bennet, 2007). According to Bang
(2003) along the changing forms of participation the late modernity era brought ‘the replacement of hierarchy by networks as the dominant mode of governance; a move from politics policy to policy politics; the increased importance of the discursive arena for network governance and the associated rise of the role of the media and celebrity politics’ (Bang,
2003; Marsh et al., 2010, p. 326).
The literature of celebrity politics points to two opposing perspectives rowards celebrity involvement in politics (Bang, 2003; Marsh et al., 2010; J. Street, 2004a; Wheeler,
2012). Critics claim, that while aiming for an informed debate in a respresentative democracy, celebrities marginalise the relevant expertise with abusing their platform lack of knowledge over policies (Pharr & Putnam, 2000; J. Street, 2004b). On the other hand, using the platform, it gives the celebrity an ability to reach and mobilize otherwise disengaged and apathetic constituencies, possibly even amplify marginalized voices (Marsh et al., 2010).
Furthermore, at some cases celebrity politics are claimed to be actively aimed at stimulating public involvement and demanding greater transparency from policy makers. In addition, artists commonly behave as neutral agents without a self-benefiting political agenda, who do not seek the elected office (J. Street, 2004a). 6 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
In fact, when popular music claims a political role, it is commonly associated with
‘social movement politics, constructing and confirming the sense of togetherness around a particular shared concern’ (Van Zoonen, 2005, p.49) (e.g. rap as civil rights movement of the
90s) (Martinez, 1997). Electronic dance music chosen for this study has had the biggest growth in global popularity within the last decades, especially among millennial generation
(“Who is the Electronic Music Listener?,” 2014). The attendance at the top twenty global dance music festivals in 2013 was counted to have reached between 1.4 to 3.4 million
(Kiendl, 2013); the industry evaluated for $6.9 billion (“Global EDM Market Hits $6.9
Billion,” n.d.); and top musicians being followed by millions of fans on social networks (e.g.
David Guetta - over 55 mln.).
However, as well as the youth engagement, the political potential of dance music culture has been contradicting. Riley et al. (2010) claims that dance music as practice of youth cultural leisure and consumption is a form alternative political participation, without a particular social change agenda and it focuses on its purposefully escapist, hedonistic and apolitical objectives (Riley, Griffin, & Morey, 2010). Whereas the occurrence of dance musicians getting actively and publically involved in social issues, charity events or even political discussions online in the recent years is evident (“ADE Green,” 2015, “Can dance music and politics really mix?,” 2005, “Techno For Humanity fundraiser,” 2015). Either way, such events and the political and social involvement of artists and their political expression could have influence on their fans.
Popular musicians as opinion leaders
The theory of the Two-Step-Flow by Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) defines opinion leaders as mediators within the communication flow, who transmit messages from the media to a broader public (Katz & Lazersfeld, 1955). The original theory, looked at opinion leadership of people in horizontal social networks, such as peers and family members. 7 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
However, it is assumed that the relationship of musicians and their fans is non-horizontal, since artists, as celebrities have a different status in the social hierarchy, the fans know them, but they do not know the fans. However, I apply the insights and theoretical assumptions on the characteristics of opinion leaders to analyse the willingness of artists stimulate political engagement.
The expansion of social media gave musicians a direct platform to influence their fans by acting as opinion leaders (Oeldorf-Hirsch & Sundar, 2015). The definition by Weimann
(1994), who claimed opinion leader is defined by the number of his ties to various social networks or groups, or by the density of their social relations (Nisbet, 2006; Weimann, 1994), becomes even more relevant in the context of social media. Acoording to U.S. data, a sizable minority of young people do not engage into any news daily, thus many may not be aware of certain social or political issues (L. Street, NW, Washington, & Inquiries, 2012).
Furthermore, it is claimed that the majority (75%) of online news content consumers are reached through email or social network sites (SNS) (Purcell, Rainie, Mitchell, Rosenstiel, &
Olmstead, 2010) and close to half of SNS users receive news content daily from people they follow on Facebook (Hermida, Fletcher, Korell, & Logan, 2012). Furthermore, compared to a non-celebrity opinion leader, musicians are highly socially embedded not only though social media, but though various platforms, including traditional media, music performances and music itself. Considering their strategic location and their social embeddedness, musicians have the means to act as opinion leaders.
Thus even though musicians, as celebrities may have the medium to as opinion leaders, there are other factors that define the motives to behave as opinion leaders.
The theories of opinion leadership claim that opinion leader is defined by his strategic social location as well as his personal characteristics: their strong propensity to influence others and political interest. The information-giving behaviours of opinion leaders in 8 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION horizontal networks depend on the personality strength (Flynn, Goldsmith, & Eastman, 1996,
Weimann, 1994): high levels of self-efficacy, and self-confidence have been noted as personality features of an opinion leader (Nisbet & Kotcher, 2009). In order to narrow the scope of the research I will assume that celebrities score high on self-confidence and focus on the other trait, which is political knowledge and interest.
Political interest highly correlates with information sharing behaviour and defines opinion leaders. Though, the influentials were found to be active in several areas with considerable overlap (Weimann, 1991), opinion leaders are generally ‘attuned to new ideas and forward thinking’ (Kavanaugh et al., 2006). Also, it is contended that the more media information the individual uses, the more he/she talks about political/social matters with others (Campus et al., 2010; Kim et al., 1999). Therefore, I would assume that media consumption patterns and general political interest would suggest the willingness of artists to bring awareness on their certain societal concerns. However, even though, artists may acknowledge their social embeddedness, political interest and abilities to persuade, it is not known whether they think they can influence political engagement or are eager to do so.
Political effects of celebrity endorsement
According to Valente and Pumpuang opinion leaders are capable of changing judgments, attitudes, beliefs, motivations, and behaviours. Thus music artists can stimulate civic and political participation through (a) raising awareness, e.g. their higher visibility allows them to disseminate messages among their network; (b) persuading others, by consciously convincing others to engage in a certain political or civic behaviour; (c) establishing or reinforcing norms, by sending a message to others in the community that the behaviour is or will be popular or, the opposite show that a behaviour is or will not be popular/ tolerated; (d) pulling (leverage) resources, e.g. when a behaviour is adopted by the 9 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION leader, the rest tend to “feel left out”, thus are more willing to adopt certain behaviour or attitude (Valente & Pumpuang, 2007).
Previous empirical research on celebrity politics has looked at how celebrity endorsement can change attitudes, opinions and voting behavior of young voters. For instance, celebrities are capable of motivating the disengaged youth to stronger involvement and participation in civic affairs (Austin et al., 2008). It was also shown, that youth is significantly more inclined to adopt a political position endorsed by a celebrity (Jackson,
2008) and agree with already popular opinions promoted by their idol, and even accept unpopular statements as more palatable (Jackson & Darrow, 2005).
When it comes to affecting voting behaviour, celebrities seem to have a mixed impact. While two studies have claimed that family members and significant others have the strongest impact on youth and first-time voters, the impact of celebrity endorsement and advertising on voting was the lowest (O’Regan, 2014; Wood & Herbst, 2007). Yet, another study on voting behavior found that respondents with weak political affiliations are rather susceptible to celebrity endorsement, deciding on their vote for a political party or candidate, in oppose to no effect on voters with strong party preference (Ekant Veer, Ilda Becirovic, &
Brett A.S. Martin, 2010). However, this body of research focuses on the effect on the fans, leaving out the perspective of the celebrities.
In addition, previous study claims there is a certain issue preference among celebrities and music artists. Celebrities do not tend to promote unpopular statements, on the contrary they tend to either choose least controversial issues or promote more universal and mainstream approaches toward controversial issues (Meyer, 1995). Also there is a tendency to lean to liberal attitudes, focus on issues where their input would be rather tangible, such as charities or fund-raising. In line with these findings, the political involvement of musicians in 10 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION particular is claimed to substitute politics around a cause rather than a particular political ideology or electoral campaign (Garofalo, 1992).
Overall, there are reasons, musicians might feel either more restricted or obligated to pursue their political expressions towards their fans. In comparison to a non-celebrity opinion leader, the influence of an artist is based on affective identification that fan engagement is primarily based on (Van Zoonen, 2005). It is further argued, that musicians are perceived to be role models among their fans and through their mediated personas, they are able to attain the admiration, sympathy and authority of the fans (Wheeler, 2012). Thus perceiving their strong ability to change judgments, attitudes, beliefs, motivations, and behaviours (Valente &
Pumpuang, 2007), artists may refrain from their role within political or social domain, for many reasons, that need to be attained.
This thesis asks whether dance music artists are civically and politically engaged
(RQ1)? Reasonably, the intention to influence others depends on the perceived opinion leadership and willingness to be an opinion leader in the political domain, thus it is important to know whether dance music artists perceive themselves as opinion leaders in this particular domain within their fan community (RQ2). The main research question of this thesis looks at their general intention to act as opinion leaders, asking about the extent to which dance music artists have tried to act as opinion leaders in the political or civic domain (RQ3). Lastly, the possible reasons of restraining artists from behaving as opinion leaders are addressed: what are the reasons restraining artists from stimulating civic engagement among their fans?
(RQ4).
Method
Sample. Due to the intensive working schedules and status, in addition to the additional barrier by the intermediators, in particular, communication managers, popular musicians are mostly a target difficult to access. Therefore, due to the limited time and 11 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION human resources, a purposeful sample (Flick, 2009, p. 130) was employed for this study. No limitations of age, sex, race or country were considered. However, to ensure sample credibility, popular artists were defined based on two criteria: professional experience and popularity. The experience within the industry of minimum 5 years of music production as the main occupation, since based on personal observation that could be considered a sufficient period of time to judge on the dedication to the profession. and social media connectivity. The criteria of popularity is a subjective one and hard to define. However, for that I applied the measure of social media followship (a minimum of 10K followers, in comparison to the average of 155 Facebook friends of a regular user (Duggan et al., 2015); and data of the globally recognised dance music industry database, Resident Advisor, which annually enlists dance musicians based on a popular vote (“RA: Top 1000 DJs,” 2016). The database was used to select the respondents. In total, 56 individual artists and 3 music labels, managing approximately 24 more artists each, were contacted via email, 35 contacts responded, 11 interviewees agreed to participate via Skype (N=9) or in person (N=2).
It is important to note, that although, all of the interviewees had a communication manager (N=11), in charge of connections with industry press, all of the respondents were managing their social media by themselves. Work experience within music industry was ranging between 6 to 19 years, the range of the amount of Facebook followers spanned between 11,7K to 123K (M=53,96 K).
The semi-standardized interview method. Personal interviews were chosen for this study for several reasons. First, they are best suited for the exploration of attitudes, values, beliefs and motives of respondents regarding complex, sensitive issues, such as in this case civic participation and activism (Smith, 1992) and enable the interviewer to follow-up for more information and clarification of answers. Second, the qualitative interview method helped to ensure that the respondent was not assisted with answers (by their communication 12 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION managers) (Flick, 2009). It is clear, that in this type of interview, the validity and reliability depend, not on the repetition of the same words, but mainly on assigning similar meaning, which facilitates standardization and comparability of a semi-structured interview (Louise
Barriball & While, 1994). Also to increase the internal validy, member checks were performed, briefly rounding up the interview after each session.
Procedure. The respondents were recruited via email. The first email introduced with the research project, it’s purpose and the researcher. Following the replies, the time and means of the interviews were arranged to the convenience of the interviewee, which consolidated collaboration and secured good responses, essential for the study validity (Flick,
2009). The regular procedure of the interview started with an informal conversation to establish trust and was followed by a recap of the research project, it’s purposes, institution, the procedure of the interview.
During the interview, a set interview guide (see Appendix 1) was used. The guide was drawn up by eleven open and theory-driven questions, to answer the main research question
(RQ3) and draw explanations from the subsequent ones (RQ1, RQ2, RQ4) (further explained in the Appendix 2). The open questions focus on individual experiences (e.g. How interested, would you say, you are in politics?) and may be answered on the basis of the at hand knowledge as well as opinions, based on theoretical suppositions or hypotheses (e.g. ‘Why do you think some dance musicians do not attempt to stimulate civic engagement among their fans? Can it be perception that dance music is made for entertainment only?). In reaction to how interviewee answered the question, the interviewer asked retrospective questions in order to gain an insight, or to clarify the answer. Some of the interview questions employed the use of probes, which was a useful tool to provoke and explore deeper consideration of a matter (e.g. “should music stay out of politics”), as well as clarify inconsistencies of concepts
(e.g. “Do you engage in civic life? For example donate or volunteer to a social cause.”). 13 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Analysis
The guidelines for the analysis were derived from qualitative methodological literature (Charmaz, 2006; Flick, 2009). The program Atlas.Ti was used through the coding process. The first step was open (initial) coding of the interview transcriptions (Charmaz
2006). The formulations of the interviewees were assigned with directly and indirectly implied meanings, e.g. a quotation “to get more likes, to get exposure” was given a code
“expression for PR”. At first codes were assigned without predefined categories. The following step was focused coding, where codes were categorized by research questions into following categories: engagement and (non)participation types (RQ1), perceptions on acting as opinion leader in civic/ political domain (RQ2), artists actual experiences of acting as opinion leaders on various media (RQ3), reasons of refraining from stimulating civic engagement (RQ4) and smaller subcategories, such as RQ3.A. “artists are not role models”,
RQ3.B. “artists are role models” (Code Book in the Appendix 3). The third step was identifying links and relationships between codes and concepts.
Findings
In this section I describe the findings of each research question in a numeral order and round up with main points of disagreement identified between normative perception on the role of artists in stimulating civic engagement.
Civic and political engagement of music artists (RQ1)
The engagement types among dance music artists concerned both civic and governmental political involvement. The priority among artists is interest in social issues, such racial, gender, economical, societal equality, gun violence, terrorism, refugee crisis, environmental issues, welfare state. Ones that named their political affiliation identified themselves as left wing (#7), socialist (#3), or supporting liberal politicians (#6), others did not identify any political leaning. Interest in governmental politics among interviewees went 14 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION in line with disappointment with conventional politics and a focus on objective news exposure, or being “skeptical” (#2, #3, #10) towards general media: “I don’t take one media talking about it I need to go further and to make my own opinion crossing between sources, because I am a skeptical guy first of all” (#7). However, musicians who expressed their interest or commented on governmental politics were as well strong supporters of the idea that it is the artists’ responsibility to express their political views and engage, thus stimulate their fans towards political participation.
The interest in social issues and charity, in oppose to forms of involvement into hard- political issues, governmental politics, was rather frequent, as was assumed by previous research (Garofalo, 1992; Meyer, 1995). Artists tend to donate to their local charity organisations, by either monetary contribution or by artistic endeavor. i.e. one of the artists
(#9, Tom Findlay, from ‘Groove Armada’) described he would rather “do his role” by directly using his music: ‘I do I volunteer for a charity that is based at Totenham, I am quite a believer I guess in local politics. That is the way I try to effect people in kind of my own geographical orbit.’. Even though, some noted to have been donating to charity without an intention to publicize it (#2, #5, #6), other interviewees were active in using their platforms to raise awareness, or even assisting in organizing events for the issues of their concern.
The perceptions of artists acting as opinion leaders in the political domain (RQ2)
Thus the question whether they should behave as opinion leaders on the political domain was highly debated - a distinction of two general opinion blocks could be made of ones in favor and against.
Positive perception of dance music artists acting as opinion leaders. Among the musicians who actively express their opinion on societal issues, two types of motives were noticed: (1) responsibility as a person (2) responsibility as a public person. Some artists, instead of seeing it as a public responsibility, define it as a personal need (#6) “to get it off 15 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION my chest” or is (#9) “just who you are as a personality”, (#10) “there is more to me than just music”, which would lead back to the assumptions of the opinion leadership theory regarding opinion leaders being a particular type of assertive personalities, with high self-efficacy.
Furthermore, one of the respondents (#3) defined such ‘responsibility’ as a ‘privilege’ granted to artists, he says: ‘I think I see it as my responsibility as a person first, as an artist second, I think what happens, as an artist you have bigger responsibilities than a person, so as artist second, actually it makes you double check your beliefs. And not make anything stupid.
Which is very interesting. It gives you a social pressure, which as a human being as that single minded person you might not have had and you might do stupid things.’
Artists identify several positive effects and reasons for musicians’ civic expression:
a. To engage their fans into political discussion. Artists, who identify this reason, see
themselves as either more interested in politics, or generally more forward thinking
than the general population. They see their goal either as to make the fans ‘open up’,
provide and highlight new perspectives. One of the respondents (#10) drew the lack
of his generation interest in politics as an incentive for him to stimulate engagement
among his fans, even if certain political opinions may be backfiring: ‘I did consider
upsetting people, because opinions might have that result. But everybody is entitled to
their own opinion and I dint think people should hide their opinions either.’
a. To bring an unbiased, independent perspective. Not having a political agenda and
being ‘neutral’ is recognized as a beneficial position artists have towards drawing
attention to certain issues.
b. To bring awareness to the issues. The artists, who acknowledge that artists have a
unique position of being capable to spread the message among a wide circle (social
embeddedness) or that are perceived as role models, see it as a responsibility to bring
attention to certain issues: ‘I think music is a form of expression, so it is a really good 16 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
way to bring awareness, I think music should be connected also with politics in a way,
but I am against of any kind of extremes.’ (#1).
Their inclination to stimulate political engagement, or express opinion was not defined by the density of artists’ social embeddedness either actual (number of followers) or perceived influence (acknowledging their influence and connection with the fans). Both the factors of using the platform and having the audience as well as being the role model were identified as incentives to be politically and civically expressive, as an artist, thus engage fans. The underlying argument of the proponents of stimulating engagement into politics was that artist is a public person. One of the respondents connects having a platform with social responsibility: ‘Obviously the bigger your audience as an artist, then the more social responsibility you have and if you choose to neglect to even go into social responsibility, then that is your choice but what a waste. Because I think being political and being an artist should be hand in hand.’
Negative perception of dance music artists as opinion leaders. Several types of motives were noticed among the non-supporters:
1) Artists’ are uninformed, thus unqualified to talk about political issues. Artists, who identified their non-support for celebrity politics, gave the reasoning that they do not intend to comment on civic or political issues, because due to lack of time, or focus on music, musicians do not attain informed opinions and the attention is taken away from the relevant sources. This opinion emphasised politics as a complex issue and society’s strive for an
‘informed political debate’. Some of the respondents were (#2) categorical towards artists expressing opinion on political matters, however noted that he would be eager to share opinion of a certain politician or thinker he aligns with (e.g. Noam Chomsky). Several identify this as ‘abusing the given platform’. One of the more prevalent artists (#8, over 15 years in the scene), expressed that particularly having such strong followship, he would 17 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION refrain from using his platform to affect opinions of followers, which might be yet uninformed.
2) Artists should not / don’t want to alienate fans, unless opinions are on moral issues. Artists were adhering to their diverse fan base with diverse backgrounds and opinions, thus if expressing opinions on political or controversial social matters, that may alienate fans
(which in oppose, the supporters claimed not to care about), which as an artist should not be doing. However, artists that are eager to speak out express this concern as well. One of the artists (#6), eager to express political ideology or stance on moral issues, recognises fan alienation as a problem, does not prioritize it over freedom of expression: ‘I am very open with everything, as I do not try to insult but I do speak exactly what I think. As an artist it is not something good to do, because you are making enemies and you are separating people.’.
3) The purpose of musicians is to entertain. Majority of interviewees highlight the reason the platform, the voice is given to them by fans because of their ability to entertain, play music, but not for a political opinion representation. Which comes as a reason not to express oneself politically or socially, unless it would be a ‘harmless’ opinion on moral issues. Musicians recognise and identify that dance music, in particular, is a form of escape, a message in itself of equality and togetherness, the musician is just a facilitator.
There is a general underlying argument, that people follow artists due to their music
(art), not their opinion (person), that is why art and politics should be separated: ‘I mention something political, which is controversial you can be sure that the people who disagree with your opinion will suddenly stop listening to your music in the same light as they were before.
Which shouldn’t happen we should base an artist only upon their art.’ (#2). Even though just a few of the respondents argue that being an artist means being political, there is a general consent that artists can express opinion on moral issues. 18 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Actions and the determinants of artists in stimulating civic engagement (RQ3)
As mentioned, most of the differences among perceptions of the respondents towards acting as opinion leaders within the political/ civic domain lay in nuances within the issues, media type and communication tone. In this section the actions and the determinants, identified by the artists, of stimulating civic engagement are described, beginning with categorization by medium:
1. Actively campaigning around cause. Artists are willing to participate by playing in
charitable events, should be a cause or organization they believe in.
2. Opinion in traditional media. Artist may provide opinion via interviews or by writing
editorials themselves (a case described in next section). Traditional (music) media had the
benefits of being able to ‘go deeper’, explain the attitudes over certain topics. However,
several respondents have mentioned that traditional media (magazines, journals) does not
ask for opinion on social or political matters. One of the respondents interpreted this as a
result of media commercialization “perhaps they want to be seen as just fun and opium
for the people. It is not really providing education anymore.” (#3) On the other hand,
some artists indicate that their communication managers review their statements on
magazines and reduce controversies, that could harm artists image, which represents
concern on artists image and could be ascribed to commercialization.
3. Embedding a message within music. Reasons of not using music for stimulating
engagement were either aesthetic, functional: seeing it as ineffective means to ‘address
the problem’, ‘change collective behaviour’, philosophical: music should remain a form
of entertainment, escape. On the other hand, artists also perceive music as the message
itself and the general dance music culture as a movement symbolic of community,
connectivity, as one of the respondents (#11) describes it: ‘dance music, crowd provides a 19 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
potential of transcendence of utopia, that is outside of the machinery of the state or the
regime of capitalism, or the market.’.
4. Message dissemination through social networks.
4.1. on governmental politics: endorsement of a politician or a party;
4.2. expression on societal issues: dissemination of an online petition; opinion on societal
issue;
Disseminating messages though social media networks (4) was both feared or avoided as well as praised for being a convenient tool to engage and raise awareness. Social media is seen as a favorable tool to use Facebook or Twitter to endorse a favorite party, politician, economist or thinker on governmental issues (4.1.), have or are supportive of sharing opinions on moral, social issues (4.2.), share a petition, perceived as a tool for political influence: ‘I think my vote on Facebook and Twitter would actually sway more people with hopefully some logic than my vote would’ (#3).
However, artists often identified social media as dangerous and possibly backlashing, when engaging into civic concerns. A recent incident of a music artist losing his career due to a homophobic social media post was reoccurring in majority of the interviews. According to the respondents, it had a tremendous implication on the way artists perceive political societal expression on social media. Artists interpreted ability of social media to turn a post, engaged into a ‘wrong’ topic, image damaging or even career-destructive, some used expression like
‘bandwagon’, ‘which hunt’, ‘blood lust’. However, for others, this incident was a symbol of
‘abuse of given platform’. Even one of the most established artist (#1), industry for over 20 years) raises a point about social media: ‘his career was over just in 24 hours and although what he said was ugly, the power of internet is kind of frightening. So I am kind of scared to share my opinion on the internet at the moment.’ 20 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Another backlashing effect example, of artists expressing opinion while using traditional media may, however, take away from the focus of social media. Artist described a particular previous experience of voicing environmental concerns by writing an article at The
Times (Cato, 2009) which gained lots of negative responses by ‘climate change deniers’ attacking the artist: ‘Calling him out, being a DJ, about how bad his carbon footprint was, just really sort of aggressive.’ That had an effect that silenced the artist for further active campaigning. Active campaigning or expression of artists may be generally greeted as negative, followed in scrutiny, or greeted negatively depending on the level of existing controversy around the issue (the case of homophobia in Eastern Europe or Climate change denial).
Next to the media types, artists identified issue type (topic) and communication tone as determinants on the propensity to behave as an opinion leader in the political domain.
Some topics were identified as “grey area” issues or “controversial”, which would be rather avoided. Political issues of a larger scale such as war or refugee crisis were an example of ones assigned to the “grey area” category, while charitable events or moral issues are perceived as unarguably positive. As one of the interviewees noted regarding peace talks on
Syria, the importance for him to address issues with certainty, to know the exact goals, if certain charitable causes he would be asked to endorse: ‘I need to know that the cause is indisputably a positive one. And not to think well this is the kind of obvious left wing right kind of thing to do’ (#9).
The communication tone and style in which the messages are delivered are defined as important factors of political expression, just as abilities to control them. Applying humor, avoiding a “preachy” tone, and being respectful are several of the strategies artists use to express their opinion and engage fans. As one of the interviewees described when endorsing or opposing certain politicians, he does expect his fans to disagree, however he emphasizes 21 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION that the tone he applies, smoothens the conversation: ‘I am trying to do that in a way that it is not forced upon them, so they make their own decisions, what they see right or wrong.’ (#6).
It is pointed, that communication managers at times come to assistance and review the messages of artists, in order to avoid controversies and fan alienation, this way also making the process of direct interpersonal communication with the fans mediated.
Reasons of refraining from stimulating civic engagement (RQ4)
To begin with, artists mostly do not perceive stimulating engagement as social obligation, and note a right to refrain from it. However, using an open question or probed, artists have provided more insights on other possible reasons, aside a conscious decision, why artists refrain from stimulating political or civic engagement:
Commercial incentives. Artists densely stomped upon the idea of of artist as a brand, which
‘tries to keep as many people happy as possible’ (#10, 26,6 K followers). Music, as often other forms of entertainment and even journalism itself is often regarded as commercialized:
‘it became much more consumer driven and I don’t feel that I ever have political conversations with other dance producers’. Thus the commercial incentives, lead to communication managers being in charge of the artists’ brand proposition, instead of the artist himself. That is why possible ‘controversies’ are silenced from the communication.
Lack of time. A lot of musicians point at the competitiveness of the market and focus goes to work and creativity, despite on whether artists perceive stimulating civic/political participation as their responsibility.
Lack of interest. Some of the artists say that their role is to entertain, create music and they do not have an urge to express opinions on political or civic matters, as long as that does not harm them: ‘I am not a politician and I am not an activist, you know, I just do music’
Dance music is escapism. Some artists contend that musicians within this genre avoid politics because generally that the genre of dance music is not associated with political expression, 22 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION but it is providing ‘the service of escapism’. Even if most artists agree with such notion in regards to using music as medium, they do not agree other mediums fall under the same rule.
Conclusion
The aim of this paper was to provide insight in the perceptions of artists on stimulating civic engagement among their fans. The interviews show that there are various approaches to the issue. The perception that stimulating civic engagement is an artists’ responsibility was moderated by the perception of the artist as a celebrity (a role model), or a public person vs. private. Artists saw stimulating engagement was part of artists’ responsibility if they perceived themselves or other music artists to be influential, to be role models. In addition, the disagreement between whether artists should or should not behave as opinion leaders in the political domain, lays within the two paradigms of celebrity politics, which on one hand emphasises freedom of expression, on the other, is built on the idea of the informed-debate. Artists, who support and behave as opinion leaders, emphasize their freedom of expression as a personal and even social responsibility – to guide, to lead and be a role model. Others, opposing the idea argue that artists do not have the representative right, their opinion on societal matters, disseminated to their fans is an ‘abuse of platform’ given due to their talent, not personality, which in line with the opposition of celebrity politics, claims to marginalize relevant expertise (J. Street, 2004b). The findings show that artists adhere to the levels of issue controversy, message tone as an essential determinant on message dissemination. In line with the assumptions by Meyer (1995), it can be generalized that most of the artists agree on supporting expression on moral, ‘inarguably positive’ issues, charity and avoid ‘heavy’ politics. The avoidance of controversies, however, counteracts the idea of artists being capable of demanding greater transparency of policy makers or furthermore, instigating revolutionary social movements. 23 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
The willingness to stimulate political engagement and the preferred forms of participation among artists was found to be regulated by the medium. Artists unanimously found dance music the most unsuitable medium for political messages, for aesthetic reasons or perceived uneffectiveness. Mainstream media was pointed as a suitable one, however, it was critisized to provide a limited interest to societal and political topics. Eventually, as predicted social media was mostly used for political and civic messages, as predicted
(Oeldorf-Hirsch & Sundar, 2015). However, the sensitivity to the power of social media may be indicating that due to social media, the relationship between musicians and fans is in fact not entirely non-horizontal, as predicted.
These findings on the perceptions of artists of stimulating participation are helpful in establishing the insights of previous research on celebrity role of inducing civic and political participation. Earlier in this paper, we noted that a cohort analysis (Mares and Woodard
2006) provided some support for maturational explanations: older adults watched slightly more television than younger people, even after controlling for cohort, period, gender and educational level. Some older people watched more than younger adults because they did not have a paid job, and to a lesser extent because of poorer health or a lower income.
The current qualitative study adds to these insights by describing how older people experience such an increase in viewing in various ways. Furthermore, Mares and Woodard found these maturational differences, but noted that they were more complex than simplistic descriptions sug- gest. They also reported that widowhood and other variables concerning social contacts did not have an effect on differences between age groups in amount of television viewing. Their findings are logical in view of the variety of television-viewing behaviour found in the current interview study: in response to retirement, physical changes and the loss of their partner, some interviewees increased their viewing, whereas others diminished it. 24 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
As far as further research is concerned, one of the questions to address would be measuring the level of controversy of topics. This study showed that artists find some of the topics “grey area” however, this study did not establish a particular unified frame for defining which information could be perceived as contravertial, harmful for the image or harmful for the alienation of society. Also, it could be extended to the perception of fans and the factors that define one or another celebrity as an opinion leader in the political domain, as it was noted by previous research on measuring opinion leadership (Flynn et al., 1996).
A limitation of the study is that a semi-structured open interview method made some of the concepts, such as political self-efficacy hard to measure, while political interest – hard to compare. A suggestion for further research would be either to provide more questions and a simplified scale of answer choices, particularly measuring political interest, either avoid the question. Also to increase internal validity more measures could be applied, such as using several coders or doing extensive member checks.
In summary, this interview study shows how an analysis in terms of political participation in the civic and political domain and its determinans can shed light on the incentives and perceptions of popular figures in their role of stimulating political engagement among their fans. The perceptions depend on the interplay between the views towards the freedom of speech, hierarchy and representation in democracy; the level of interpretation of an artist as a public versus private person and the level of perceived influence of artists.
Artists generally prefer engaging into charitable events and causes, and less politically controvertial issues. Social media is perceived as the main medium for opinion leadership in the political domain, however bringing traits of horizontal and interpersonal interaction.
25 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
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31 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Appendix 1: Interview guide Master Thesis Interview Questions
I am interested in the influence and responsibilities that artists in the music industry perceive to have on their followers when it comes to political and social matters. It is carried under the University of Amsterdam and you are guaranteed a full discretion to your answers, meaning the responses will be kept anonymous. Therefore, please be completely honest, since there is no wrong or right answer to this.
Defines political interest: 1) How interested, would you say, you are in politics? Is it a topic that matters to you? 2) How engaged are you in civic life? social issues? (e.g. discuss, vote, donate, volunteer) Defines political efficacy: 3) Do you ever think about certain political or social changes in the society? Do you ever feel you could play a part in bringing about this change? Defines perceived opinion leadership (among personal networks)(Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet 1948, 50): 4) Do you often try to convince anyone of your own ideas on social or political matters in personal life? 5) How often are you asked you for your advice, opinion on a question regarding social/political matter by friends or family, coworkers? Defines perceived opinion leadership on fans: 6) How influential, do you think, you are to your fans? Defines personal intention to stimulate civic engagement: 7) What do you think of the idea of expressing views in music? Have you ever done it? What was your intention behind it? 8) What do you think when artists express their opinion regarding a certain political or societal matter on a public medium? Have you done it? If you have done it, what was your intention behind it? 9) Have you ever tried to consciously encourage your fans/followers to engage in political or social issues? Defines general perception on artists as opinion leaders (in order to compare perceived personal responsibility vs. general responsibility of artists) 32 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
10) Do you think that artists have a social or moral obligation to influence people on certain behavior? Why? (If you disagree) do you think musicians should refrain from political or civic expressions? Defines reasons of refraining from stimulating civic engagement among fans: 11) Why do you think some dance musicians do not attempt to stimulate civic engagement among their fans? Perception that dance music is made for entertainment only? being afraid to lose fans? commercial reasons? Other?
33 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Appendix 2: Interviews
Interviewee #1, 130 K Facebook followers, 7,2 K Twitter followers I am so focused on music and only music on so many years, I am 37 years old now, I got into this in the early nineties and I wish I would have more broad interests but…. But that is why I am doing this research, thus that is exactly what is interesting. Yes, yes, exactly. Tell me, how interested, would you say, you are in politics? I am not interested that much in politics, but being in electronic dance music scene, particularly house music scene, made me aware of some things, because the moment when this music had been born, it happened, this music started in a time when there were still big racial issues in (United) states, also people with different sexuality were treated differently, so this music started in place where people with different minorities and sexualities were coming together. And studying the history of this music and being part of it I started to be aware of these problems, not particularly political problems, but social problems. And this music and this scene started to think about the world in a broader way. Can you expand on that? Did you get more into global problems, did you start to read news? More and more I am interested in all of it. But to be honest, I have no time. My life is studio and the airport. And my most valuable thing is the time. But being an international person I meet a lot of people. Just because of that I am aware of what is happening abroad is very personal for me. E.g. the events in Paris, it happened not such a long time ago. For me it was something that happened at home, because Paris is just two hours away from me. So although I don’t have time, because of what I do, I am aware and Dj’s, artists who travel around the world, we are everywhere so we get the information actually first hand. Do you discuss the issues thus? Absolutely! When you arrive at a new destination, you meet the promoters, have the small talk, go for a dinner, after we finish talking about music, we continue about something else, and normally that’s the problems around the world. Do you ever talk about social or political issues with your fans in an interview or Facebook? No unfortunately not. I don’t do it. I wouldn’t say I am very active in that direction. Do you engage into some civic activities? Volunteering voting? 34 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
I’ve never done it. I vote, I think it is very important, after the elections we tend to complain in my country, but I feel I have the right to complain because I gave my vote, so if you have an opinion you have to show it so I do. But unfortunately I have never participated in such activities, like doing some sort of volunteering, not yet but maybe at some point in my life. Would you agree you have a strong followship? I do, have a very strong fan base yes. How about the connection with you fans? It is a very strong connection and there are lots of types of people following me. The way we think about the politics in Bulgaria, it is a bit different that in the West. Even when we discuss politics with my closest friends, we don’t speak so open about it. So maybe I have a bit of a more reserved and conservative thinking about expressing freely my opinion. Also there are so many different people following me just because of my music, so at the moment I try not to engage about other topics. And also what I realized about with the last 1 or 2 years: you have to be careful with your opinion on the internet. I saw it destroy careers by saying the wrong things. Maybe you recently followed what happened with Ten Walls – a quite successful artist, who shared his opinion about gay people. I totally disagree with what he said, but even some of my gay friends were saying it was so strange that his career was over just in 24 hours and although what he said was ugly, the power of internet is kind of frightening. So I am kind of scared to share my opinion on the internet at the moment. In regards to this if you would see some injustice would you speak up or you would speak up or you would refrain because it might fire back at you? Yeah, I would speak out. If I see something I totally disagree I would definitely speak up. E.g. then ,e.g. in this case if you disagree with the opinion’s opinion, about this example would you speak up? No it is a grey area, I totally disagree with his opinion, but devoted fans shutter his records. But the latest events on Paris attacks, I expressed it and like every other person I said, I am totally against about what happened, there is no grey area it is pure bad, so I expressed my condolences. As an artist do you think you have an obligation to express your standpoints? Of course sometimes you don’t even think about your following and you need to express your position.
Do you think artists have an obligation to influence people in certain behaviours? 35 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
I do because we have such an influence we are supposed to be role models, but in reality there are so many things we have to handle, we are not machines we are supposed to influence people in a good way but we are human, and I struggle to find the time to sleep so my physical survival is my priority, so I struggle to find the time to be a role model. I have a position, but I don’t have enough information and I wouldn’t want to have an opinion of something that I am not aware of. Do you think that music should stay away from politics in general? That is a good question. I think as everything in life, everything concerning arts is about balance. If you don’t have any of the Baltic streams is good. I think music is a form of expression, so it is a really good way to bring awareness, I think music should be connected also with politics in a way, but I am against of any kind of extremes. Have you ever put a message in your music? No. Why? It is because of the way I understand electronic music. One of the reasons I am into this genre is because it is giving information to me differently. When you listen to music on the radio, there are lyrics, there is someone telling you what to feel what to do, and in my experience in my life all these messages by the artists, it never worked on me. So the information that I got from electronic music without lyrics, worked better. But there are no clear messages, like be nice be tolerant, it is just a different type of information, messages. I never put a message the way the kind that you would be talking about. There is energy in my music, it is supposed to speak differently to the people. I haven’t put a direct recording on your recording is a very easy way to make people like you to sell your records. It is a very easy way to make people respond to you. I would not like to take a voice of a legendary historical person to sell my records. Maybe I would influence people in a good way, but I don’t find it very creative. My reasons are purely esthetic. Why do you think musicians do it? I don’t think there are reasons behind why other musicians do it, someone just stumbles upon it, it sounds nice, so why not to put it on a record, I think that is maybe the reason. I might be wrong of course. Do you see dance music artists expressing themselves politically? I see it among the artists which are more grown up, mature, being a part of the scene for a while, but all the rising new stars are being rather concerned about their career and then after a while I think if they survive at doing what they do I think they start to pay attention to other things outside of their life. 36 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
So I’ve seen people doing it, Laurent Garnier, he has a really strong opinion and he is always eager to express it, but he is a legend he has been doing it for a long long time. An me, I don’t think there is a big reason behind it. I am observing my own career, personally had a manager, never had a person telling me what to do. There were just stages in my life, when I was concerned about my life and then getting older, becoming more mature you become more involved with what is happening. I was being concerned only with my life. My attention was more the music the studio. Do you think artist have a moral obligation on political or civic engagement? I think it is our obligation and we can do it in a very pure way, because we are not part of the political life, we are quite independent so we can do it in a very pure way, but that has to come naturally. We are the new rockstars. In the 90s 80s rock music was the biggest phenomenon. Now even if not house and techno all the music is being made electronically. So we are the new, electronic music is now the biggest thing. If the electronic music used to be small and pure and used to stand for something in the 90s and 80s, now it is just big, I don’t think it is socially or politically identified with something, but I hope we will go back to our routes. Represent something good like it used to be. It is possible. As I said some of us grow up and we decide to use our power. So I believe it is possible that we can bring some good values.
Interviewee #2, no public Facebook profile, 2 K Twitter followers
Do you often think of political or societal change within in the society? Me personally? Yes, all the time. What are your topics? Just in a lot of things, aside of music and things I read a lot, everything covering from philosophy, economic issues, global politics, etc. I do read a lot and I watch the news. I got aspirations aside music which involve me reading a lot so I do have a commitment to read over an hour per day. Do you discuss political issues? I don’t discuss it with my music friends. I mean I’ve got various friends, my best friends, my DJ friends, a lot of them I’ve known the longest I don’t talk anything political with them. How about other circles? 37 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Yeah, guys from universities, yeah. Do you ever think about your own role in it? I don’t think about my current role to bring about a social change. I actually don’t like when artists get involved in serious matters cause a lot of the times their opinions are just completely half baked. They spend such a little time thinking about it and these are very complex issues. Politics is a complex subject and the issues talk about complex things. If you spend everyday making beats and going to clubs, you are simply not qualified to talk on those issues to my opinion. Are you also think you are unqualified to talk about it? I don’t feel I’ve earned peoples credence. So e.g. I’ve started to put up some political information on one of my social media sites, and people started taking over it. I would not like that. There are people much more qualified than me that I prefer they listen to those people over to listening to an artist or a DJ. So, e.g. would you share someone’s else’s findings? I’d be more comfortable on sharing and making the commentaries based on someone else’s ideas. I still, I prefer a separation between art and complex discussions. Whilst we do have a voice. The only reason we have a voice is because the people are following us based on our music. They are not really listening because of our political opinions. But is is so easy to get these blurred, when you got a lot of people following you. But I don’t like the idea of celebritization of political discussion. Who gives a fuck if Kanye West of Kim Kardashian made a political comment and millions of people listen to them but I don’t like the idea of those people who know nothing what they are talking about being given the voice. What do you think of artists promoting awareness on political social topics? I am totally behind an artists using their voice or their fame in push a charity, or produce good causes but there is a fine line between supporting a charity and supporting something that is a good cause and then waning about political issues. The whole internet and the whole generation on Twitter and that, we are really kind of moving away from informed discussion to a sort of sound-bite politics where everything is needed to be said in a small catchy soundbite. These issues are complex and if we merge celebrity sphere, the art sphere with politics too much we are not going to listen to people who got a lot to say on these issues, dedicate their lives on these issues and that is what I’m concerned about. Whilst I think it is very noble artists are concerned involved in good causes, against something that is actually out of their depth. How engaged are you in supporting social causes? 38 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
I have obviously done a lot of charity gigs, but I prefer to keep charity private, I donate to some charities each month, and did certain things, but not done something publically. Have you ever publically expressed something societal or political on your Twitter or in an interview? No. For two reasons. One which I just mention. DJ’s are unqualified to talk about that and I include myself, even if I am more than other people, I think you should listen to someone that has done something, that gives a reason to think on this person. Other reason is that, we are in the business of pleasing people If I only had my way, people would judge me purely upon my music, but e.g. I mention something political, which is controversial you can be sure that the people who disagree with your opinion will suddenly stop listening to your music in the same light as they were before. Which shouldn’t happen we should base an artist only upon their art, which if you knew someone is a while supremacist, obviously I am not, but you would obviously stop listening to their music. Therefore, if you talk politically you have to be careful of what you are doing. And that is why, maybe blurring the lines between art and music and politics is a difficult business to get into. If you would be asked, would you refrain? I would refrain. I would simply answer, look I don’t want people to listen to me. So e.g. there is a question on geopolitics I would say go listen Naom Chomsky. See what he has to say. Or the tensions in the middle east, there are plenty of people listening to the Christopher Hitchens, listen to the expert, don’t listen to me. I don’t mind telling to people whom to go to. Would you then stimulate people to get interested in them? I would say, whilst I do have opinion, but go listen to these people. People should think on themselves. But I suppose I would refrain. I would not use my platform as a DJ for that. If I would want to talk about some political things, I’d probably wait till I did some political things I would be worthy of listening to. Just because the fact that people are aware of me as a DJ, I don’t think they should be following my political ideas. Do you think it could backfire? Like I say, say e.g. there is a complex subject, a lot of times the conventional wisdom on the topic is not necessarily correct. Like I said these are deep complex subject, the mass of the public things in a certain way, and you maybe know more about this situation and you give an opinion that goes against then it absolutely would backfire. And there is a mob kind of mentality on the internet these days. People smell blood and they just go after them, I mean, 39 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION while he was completely wrong that guy Ten Walls, he was bigoted, but he was just torn apart, it is a blood lust, a which hunt. There are so many morons on the internet you give them credence, so many people on the internet criticizing it is just best not to give involved, you have to accept it, you are not going to police, but stir the pot up. If you would see injustice would you step in? It depends on the injustice. If it is keyboard injustice, trolling on the internet, you just have to let it go, there will always be morons. Any kind of internet injustice you just have to ignore. Even if people are disagreeing with you, there is more to life than that. In real life, unless you are about to go out and volunteer, you are really only left with charity, unless you really want to get politically active, and unfortunately I am not blessed with enough hours in the week to do anything different than what I do, is charity. Mixing music with political messages? In instrumental music, very difficult to do. Dance music is instrumental in its form largely, so it is quite difficult to do that in this realm. Putting a political message from a speech is a matter of aesthetics, it is a clash of what dance music is about. Different types of music channel different emotional responses. Unlike, say for example hip-hop. Hip-hop, as death metal it channels aggression, that’s how they work. So in hip hop you got someone shouting things, ‘amping’ people up. Messages are important in hip hop. However, dance music, I think its power is its escapism. It’s instrumental blissness, so for example trance, the ecstasy that you feel. A lot of it is escapism. So by thrusting a political discussion you are kind of clashing it a little bit. So I would say in other forms of music, I would agree with it, however a huge part of dance music is people going out on the weekend and forgetting the world. And trying to thrust a political message within that is almost a contrast of what people are going out for. Due to the tribal, loopy, rhythm nature of dance music, with any kind of real meaning, a long speech would not really necessary work. You should not lose track of what you are doing. You are not on some political journey; you are ideally making beats that people want to have fun to. Do artists have a social or moral obligation to speak up? You certainly don’t have an obligation no way. You are an artist. It is like football players. E.g. there is a boxer, who just won a world title and started recently spousing on about these extreme religious views that is offensive, so you should not speak about that, however, there 40 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION should not be an obligation on an artist or a football player to have some political stand, because they are quite right to turn around and say, look I play football for a living every day, why should I really been seen responsible to have informed political opinions, because that is what we are after. We are after informed political opinions. Someone who spends their time playing music or kicking the ball all day they are not certainly having informed opinions and surely they do have a pedestal and yes maybe support other kind of charitable act, but informed as suppose to give their own political ideas I don’t think it is necessary. An artist is refraining from an opinion, doesn’t he show an example to others that everyone should? If there is a reason an artist thought he had an informed opinion, say for example he spend 2/3 of the week on music and 1/3 on political activism. But that is not the case most of the time, since this job is so involving, that usually you can’t spend that much time thinking on such issues. Therefore, the opinions are simply that informed. I would feel much more comfortable with artists endorsing people with informed opinions than kid of waning it. But I suppose someone putting a political twitter post “I believe in this person, blablabla”, yeah I mean I suppose that’s what they would be doing anyway. But if they would want to start writing about it themselves, or waning in, I don’t know if I would feel so comfortable about it, because a lot of the times these issues are complex and they take real thought and a lot of times an artist is really unqualified to do that.” Thus what held you back from posting about a person you believe into? Just because, like I said, I am not comfortable about the whole mixing politics with the music thing. Whilst, you know, other people would be free to do it and I wouldn’t judge them, I have no right to judge them, but within the terms we just kind of discussed me personally I would prefer to keep my political view personal, I do gigs for charity and I don’t mind doing charitable stuff, but when it comes to political controversy I prefer to keep music separate. Is that because you would not want to be associated with particular ideas, thus people would not want to listen to you anymore? That is not the primary reason, that’s obviously something that everyone should be aware of. If someone has come to do that, they should be aware that they can alienate their fan base, but no, the primary reason is that artists who spend their time in life making music, should leave politics to people who dedicate their lives to it. Say, Noam Chomsky started telling me how to DJ, I’d say, look, Naom, go away I don’t know what you’re talking about”. In the same way I would want to wane on some big political reason I would expect to be told the same by Noam Chomsky. 41 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Why might they be refraining? To say that it is because of commercial reasons it is a bit pejorative a bit cynical way of saying it. Genuinely an artist should want to please his fans, they should be his/her main concern. There is a general concern you might alienate them. You could call it commercial, but you could also say it is the fact that you have a fan base and you don’t want to alienate them. I suppose you can call it commercial, but I think it is not because of the money, but because they have an identification with their fans and they would prefer to keep the interaction with their fans based upon the product, the music, as oppose to other issues, which aren’t really why they have that interaction in the first place.
Interviewee #3, 236 K Facebook followers, 63,8 K Twitter followers
Do you ever think about certain political or social changes in the society? Yes, there is an awful a lot of things I think about. Ironically, even though my life in the past a long time has been treated really badly at the hands of women and women alone, I often wanted equality for everyone. And I find some things that really really upset me is the lack of equal pay for women, the lack of voting rights in certain areas for women and the lack of equality for bringing up children between women and men, and the lack of equality for sharing time in when you have a child. Those certain things fit into my time an awful a lot, so really between the sexes I really want equality. And as a European I really get offended, even though justice is just a symbolic name now, but say, for example like, in Holland the Christian Democrats, but when I hear a religion come forward in politics I get really really upset about that. You wouldn’t live in States then. No, I would never live in States ever. Are you interested in politics in total? Oh yes. I am interested in politics in a very big way. I follow all the politics of the UK all the time. Not because I think it is a major world player like it used to be and that does not necessarily mean power for the good it just means it was a power, but I follow because it just interests me. I got very upset by the fact that the English government illegally took away my right to vote at the last election. Not that it would make a much of a difference but that’s always the excuse for democracy any way. Why is that because you don’t vote? 42 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
No, because one voice wouldn’t make a big difference and ironically, I think my vote on Facebook and Twitter would actually sway more people with hopefully some logic that my vote would so actually, its kind of a punk way of looking at it. But they definitely took away my vote illegally and I couldn’t vote. I voted for the EU over here and I voted for the pirate party, because I thought that was fun, and I could vote for a city government over here as well, which was ok, but I didn’t have a fucking clue who I was voting for. No one came to my front door and said hey, can you vote for me because this this and this. So I just voted for same guy called Dick De Groot, which was saying “large cock”. I thought it makes a lot of sense because a lot of politicians are cocks, but I do follow politics very very heavily. World politics very very heavily. I realize that the majority of my politics come from associated press or Reuters, so that already has its own agenda, so I try to take politics from different views, thus I subscribe to the Economist for maybe 20 years, even though I am more socialist, as it was always important to read. I read the Times, which is a Murdoch newspaper, I used to read the independent, but the weird this is that when you read these newspapers and you read that as a block of English and don’t get emotionally involved but see it as facts you actually see that most of the facts come from the same source, just with a slight different spin. So if you take the spin out of it, which is quite easy really, cause a lot of the spin is not really sophisticated, then you can actually read the news. You do feel quite socially efficacious, that means, because you mentioned that what you say on social media would matter, would you agree? Yeah. Cause I have a voice. Cause a lot of artists are now, I will use a mal-term, but a lot of artists a castrated by their management, into not having a voice, because it might affect demographics on sales, it might affect press, and I grew up at a time where there was a lot of social changes. I learned not from my state sponsored history courses of private school, but I learned from punk. I learned from Paul Vellar. From the Rocks, the damned. And later on I learned from hip-hop about the social inequality in other systems from KRS1, and racism from KRS1. Things we weren’t taught at school. We weren’t told how our whole empire was built on blood money and how wrong it was. We were just thought on the good stuff and how we gave the world money and how we gave the world justice, which is not true, its I think derived from the roman or the Greek system. In that respect, it seems that you are really opinionated about a lot of things, do you ever try to persuade other people towards that? No, I like to have an intelligent conversation and I want to learn things. If I’m with somebody that can present me, that I don’t know, or something that I can just spin my own opinion on a 43 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION dime and actually make me see it from a different perspective, because it actually makes a lot more sense, that that makes me a happy person, because that means someone intellectually opposite me is inspiring. I am not after a doctorate at all, I want to be inspired. But when somebody asks for your opinion? I am not afraid to give it, no. On the other hand, you mentioned social media and I am interested whether artists use their opinion and talk about social issues? Honestly, what my opinion is about, which is not going to be a great opinion but this is what I think. I think the majority of artists are too fucking scared or don’t have an opinion. It’s the times we grow up, the younger artists, which immediately makes me sound like an old fart, but I don’t care. The younger artists grew up at a time when they didn’t have to fight for things as much, worry about electricity bills as much, phone bills, paying for music, working in a really bad job and then paying for it, music and equipment, thus things have been easier for them. At the same time, things have been more difficult for them because a lot more artists are in the same position, but they don’t have an opinion. And then there are other artists, who maybe have an opinion, but are scared to give them, because their management overrules them because its about sales, its not about being a true person. I am from a part of history, which I will uphold. I honestly will uphold it, which is if someone asks me an opinion I will give it. And I will be political, because I believe in what I’m saying and I am not afraid of that. And I will never be afraid of that and I don’t care if it wins me people or if it loses me people. It doesn’t matter to me. And I think it doesn’t matter to me because the core majority of my beliefs are probably not questionable. I am not homophobic, generally not racists, generally pretty fair, so it is not going to cause me any issue to be pretty fair. But I have been educated b y my peers by my music in the way it enlightened me. What do you think about embedding political messages within dance music performances? I think it is impossible because the majority dance music doesn’t have lyrics. The majority is very very structured, so where does emotion fit into structure? Which automatically point you in the direction without me needing to say it where probably my next album going to go. Uhm, because I do feel frustrated. I am not here to preach to people. I am not intelligent enough to preach to people, and people don’t have the interest to be preached anyway, but I am here trying to embed something. I tried that in my last album. If you would listen to my lyrics with Mr. Liff, it was basically against the Iraq war at the time, really tried to have some political intonation is very very difficult. Because a couple things that happened, you can 44 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION have the best will in the world as an artist, but there is no catalytic converter. And that, also from the past, were things like the enemy, were things like Idea magazine, punk magazines, that were listening to what was going on and put it on a different format. And now with a lot of journalists, I don’t get asked these deep questions, I don’t get asked what my political views are because the editor is not interested in that, it doesn’t sell their magazines. They are worried about getting their political message perhaps they want to be seen as just fun and opium for the people. It is not really providing education anymore. So I don’t really get asked these deep questions anymore. Maybe now from E-fanzines, where they don’t have to worry about money, printing advertising, and that what is also sad. So does it have a place? I don’t know. I don’t know if I would like to listen to political intonations of Tiesto, I don’t think I would like to listen to the political intonations of the Ibiza generation because they’re so caught up with themselves, their ego, their capitalism. Don’t get me wrong I like to be paid for what I do, because I feel I deserve what I get money for. But people that go to these places are just about the product and I don’t want to hear political intonations from a product. It would be like asking Coca-Cola to start talking about politics. It makes no sense. Because they are just a brand. They are just flying themselves as a brand. Techno, on the other hand, I know some very interesting people in techno that have some interesting political beliefs and I would like that to come across more. I don’t know if it will, but I honestly think, and I don’t want to name them as people, because I think they deserve anonymity with their beliefs because they haven’t word them out yet, or maybe never will. Do you think so? Yeah. I think techno by its nature, and I don’t mean tech house, that fucking Shiite which really is about selling something. I think the real people that have been in techno for 20 -25 years, or some of the younger generation, especially from England. I think they have a political view, which is very very interesting. Socially based. I wont say socialist based, but socially based. Equality, about fairness for society. About getting paid for your job as well. Not getting embarrassed about it. How do you perceive the fact they are not expressing their opinions?? Because its their right. It is their right to do that, as it is your right to ask those people without me telling you who they are. And it is your right to research their twitter feeds and Facebook feeds to find out some of them are not so secretive. What do you think of music as a form of escapism? We provide a social service, which we are lucky to do because it gives us the ability for us to do what we love. And pay the bills and more, than just pay the bills, I don’t just pay the bills, 45 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
I do ok. My opinion is that it is sad that drugs are part of that, that people have to take drugs to do that. But if that is to be spoken it is not just in dance music, it should be spoken about that lawyers take drugs, journalists take drugs, everyone does, right? And it is not just dance music. But we provide the service of escapism for the majority of people who haven’t had the ability to find their freedom either artistically or intellectually so that might have a tough life. That is contradictory to the fact that we have freedom. I am talking about artists primarily. But the majority still have to pay the bills and work to feed themselves. There is a reality, but it is not so difficult to be an artist now as I was making the point earlier on. But If you transpose that on the people who aren’t being artists, who don’t have that freedom of expression, then they do a normal job, work at ah, or they might work at group on, however they have pressures from their boss, they are not getting any enrichment, enlightenment or anything further from their jobs. It is not giving them the creative output. There is a lot of people who do that. The work bees of the society, right? So their freedom is at the weekend, when they can go dancing. So we provide that as a service. We give service where people can feel better about their lives, we also provide a service of maybe children are going to be made by two people and we help to provide that situation, where they can get together and stay together for the rest of their lives. So it is a social service we are providing. Do you think then its is the concept of escapism is contradicting the concept of politically loaded music? No. I can see both of them together. I can. Because when I go to the Specials concert (the drummer died two three days ago), which is still escapism, their lyrics are about kids being born to underage kids. There is a lot of problems with young people dropping kids, they shouldn’t’ve done that. Why? – there is a tracked called why, which is about racism. So yeah, you are with people, you are dancing. So you are escaping the shit part of the society, but at the same time you are listening to lyrics, hopefully you already know and you repeat it with a group of like-minded people. So there is space for it to happen and I think it is a really beautiful thing, that you can go to these spaces, you are pogoing quite crazy, and from aside you would say, Jesus, this looks quite crazy and yet, its all good feelings its all good vibes, no ones having a fight no ones glassing each other. No one is taking ecstasy. Everybody drinks beer, and even though people are drunk, when you have such a strong political message “Why did you try to hurt me? Tell me why tell me why tell me why? Did you really try to kill me?” – that is about racism. It is so kind, so good. And we don’t have that now. We don’t have ANY political messages in any pop music at ALL. Why is that? 46 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Do you think that is market driven or artists are avoiding it themselves? I think artists are avoiding it, because of the management, I think that is too tricky subject for most people, I think most people don’t care. We are in an environment that is about me me me me me me not about the greater good. And if I hadn’t had those beautiful people, those beautiful artists, and recently I realized I got these political intonations from these comics when I was a kid “the dreadful judge”, if I would’ve had these beautiful social minded people at the time when my mind was embryonic, ready for absorbing things, that my parents weren’t telling me, my school wasn’t telling me, who were realizing something wasn’t right about the society, but couldn’t figure it out by themselves then I would be not where I am about today – angry about injustice. I despite injustice. I fucking hate it. It hurts me. I don’t read many books but John Rumson* did a book called the psychopath test. I am not a psychopath, because the moment I see any injustice I get tears in my eyes. And these beautiful artists and comic books came to me at the right time, when I was realizing what going on and hopefully, made me a better human being. I am not a great human being I can be selfish like anyone else, but I want to do a good human being. Do you see your own role in changing society? Do you see it as your responsibility? I think I see it as my responsibility as a person first, as an artist second, I think what happens, as the artist you have bigger responsibilities than a person, so as artist second, actually it makes you double check your beliefs. And not make anything stupid. Which is very interesting. It gives you a social pressure, which as a human being as that single minded person you might not, have had and you might do stupid things. Have you always had that? We I’ve always been an artist for the last 25 years at least, so it has always been part of me. So it has been person first, artist second. But as an artist I double think before I do things. Do you think it depends on the level of fame an artist has? I don’t know I think you would have to ask someone that is really famous to find that out. I am not famous, I’m infamous its totally different. Obviously the bigger your audience as an artist, then the more social responsibility you have and if you choose to neglect to even go into social responsibility, then that is your choice but what a waste. Because I think being political and being an artist should be hand in hand. But you know I am sure, there are a lot of artists who are very fascist as well. A lot of people use iconic images to back themselves up, some people play with it, e.g. David Bowie, doing the image of the fascist rock star in the back of Mercedes, you know playing with it then 47 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION saying he was gay but not gay and then playing with it. And some people play with it as oppose to some big truth to whatever their beliefs are, whether those beliefs are correct. Thought there is no such thing as wrong or right, but those beliefs are politically left or politically right. Do you think such think as wrong or right, and should everybody speak out what they think? Then you go back to the first amendment. Then you start getting into US laws. Is it ok to be racist, is it ok for Donald Trump to say Mexicans should all go back because they are all rapists. Then of course I disagree with that. But in a way you also want people to truth themselves out, by saying these things and then hope that the common decency of the general society would just go “Oh, fuck you, you are obviously an asshole!” But the trouble is that, when you enter a worldwide history is state sponsored, then you don’t get an education that is really independent. And as my education was independent it was still bias towards the right, however we did get to ask and question things more. But Donald Trump I almost think that America deserves him, but then I think over the 44% others who don’t deserve them in America. And the 10 % of Americans aren’t even accounted because they are legal immigrants, but have actually been socially a part of America by committing and paying taxes, and should have the right to vote. It is a tricky thing because who am I to say no. Why would some artists refrain from stimulating political and societal engagement from their fans? You mentioned several reasons such as being silenced by their managers, also some might think music is escapism I might not get into politics. Yes. And I’m going to be elitist here as well. Because I also think that certain types of music attract certain type of individuals. So trance is far more likely to attract the kind of individual that is more likely to be capitalist, racist. I obviously believe that, not based on the people who make that music, but by the people that it attracts. So if you then are going to be a political person within that genre, I think then you would be killing your fan base, which is what the management wouldn’t want that. And also you don’t want to bring “My name is EDM big booze Dj, and President Putin is completely wrong in the way he is treating everyone in Sochi and I think he is a homophobe” and then probably you are going to get on that person’s timeline “Well then fuck gays anyways, because blablabla”, and then how are you going to deal with that? All of a sudden your managers are going to stop you and ask not to do this, because you might lose 20 mln. next year. 48 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
I think with techno people, and it is an elitist point of view and it is also giving myself my own support for my own music and my own beliefs in pretending who’s out there, but I honestly believe that people who like this certain type of music are actually more politically aware, not completely, but more politically aware. People who like this type of music are more into recycling, more into animal welfare, I am sure of it. Even if it is a 10 or 15 percent only it is a big difference. And of course it depends on age and the way they grow up, but they are better. Do you think of consequences when you express yourself politically? I think it is just me. I think I felt politically muted in the UK I used to work in the English government and I felt politically muted within the organization, I felt politically muted with fairness, I felt politically conned by the labour party, I honestly thought when Tony Blair came in, it really was a new beginning, I felt felt politically conned, but not to the same degree by Obama, even if not directly effected. I felt politically conned that he won the noble peace Prize, even though Guantanamo Bay is still open, which is actually a British gift to the US government (you should check that, that’s interesting). I feel conned by a variety of things, because I feel conned, I feel I need to express that. And that is within me. I don’t think I am presenting any political views that are so radical and threatening to call up systems that are already there. I am actually evocating about that Donald Trump get voted in America, in a way. I don’t want him to get voted, unfortunately, because the nuclear button is there and a variety of other things. I get very upset about the harsh Northern Ireland situation. So generally, I grew up in very politically sensitive times.
Interviewee #4, 19,1 K Facebook followers, 4 K Twitter followers
How interested, would you say, you are in politics? Is it a topic that matters to you? I look at politics at like a form of entertainment. I read the news to relax. I might be reading about some bad things, but uhm, I am not actively involved but I am interested in politics in like, in Australia in UK and in Us as well. But I am not essentially actively involved. I don’t vote in UK, e.g. I can’t I vote in Australia. How engaged are you in civic life? social issues? (e.g. discuss, vote, donate, volunteer) I am again not actively involved but I would have a strong conversation about it. Because specially in the music industry there are a lot of question have been asked around gender equality for DJ’s and for Dj’ing and producing. And what is portrayed in the industry media, 49 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION is really not what the reality is. I am interested, but again I am not actively involved I am not pushing any movements. Or like I don’t have any hands on involvement except of what I do in my work. Do you often try to convince anyone of your own ideas on social or political matters in personal life? Yeah, I do discuss it in the personal realm, with my friends. Cause we see there are a lot of people talking about these issues and they are the worst people you could ever have. They are not telling anyone what they should be telling them: you have to work hard to learn how to do this, go to school and do it on the weekend. You have to spend the money not on alcohol but on synthesizers and equipment. These are not the messages they are portrayed by the people that are talking about it. I just find it irritating, frustrating. There are brilliant women DJ’s but there are ones who are not making any music themselves, and I know it to myself other people are doing it for them. What do you think of the idea of expressing your opinion on the issues that matter to you in public? It’s risky. Why? Do you mean like on social media? Well in any media you would prefer, social media as one of the options. As an artist? Talking to your fans is that what you mean? Yes. I think it is risky sometimes. The idea of freedom of speech is not really considered if you are an artist. People might agree with you or they can kind of demonize you a little bit in social media. It can turn against you. And I also think that sometimes people expect you to do what you do best, which is making music and not necessarily get involved in politics and things like that. The things that I spoke about regarding the general equality issue, I would not… If I would go to social media with that, I would get burned on the stake! It seems like a reasonable opinion, but that is actually controversial of what I said. If I would talk about a particular artist that I talked about, those artists have larger fan bases than me. They would come in a big social media internet mob to come to get me. It can be good to express personal feeling about things sometimes, but I think it is a risky game, you have to pick your battles and you have to talk about the things that are first hand to you, you know. Like if somebody was, let’s say that I had a friend and she was a female and she had suffered gender equality issues in getting where she wants and she finally got there 50 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION and I spoke about that that would be ok. If I suddenly jumped on a bandwagon on a popular topic, I don’t know if that is necessarily relevant to what I am doing as an artist. There is a lot of bandwagon stuff as well, like the whole Ten Walls thing that happened. Lot’s of people jumped about it in a way to get more likes, to get exposure, they had the personal opinion, when they never cared until that point. I’m pretty cynical. I think a lot of people are. Is there any social change that you would like in society? Something that matters to you more than the rest or that worries quite a lot? No, I guess the things that worry most people, the shifting of money in the world. I am concerned about it because you feel most helpless about it. You can’t change anything about it. But you know, these are the things, that you know that ones are probably the only. Do you think you could play a part in bringing about any sort of change? No I don’t think so. Not at my scale. It is something which political leaders, presidents, and ministers can do barely about. That’s the reality. I agree, that is probably the biggest one you could have picked up. I’m not oblivious. But I don’t know, maybe you have spoken to some people that are really active but I am just not active. I don’t get involved. I can have a conversation; but I don’t get myself involved. I just sit on the sidelines and just judge. I sit comfortable, pull up my chair. How often do you try to convince anybody of your friends to convince towards your opinion? The problem is the only people I talk about it, they are doing political science and stuff like that so I juts don’t go hardcore with these guys, because they just don’t like to be wrong so I don’t go hardcore to convince them. So you are not really persistent on these issues, you would say? Yeah, that’s right. I just party, with my friends and if issues come up… Ok, so but have you ever expressed something political or societal within your social media or in an interview or in your music? Hm… I just don’t usually… You would be amazed about the questions that I usually get. The same questions every single time… What’s coming up next? What’s the favorite song? That means you didn’t have the chance, but if you would, would you talk about it? That’s right, but it depends also on the question. Do you support artists who are speaking out politically their opinion? Yeah, unless they say something that I really really disagree with, but that’s not common, that’s pretty rare. 51 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Why do you think it is rare? Why do you think musicians refrain from speaking out politically? If you are talking about politics, people are just not that interested in it. The thing that controls this kind of conversation is also like, you have to not only consider what your fans think, you have to consider the medium of what you are saying. And the medium is often Facebook, and you can hurt your… If you have posts that don’t engage with your fans, it actually damages the way Facebook values your content and that ends up hurting your core business which is actually sharing music. For the sake of political conversation, which people may or may not want to have with you. And political conversations are also generally fairly region specific, so unless we are talking again about that broad issue of like, the economy, you know what are you going to do, target one political conversation of the US and target another one to the UK, you know what I mean it’s just a lot of work and it could hurt you, when you are really supposed to putting music. What if it is not so politically bias? Just stimulating political expression? Saying “guys we should talk about this more often” or participating in a charitable event, donating? What is an example of let’s say an artist, that would talk about political issues. Let’s say Kink, he is very conversational, he is the first one that comes to mind. What has he ever said about politics? He hasn’t ever talked about politics. He is a nice guy, an involved guy in the industry, and his content, his message is implicit, it is about “hey, techno is not about being cool it is about having fun”. But he has never said that, but it is like, in the industry of the people who are kind of too cool, he opens up his personality and he is like completely out there, showing his studio, joking about his mistakes, and it makes people feel that people are enjoying it. And he is having fun. And I think that is what artists should be doing. Not politics but maybe the politics within music. There is so much pretentiousness within the industry and there are so many rules to be broken and those kind of conversations should be had. Gender equality could be one. Breaking down the perception of what a DJ is. Showing yourself with your kids, making music, showing the creative process and that kind of stuff. Showing the first kit you bought, but that was a piece of shit, but made your first breaking track. Showing that you didn’t have any money. That this career is normal. These things are really powerful. Those are a lot of messages that are social. Each of your examples could go under a social message. Have you ever talked about it in public? To be honest, until this point my strategy was to say very little and I am changing that now. My first time I did something expressive was on a track I did with Jonas Rathsman, it came 52 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION out in December, it’s a track called “rush hour” and I just wrote a small thing about it. I used to be the type of guy, that went “here you go!” and just slap the track on. I am trying to change that and I want to be more personable. It is an interesting discovery for me to be more open as a person and let your views come true naturally. That is what I want to do. I don’t want to say more political stuff, or more opinions, but if I start explaining to people more of what I am doing, about it, naturally.
Do you think refraining from political expression is actually showing an example of refraining? No. Not at all. I don’t think people… e.g. There is a good example in the hockey league in Canada. So now they have taken off the rules for hockey players, you don’t get in trouble like you used to if you were caught with weed in your system as a hockey player. And they are trying to say that is going to influence the kids because they say, if the hockey players can do it I can do it. But at the same time, do you think if they ban hockey players from drinking alcohol the kids would stop drinking alcohol? That is basically an idea that people don’t follow hockey players based on their decisions on drinking alcohol and smoking weed. They follow hockey players on sports. If the hockey players start training in a different way, or doing a specific type of training procedure then the other people, who are into hockey would start that as well. Same with musicians. Nobody gives a shit about the stuff outside the music. If I would buy a new synthesizer it would affect a lot of people, they would buy it. But if I said I really don’t like Ukip in the UK, because I find them conservative and racist. So I don’t know, am I really going to influence people? Do people really care of what I think? Or am I going to be Russel Brand or smth now people realize people have a voice. I don’t think I am someone, that people follow for my political opinion and I have to respect why someone has come to me. I used to be a digital strategist and if you don’t respect, why people have come to you, in regards to the content you pay the price really really quickly. So if I start to become political people would stop following me. Does that make sense? Have you ever volunteered? Engaged into some sort of other political participation? Like I said I am a spectator. I don’t do anything of that kind of thing. Maybe I am too lazy. What do you think of expressing views in music? Some times people are doing it for free promotion. It is easy to be confused by the importance of the words to the power of the sound. It is a musical tool, these speeches they have been going since house music existed. People put their hands in the air. Why do you think it happens? 53 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Because they are powerful. But people don’t walk away affected by it, they walk away affected by the moment in the song but its not why they are chosen. They are chosen because it is great words you know, but if you think about it in the context of music is more of a poetry than a statement. I mean how relevant is JFK speech about right today? Probably it is kind of, but I don’t think it is going to do anything to the political landscape of today. There are loads of music, like “house music is for everyone” or “it’s in the soul”, it is just nice things to think about, emotional connection to the music, but it is emotional connection to the music not to politics. Do you think house music is for everyone? It depends which club you are in. There are clubs which play house music where there are fucking hundred euros to get in, and then there are people putting parties in their house, like you don’t have anything, just enjoying the music. So depends on the circumstances. The more you pay for it the worse it gets. But the music, or just music is for everyone. Artists are not supposed to be seen as role models and they might be the most talented hard working people but then they are not necessarily always good in their head, you know what I mean? If you give a little bit of money and fame they can start thinking all their ideas are true. Like Curt Cobain his aim was to earn money and do heroin with his child till he dies. I mean what that guy Ten Walls said is nothing even close to that. It was just a conservative opinion on gays. I do think what he said was really shitty, but now everybody condemned him and he put out this videos and stuff. And what we have, is a guy that used to be doing some of the best house music around and listen to his music now, you kicked all the passion out of it, all of these emotions that were driving some of these darker sounds. You kicked it out of him and he went like, ok ok I can’t think that way I need to be what you want me to be. So there, is this what you want? And then they all said no. So its just very sad that the condemnation was so heavy for him. If people can love Michael Jackson we can put up with some stuff he said on his Facebook.
Interviewee #5, 12 K Facebook followers, no Twitter account
How interested, would you say, you are in politics? I am interested, but more like the big news, such as “who’s the new president of America” or “how’s the war in Syria” and that kind of things. I like to read the news but for me it is 54 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION always better when there is no war, calm period. It is interesting, because I know I need to do this, only I am busy with work and I lost my inspiration. How engaged are you in civic life? social issues? For me there was no politician that I can level with him. The new president of Holland, I cannot level with him. But some things with Obama, I like his style, how he is with people, I like this, but for like political things, I don’t really respect for that, for lot of politicians. But the new government of Canada, I really like them, they are really intelligent, the president of sport, the prime minister of justice, they really work in that business, you know. In Holland there are people who work for the government they don’t have experience in the field. How interested are you into social issues? In the current moment the news have problem with the refugees, the muslims. All the politicians are talking about this. Sometimes you listen to them and think, yes, you are right. But it is only about this topic. For me it is not interesting to say, yes I like this guy, because he supports muslims. I have muslim friends. But I also can say, we have enough of other problems too. But like, one two times in the week I would look up this information. Do you discuss that with your relatives, colleagues? Not, really, no. For me it is too much on this on the television already. In regards to me, if you are nice to me, I am nice to you, and if you are not I wont be nice to you as well. I think, I have to focus 8 hours per day on my music business and when I’m home and my friend is sitting on the couch and we watch TV, then yes of course we would discuss sometimes, but I think it is not that I would watch that everyday. Do you discuss social issues with your surroundings, like gay rights, equal rights with your surroundings? Yeah, I do, I do discuss about this. Because it’s the same like we talked about the gay thing last year, you know. Everybody was saying “yeah, it’s not good that he said this”, but I know a lot of people they have the same thoughts about it in Holland. I don’t have the same thoughts, I have a lot of gay things, but I understand that he would think that, due to his surrounding. Have you ever expressed on social media your views? The situation of Ten Walls is the reason, why you should not do this. When you say something wrong on social media, everybody can, your career can disappear. For me that is the reason I never say something like this on my wall. I did once, with the black Pete discussion. It was a big topic in Holland because everybody wants to remove black Pete, because it’s racism. But for me it is not racism, so I posted a 55 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION funny picture on my Facebook wall and a lot of people said to me “Hey man, what the fuck are you doing?” and in one minute I deleted, because I thought if this was for one hour online I would get into a lot of problems. What sort of problems, could you specify? Do you think your fans would dislike you because of that? Yeah, because if one of my fans fell like that is racism I cannot look in his head. Everybody has got their own opinion. That is really hard. For me it is better as an artist that you don’t say such things. But for some it is marketing. I know a lot of DJ’s, DJ Sneak he would always say something about other people so he has a lot of fans but also a lot of haters. Would you say artists should refrain from expressions? Well I think, to do it in a positive way it is good. When the Paris events happened and the big artists said something about this nightmare, then it would be better for people. But when you say bad things it s not good. Do you think artists have an obligation to act in a certain way? Everybody can say what they think, but if you are not a political guy, why would you say something, if you cannot change something. If you can, like help people or say no to racism, that kind of stuff, tht would be good, but political things about the war, let it be. In general I would say, you can say that as a big artist, but you need to watch out to what you say. Do you think the people who follow you would look up to you? In my business, as a musician yes, I can change a lot of mind of kids. When I started there was a lot of commercial music getting popular and we with Dekmantel guys, we started playing underground and we had a lot of followers, who would listen to us, and say this is cool and follow us. So of course we have influence within the scene. And you can talk about politics within the scene on an interview or on Facebook. But posting something everyday about the house music scene, yeah, it’s not my style. So people look up to you within the musical scene, yes. But how about political issues, e.g. say you talk about the black Pete in an interview? Well, if they ask me in an interview, if I like black Pete, I will say yes, I do like it, but if the people have problems with black people I am always open for a change, you know. Why you should not, my idea was like, make the Pete purple or yellow, if the people are ok with this do it, its for kids. But I am not the guy that would push it on the internet, or on my Facebook. “Guys my name is Prunk, I have a new idea for the black Pete.” I would say that in an interview, but I would propose an idea that hurts no one. And then the problem would be solved. But then maybe some people might disagree, but in that case I don’t care. 56 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Is there a difference in the media? Using social media or interview? I would do that, when I am asked. But if I think the question is too hard, I would not answer. If I think something can hurt my followers, or hurt my career, you need to think about this. So that is something always, that I get the interview from my manager and we check it and correct “maybe this answer or this question is a little bit dangerous”. Do you think the people who read the interviews, would follow your political opinions or civic engagement? The problem is that, sometimes when you do an interview with DJ mag you get a lot of views and sometimes with a small blog you get 40 views. There is also a chance someone can read the small blog and disagree. Maybe then two hours later, you think I wont say my opinion better on that topic. After Ten Walls thing, you know it became very dangerous. You can delete is but then they can do a print screen it is very dangerous. Do you think about a changes within society? There is a hate culture in Amsterdam, but for me, if you are bad with me I am bad with you and if you are good, I’m good with you too. But I’m nobody. Do you think it depends on how famous the person is? The more famous you are the freer you are to express your opinion? Well I am actually happy that I am not that famous, because when you are you have to look out for what you say. You have a lot of fake friends, Ricardo Villalobos was so fucked up on stage and his management or people around him didn’t help him. Do you think then, the more famous you are, the more people adhere to your opinion? Well yeah, of course. Like Kanye West, he wants to be the President of America. He can use his social media to attempt to be the president of America. But I don’t want to be the president of Holland. I just want to change the music scene, to give people a nice time. Look, I am not for 10 years in the music scene and for 5 years a professional, but every year everything is changing. You have to change yourself as well, if you do this for a long time. Do you think dance music is not handy for politics? I think for Holland can be good, if someone from the music scene is in the government, because people in the music scene is like 10 % of the whole country. But me, like you and me is like 8 % of the country. All your friends are using drugs, everyone within the culture use drugs. So we are like 8% of the whole country. So it would be good if someone would represent that 8 % in the government, because they understand us, our way of love. That it is about music, love and respect. Like for me, I lived on the streets of Rotterdam, but I also lived with the rich guys in the North of Holland. And in the government there are too many 57 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION guys that don’t know nothing about what an afterparty is. And it would be good if someone from the scene would be in the government. Like Wilders, he doesn’t like Muslims, but he also doesn’t like culture or music. It would not be ease for me if he would be the president, to live this life that I have. So for me, I would vote and look for an organization who could help to live my life like this. So e.g. now that you mentioned, let’s say Wilders is coming to the government, would you use your social media to organize the people eto go vote against him or you would still refrain from it? I would still refrain from it. I read a lot of books, watch documentaries. 80 percent of people in the country just do their job go to work and go to the football club. But I am different, for me you have to stay creative. If you can not create anymore in the country, then I would move countries, but if I can still do my thing in the country, I would say nothing. Why would I react if there is one guy talking on that?! I know a lot of musicians they do this. Because they are afraid of what is coming. But no one will help you you have to do everything yourself. A lot of DJs posted about Ten Walls to get the likes from others, but I think with Paris thing, it is good and we need to do this, pay respect to the people. Of course, in the Christmas time, I was driving around and saw Muslim people in the streets and I gave them candy. But I can do two things I can film this and post it on my Facebook, and I get 300 likes or I can do it real from my heart. And I choose this. I am like this.
Interviewee #6, 101 K Facebook followers, 23,7 K Twitter followers
How prominent were political discussions in your life? I don’t discuss politics, when I was growing up I was forced to think I was republican, or that I was Cristian not forced but it is things you get passed down from your father or your mother and you come up thinking this way and for me at a very young age I noticed that I didn’t really believe in religion or politics, because I was not knowing what was really going on. So until I started to read for myself or research for myself, what it is what I wanted to do. That is how I started forming. Were you neglecting politics? As soon as I could wrap my head around what sort of politics was, I got into it. So maybe around 15-16 years old I started getting interested in it. It started with law, court cases and 58 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION from there, learning government. But around the time when Elian Gonzalez, a Mexican refugee that came to Miami, his mother dyed on the way here, in a boat, so doing the Elian Gonzalez or the whole thing that was going on there, I was like this is really messed up. they basically got a 7-year-old kid they went into the family’s house, they took him from the family and shipped them back to Cuba. So around that time, I started getting into politics. I was not born in Cuba but I consider myself 100 % Cuban. I don’t think where you are born is who you are. My heritage, everything is a 45min flight away. My entire family speaks Spanish we are as Cuban as you can get. Are you interested in the issues back home? Cuban politics do not exist. Cuba has a dictator and all is said by that. It is not even you can discuss or read, while it is all fabricated. I don’t read in general, I like to listen to speeches of candidates and see whether they’re consistent. How about social issues? Yeah, everything from gay rights to water crisis in Uganda. Do you donate or engage into? I feed the homeless, I’ve been doing it for 10 years. Every November around Thanksgiving. I was in jail and when I got out of there, I felt I needed to help out somebody. Money is going to keep coming for me, but some other people, if me buying a computer for somebody then the 2-3 thousand dollars I’m going to spend. You know, if Earth is giving you something, you give back. That’s that. Have you mentioned publically? I don’t believe in doing good in talking about it. If you do good you do good, it’s not part of press of that. It is not for me. Do you want to show an example? For me more than likely is that people are using it for press. PR people are behind it. That to me is the absolute worse. You are using people’s necessities to your advantage. And I’m not into that. If I go and push it myself, but then if you have the whole press behind it, that’s wrong. They are still doing something good so that’s better than doing nothing. Would you speak up for a public/societal issue yourself? I do that all the time. Last week I spoke about cops, police brutality in US, how they killed a guy in Miami, who was holding a razor blade and they killed him. The guy does not deserve to die; he does belong in jail. And a week before that I posted my thoughts on Bernie Sanders as a presidential candidate. Some people don’t agree in having Beyoncé tweeting in having Bernie Sanders as a presidential candidate but I say whatever we can do as artists as forward 59 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION thinking people, because most artists are forward thinking and I hate to say it but I think, artists are a bit more educated than the people that don’t research, that just take information from their parents. Would you agree that artists have a social or moral obligation to influence people? Obligation, I’m not so sure if that is an obligation. Ok, I’ll rephrase it. Do you think artists should use the position that they have to promote something or refrain? What do you support and do in your case? I definitely do it, so I guess my answer is yes. But I’m only saying yes, because I feel that it is really good for what it is that I want I my life. It depends on every single artist. Guys like Bono, e.g., he would probably own a bunch of companies, and wants a republican candidate, who believes in making the 1 % richer, and in that case I would say he should refrain it. But it is all subjective, you know? and there is no reason to it. If I am doing it for myself, if Bono is doing it for he stays richer then I would say no. Are you eager to affect fans to certain behavior? I am trying to do that in a way that it is not forced upon them, so they make their own decisions, what they see right or wrong. My tweet was “This could have been me. I was arrested with a box cutter.” They could make their own decisions. What was the discussion? I don’t go discussing, but my fans were shocked and they reacted to it. If you would see a particular politician, who you think could solve these issues, would you endorse them? I definitely would. Unfortunately, politics is all corrupt. So nowadays you choose between a cockroach and another cockroach. Politics is legal corruption. Very organized crime. Unfortunately, that what it is. Do you ever feel you could play a part in changing society? My wish is to make a little bit of a change, but I don’t think I can do much. I can make a change when it comes t physical change, give food, water, but politics are run by multibillion dollar corporations, where my say does not do nothing. However, I still do say my opinion, simply to get off my chest and open up people’s heads. Probably not even with an intention to make a change. E.g. right now Hillary Clinton is the democratic leader for the nomination, while Bernie Sanders is having an exponential amount of donation, she has super packs, where few donate millions, while Bernie has thousands donating 10-15. There is no way to change something like that. What do you think about political or societal messages in music? Do you do it yourself? 60 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
That goes hand in hand, it is synonymous with me posting a tweet. You know if you feel a certain way, lot of Cuban music is based on that, is based on the fact we had a dictator for 50 years and as an artist you should do whatever you want, NWA when they did the track fuck the police song, there is freedom of speech in the US, you should be able to do whatever you want and try to get your fans to open up. But I do techno, so I haven’t. I have included quotes from other people, but now I don’t do vocals in my tracks. Can dance music serve for bringing up societal messages? No. The fact that dance music is made for clubs, dark warehouses, drugs. If you are going to be listening to messages, you are already doing your research. If you are sending a message at 4-5 o’clock in the morning, you might be able to get in their brains, you may be but I think a tweet is better. Or an interview. Otherwise people are not paying attention at the time. I’ve heard Martin Luther King before on tracks, but I don’t think it means anything. I you are out to go a message you are sending through a media, where people are actually listening to it. At least that is what I would do. Do you think other musicians do not stimulate civic engagement, completely refuse to any political or social questions? As an artist you don’t want to separate people. The easiest way for me to separate myself from my fans right now, is to say I’m a democrat. All my republican fans are going to immediately not going to like me or listen less of me. Do you care about it? No, I don’t. I can see other people afraid refraining from controversial issues, like gay rights or something, because of their family views, or lose fans. How heavy do you think is the influence of management? Well I’ve been told before from my manager to shut up, and still do. I told him this is something I feel I need to say, and I do. PR as well. I am very open with everything that I as, I do not try to insult but I do speak exactly what I think. As an artist it is not something good to do, because you are making enemies and you are separating people. You got to consider this is an entire business and some people are depending on me, but I try to keep it at a minimum, I don’t call people out, or say republicans are wrong. Would you support an artist expressing an opinion? No. If it is something I completely disagree then no. If it is a republican and I’m a democrat it is fine. We agree to disagree, but when it is human rights or equal rights, or economic inequality, I will say go to hell out loud. 61 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Do you give an opportunity for a redemption? No, I would never play ten Walls record or even want to play in the same event. Unless it is very honest. He should’ve done a video, immediately. We used to talk on skype all the time.
Interviewee #7, 90,1 K Facebook followers, 12,2 K Twitter followers
How interested, would you say, you are in politics? Is it a topic that matters to you? I keep myself aware of what is going on in this world. I call myself a citizen of this world. So everything happening on this fucking earth is of course touching me. So I am not just watching the news to see what’s happening. I am a skeptical guy, basically. And if there is something that I get interested in I don’t take one media talking about it I need to go further and to make my own opinion crossing between sources, because I am a skeptical guy first of all. So that’s why I keep myself aware every day, well not maybe every day, because sometimes it can be very heavy. But I am a French guys and what happened lately was rally something very sad and also worrying, where all these things can go?! And of course I keep myself aware of what’s happening in the middle east, basically everywhere in the world. So I would not say I am political guys, but I keep myself interested in what’s going in this world. That’s for sure. Do you talk about that in your surroundings, with your friends, your relatives? I don’t keep myself aware on what’s going on to specially have a conversation about it. It can happen but not so much, because a lot of people are scared about talking their own ideas. Because if you go to US there is this thing going on, no religion, no politics in public area. I had this experience I was talking with Samim and other artist in a bar and we were talking a lot about politics and at one point a guy came and really kindly said “No politics, no religion”. And I was shocked! I thought we are in a democracy and I thought we are able to think and talk about everything everywhere. But actually I’ve been thinking what this guy is telling. And it was making sense. Because nobody is having the point of view or ideas about about everything, so it can hurt a lot of people, even if you think what you are saying is right so all the subject of your thesis is about that. Should we talk out our personal ideas and I have no answer to you to this question, e.g. this guy in US says “No politics, no religion” and that makes everything smoother in the public area, and I understand but at the same time it is shocking. Do you think artists have a social or moral obligation to engage people into political and social issues? 62 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
I am split about this. Because of course there are a lot of artist who implicate into the social right, civic rights, but sometimes I say to myself yes these are the right things, what they do. But sometimes, why we love artists, is for their art. There are people who talk and then you say “Oh, my God, he should’ve shut his mouth.” Because, especially for artists, they can totally ruin the image someone can have about the artist and his work. So it is really confusing. I know I am not a flat person and I have my own opinions, but at the same time I don’t want to ruin the image the people, my fans have made about me. That’s the problem. So you can put some relief on an artist, but then they open their mouth, despite if they are right or not, sometimes it also can totally mess all the magic surrounding an artist and his universe. I’ve been thinking a lot about this, because I’ve been making my album PROMO, and of course I’ve been asked some questions, but I don’t have a faded idea on it. It was interesting because I made a post that was kind of consensual. Right after the events in France, there was this moment, when everyone was feeling French, putting their flags again, something that I have never seen in my country before, because before getting this flag was perceived as fascism you know, specially the right side of politics in France is always taking this flag out. You know, “we have to protect ourselves and we have to take this flag out blablabla…” so at the same time, that everybody was putting the flag out it was a really nice image, and I made a post on FB, saying that “Ok, we are all French and we are proud to be French, but hey, is France really not guilty about what is happening?” And then I posted a picture of the weapon sales in the world. I could send it to you, which was in billions of euros of all the exportations that are sold in the world, and the biggest exportations of France is to the middle east! So Is France really not guilty on what is happening to us? I am not sure, because when you are selling weapons to these unstable countries, of course I mean, you are selling weapons, but we are the good and you are the bad, but please, we are selling weapons, don’t attack us. But you can’t control this you are selling weapons to people. So I think of course France is guilty to what is happening to them, which was kind of consensus, maybe we should stop selling weapons and then maybe we would start having peace in this world. But then my agent came to me, and said, Lee, I know you are right, but maybe it is not a good idea to let this post so I trashed this post? Was it so? The manager asked you to do so? He didn’t tell me, Lee, erase it. All he told me was “Maybe it was not a good idea”. So he put me the doubt. So after that I was thinking to myself, so maybe the topic is too hot at that moment and maybe, you never know from the thousands of fans that I have you never know 63 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION what you have in the middle. I had some experience of posting something, that was really my own opinion, I had some comments coming that I was so shocked from people, that OMG! Making a disproportionate reaction of something that was not that big. There is also, Social media is worldwide. We are talking a language that is English. People might not get it the way we mean it. It is not the mother tongue for the people. So it can be lots of misunderstandings for the people. It was kind of scary. And that is the danger of the social media about this misunderstanding of taking your expressions out of the context. I had few experiences like this that were kind of scary, so when my agent said to remove it I removed it. Were you in that case of the ships, were you posting it as an artist or as a private person? An artist is a person and I don’t want to portray a different image from who I am. I am Lee van Dowski is me. You can’t unlink this. Of course there are artists who create a character. I know some that are doing this. But I am not. In that case did you think about the consequences that people should know this? Yeah, at that point, what happened at that moment in France that was TERRIBLE and horrible. All this innocent people killed because they were just going out. You can’t predict this you are just going out to listen music in a big venue, and suddenly people with Kalashnikovs are coming, you can’t predict this. That’s hell! That is the most terrible thing that can happen. When it is happening in a battle, it is supposed to happen there and it is fighters who are there not civilians. So after that, what I have posted, I was just trying to change the direction of the subject, because at that moment I was “Yeah, we are proud to be French, these people are doing these things to our country, they are wrong we are right” but at the same time, I said, hey we are the civilians we are always right. But what the politicians of this country are doing? Selling weapons to these countries and all the things we don’t know, because there are things that they are doing behind the media, the dirty business, that the politics can do. So we are paying for that, but I was just pointing that, hey maybe our politicians are doing these nasty things behind our back and maybe this flag is not the thing to do at that moment, because maybe we should take the problem from the source and say, hey, “If this is happening, it is because we are bombing some countries at this very moment, and if you are punching someone, they are going to punch you back.” So it is just about good sense, right thinking and sometimes people are losing it, they are so much into hate. And at that moment it was a lot of hate and you know, specially in France at that moment, all these radical people, all the worst part of France 64 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION came out, saying “Yes, now we close the border, we put all the strangers out, the foreigners out, all the people without papers we put them out, we close the country and then we stay all with motherfuckers inside.” All the stupid people. That was shocking, that was exactly what happened in Nazi Germany. So when there is crisis, unfortunately it is not the best part of humanity getting out, always the worst, the protectionism and like that. But I wanted to make people think about it. Did you think about the bad reactions and when the bad reactions happened did you think about it threatening to your popularity? No, I mean, of course before I have been posting some stuff, there was always some motherfucker saying some bullshit, but it is always a minority. You can’t please everybody. I don’t want to be this kind of artist. But I removed the post while at the same time not wanting to remove it, I was thinking about my agent. Inside I was thinking you could lose fans and make a big problem out of it, and of course what he was saying it was total stupid things, but I am sure, what he said was taken out of context. I don’t want to talk about the content of what he said, but it generated so much hate for just a little sentence, it was just a post on his personal page. That was not a public thing. And then there was all this flooding message of hate about him, which, hey, sometimes it was going so far that he should die! It went so far away, that at one point I said who is the stupid guy there? Ok, maybe this guy is a homophobe, but really, this guy should die about that? So who is stupid in this situation? It went so far; the drift was unbelievable. At one point I was reading all the comments and trying to put myself at his place. Just because of few bad words, because we all have some bad words sometimes, we are all stupid more or less, maybe me more that everybody else. But what happened to this guy was unfair. We can have our ideas bad or good, but it was no more reason, it was just mass media of the feeling “we have the power to trash this guy”. I was remembered the second world war and the poor Jews, being blamed for being responsible for all the bad things happening to our lives. When I am posting about anything I am always thinking about that. Have you ever though about speaking out about that? Oh my god, at that point it was the last thing to do. Because people we so out of their minds and so into the dynamics to trash this guy, that anybody talking about him in a good way, was in the same area, and then “this guy we should trash him too”. Of course I was talking with some friends and everything but it was really the last thing to do to try to defend him even if I would have loved to do that, because I thought it was unfair. This guy killed nobody. He didn’t hurt nobody personally. It is just an assault. 65 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Do you think this case really scared a lot of musicians in talking out? Yes, it changed a lot of things. I am sure since that day Facebook became a little bit more flat in our scene. I do think it was kind of a warning saying hey, you have to really be careful of what you are writing. At one point it is good, but from the other side, it means that yeah, from that day I knew that you can’t talk about everything. I think it is important for you, about what happened to this guy, because it was something revealing the power of social media and the fans and also something happened before about Ritchie Hawtin pushing a speaker on someone taking a photo. And oh my god, all the posts we so far away. But do you think it would have an influence to his career? Well, for a few months, because he’s been a jerk doing this, because he posted that it was not on purpose, but you can see he is pushing this video to hurt her. I saw this video. What was really putting people angry was the lie he told. Whatever we all do stupid things, and because of social media suddenly this god of techno is a piece of shit. I think the fans understood their power on social media. And look at Ten Walls. He is not there anymore; his booking agent has left him. What happened to these guys, it was cause by a negative aspect, but then your intention was to make a political statement. Of course, as I told you it was really a consensual post, that most of the people would agree. But even then there will always be someone saying “But”. And also there are a lot of people who are doing nothing all their day, and they are just nerds on internet and they are just watching and waiting the moment. The little speak to make a shit out of it. You will always find one. And the more fans you have the more guys like that you have. And it is someone who will always say something opposite from what you say, thus you will always feed these people, you know. How influential you think you are? I do not have expectations about the post I did, first foremost I am not a politician, but an entertainer, my purpose is not to change the minds of people, and sometimes I just want to put in the light some elements that people don’t have. So would you say you have intentionally ever tried to influence people? No I wouldn’t call myself an opinion leader, no. But sometimes, what I would love to do is just to put in the light some elements that people are not putting into the picture. Especially the weapons sales in France. For me that was the source of the problems. Should artist be opinion leaders towards engaging people into political or civic matters? 66 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
That’s what I told you, I would love to have a straight answer to that. At the same time, lets talk about pop or rock now, not techno artists, there are a lot of people who are into civic rights and good causes, which is good, but at one point, it is like really these people are doing this to have a good image. Sean Penn e.g. he is not consensual in the things they are doing, just in the sense “I am a nice guy I am doing these nice things”. I don’t want to do these things. I am thinking every day to find out where do I want to be. I don’t have an answer to this. Sometimes I like artists doing it, sometimes I think Do you think artist have a certain social role, since they are perceived as role model? No, I would not say they are taken as examples, because that is not true, everybody is human, the only thing is that their position is putting them in having the power to spread further of what he thinks. That is the whole difference. If you take a lambda people from the street and he is posting something to his 200 friends, it has no implications, but if me or Richie Hawtin with 1 mln fans, of course, the reactions and the implications are different. So but basically it makes no difference from the person. IT is just the power to spread the sound. Would you be more eager to express your opinion on interviews or is social media your medium to talk about political and social matters? I do a lot of interviews with magazines, but in the end I know Clara, my PR manager will check things, and then we talk together about what do you think about that, blablabla. Because her concern is that I would not make a provocation too. And it’s a complicated subject! Why you had this idea? Are you crazy? There is no bottom! What is her concern in this case? She is concerned about me, my career, so she would try to avoid me talking stupidities, or stuff that could of course cause me my career. Would you say she is silencing your expressions? No, because she doesn’t want me to be a flat artist, as I said we all have an opinion. But she is concerned that I am staying reasonable. But e.g. if you take Seth Troxler. Which I think is a great example of using social media, getting not too political, but always making a buzz out of his saying. Because in the end he is making a big buzz but never about a big subject. And he’s very good at it. I don’t know if that is the PR doing a good job, or… Of course I know him, he is a funny guy, and he always have stupid or frank, funny things. But it is as we say in French, it is always “don’t shoot the ambulance”. He is going to make a statement on air. But it’s nicely done. I never saw him making a political statement though. So, you can see that his communication is taking care that he is not going over the limit. 67 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
What do you think of mixing music with politics? I never really did it personally, used vocals with meanings, but why not. I am not sure that in the club there is so much importance. You are in the club there for dancing, I am not sure if it has as much impact as a post on Facebook. All that we are doing, people going clubs and us playing music as Dj’s is obviously to let people out of all these things they have in the other life. I think politics should stay out of clubs, that is what we try to do for them. It is entertainment. That is why your topic is interesting, should artists get into politics? I am really split about it, because I think it is important, on some subject… Oh! E.g. this thing, ice bucket challenge! For me it was the most stupid thing that happened in social media in the last 5 years. I was like are you kidding me? In your topic, what is important is how the people are reacting as well, what the artists content provides.
Interviewee #8, 93 KFacebook followers, 45,8 K Twitter followers
How interested, would you say, you are in politics? Is it a topic that matters to you? How about societal matters, e.g. taxation, immigrant crisis, equal rights, drug use? When I was younger I was less, but now I got to understand how everything effects our lives taxation, etc. so I am much more into politics than I used to be. Actually we talk about politics with my brother a lot, he is a very opinionated guy, and my manager, I am not as much. But I do have my own opinion on it. Do you engage in political and civic life? social issues? (e.g. vote, donate, volunteer) I do vote, I do donate but on my personal account I don’t think it is correct to publish that, since you do that for yourself. I understood that you have to be more cautious on what you say in public now. specially on social media, cause it might be dangerous. Particularly in my case, when I have such followship. The older people like me who have already formed their opinions maybe not as much, but the younger ones, who haven’t formed what their political views are, might just follow what is popular. So I prefer not to post anything political on Facebook. Do you ever think about certain political or social changes in the society? What do you mean? 68 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Let’s say in the sense that you would be deeply deeply concerned about something and like to change it yourself? No to be honest, no. In the sense that I would spend time thinking on how I could act to change some social aspect myself, no. What do you think when artists expressing their opinion regarding a certain political or societal matter on a public medium? Have you ever done it? What was your intention behind it? I don’t do it. When the guys in the pop culture do it, when people’s opinions is half-baked, the young people might just follow them and even in the dance scene it is similar. If you are younger and you haven’t formed your opinion, you often go after what is popular. I think whenever it is on a moral issue, it is ok, but to talk about politics per se, I don’t think artists should do it. What about interviews? If you are asked on interviews would you provide your opinion? I haven’t really been asked these questions, but I think I wouldn’t for the reasons I’ve mentioned. People have the right to form their own opinions. Do you think that artists have a social or moral obligation to influence people on certain behavior? Why? Moral obligation Im not sure. It is not that artists are obliged, since if its not someone’s topic in particular, if they don’t feel like they are engaged into it, then they have the right not to talk about politics. If it is regarding a good cause, then absolutely. What do you think of the idea of expressing views in music? Have you ever done it? What was your intention behind it? I don’t object it if someone wants to do it. But no, I wouldn’t.
Interviewee #9, 317,2 K Facebook followers, 59,9 K Twitter followers
Do you ever think about certain political or social changes in the society? Do you ever feel you could play a part in bringing about this change? Yeah I do, I mean both me and Andy. I mean Andy he had very very strong environmental concerns and he’s now practicing now. He took up farming, he is very into sustainable farming now. I think he tried to initially sort of take a kind of campaigning role in terms of his use about the environment. But I think he was sort of shocked by the response, not from 69 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION the followers though, but the media, what he wrote letters to the Times and he was kind of shocked by the response. I mean it is a complicated situation. Specifically, about the environment. It is obviously a concern but you are also aware of the fact of the life that we’re living and the sort of footprint that we make as DJ’s isn’t great so you have to be very careful. It is generally a broader point about your thesis. I mean there is a lot of people who would be sympathetic towards you, if you take up political or social, environmental causes. But there will be really a lot that will really quite aggressively sort of jump on your back. So I don’t think that is typical for most people but I have been conscious about that. And you know for me I sort of feel like at the end of the day, we’re brooks that mix records in night clubs. And we should be aware of that. And there are limitations on what we can understand and what we can hope to do. I think it is important to sort of keep that stuff separate. I get uncomfortable myself when those two words intersect too strongly. It can become preachy. You have to be careful of not to become preachy because none of us live perfect lives. You, particular, you have mentioned about Andy’s involvement into environment issues, but how about you, which are the societal issues that you are mostly focused about or thinking about? I do and I guess I come from a generation and a little older and little less comfortable with disclosure. It is kind of a real thing of the generation in their twenties or their thirties. People put stuff out there, more than probably I’ve been comfortable doing it. I have sort of social concerns and political views. And are you eager to share it? Yeah I would, like e.g. I support financially charities that I believe in. Greenpeace, I am supportive of and if they wanted to put out some kind of campaign and they were looking for signatures, I would feel fine about sharing that with our followers on Facebook or on Twitter. I think that there are people who’s got opinions, you don’t have to do it, but then the thing can be made aware that that is happening, and if they ignore it that’s fine. I sort of wouldn’t ask people to do it, but I would retweet something like that. I kind of feel that, if we are talking about my own political situation, we are in a situation where we have got kind of, you know, the government at the moment that I have a lot to disagree with, with the welfare state and you know if something like that comes along I find particularly unpleasant, I would tweet about it, but I would probably keep an element of humor about it. I think it is really important for musicians to have principles and values, I think it just depend on the method you choose to deliver that. The style you deliver that in. 70 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
I am very very supportive of a thing called the Teenage Cancer Trust, I do lots and lots of stuff for them that anybody could dispute if that’s a good thing I have done loads of free gigs for them, so that is sort of the main charity thing that probably I support and like I said environmental charities I am also interested in. And yeah, I would happily appear in a gig for… I wanted to do recently something in Paris because of the Paris talks, which is kind of abandoned because of the terrorist attacks that happened a few months before. So I would be happy to do a gig, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable if I was asked to be a spokesman for some sort of thing, you know what I mean, it is not really not my skill set. So if I can perform as a DJ alongside of a charity or a cause I believe in, then that is something I am happy to do. I am less happy to sort of stand on the stump and that probably doesn’t feel quite right to me. I would feel that my abilities and skills set would start and stop. I would rather support political parties and causes than necessarily making them my own. How involved would you say you are into conventional, governmental politics. Are you strongly involved or completely disengaged? I am not a member of any political party I am in a little bit odd situation at the moment, because you know I am sort of left wing, but then you got to very different strands for labor party because you had people voting for Corbin, who is sort of kind of little detached from reality, and then at the moment I don’t have any strong political affiliations. But again, you know, I would totally if I felt like I strongly identify with an MP I would not have any difficulties and I would feel comfortable to support them. I would endorse them if I would think this person is good and you are all obviously grown ups and you should form your own opinions about it. Do you perceive yourself as an artist that you have an obligation to engage people into politics? I don’t feel that I have an obligation at all. I feel that it is my personal obligation to live by the values that I believe in and support the causes I believe in, in my own way. And if I can provide a function to people through DJing, the main obvious thing I would do would be benefit gigs, but I don’t feel some sort of need to be a spokesman for a movement. I don’t feel that is my responsibility at all. I do I volunteer for a charity that is based at totenham, I am quite a believer I guess in local politics. That is the way I try to effect people in kind of my own geographical orbit. But I definitely don’t feel the need or a calling to be a spokesman. 71 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Not that I have a problem with pop stars, I think people can do it really brilliantly. I mean if you look at someone like Elton John, someone who’s got an enormous status that he has done for HIV and I have an enormous respect for people who do that. But I think you have got to be realistic about who you are and who you supported base is. I have huge respect for the people who can affect change like he can. Do you think you can affect change within the society? Me personally? No not really, but that is because I don’t have the platform anymore. I might have done in the past. Made bigger gigs and so on. But I kind of think the entertainment industry definitely has a responsibility. I look at the impact they have in the states, and there, it maybe comes with a certain level of celebrity, it gets to a certain critical mass, where you have got people with 28-29 mln followers on twitter, that is extraordinary powerful thing. And maybe you should feel a huge responsibility and feel conscious about using that responsibility wisely. Think, if you have 50 -60 K followers on Twitter who are reading one of every ten of your tweets, then I don’t feel that I’ve necessarily got more of a voice than the next man. Do you differentiate the medium you choose for expressing your engagement? Yea, we have supported charities, when we have done big shows, I wouldn’t feel comfortable getting up on stage and you know sort of like making statements. But I think it is important to be consistent with who you are as a personality. How you feel comfortable. And someone like Elton John feels comfortable about doing a gig in Russia and that is something that he’d feel comfortable with who he is. It needs to be a part of who you are, of your brand as an artist. Is that how it came up to you guys, when you were doing that environmental thing in the past? That came because Andy was first hand working on the organic food and sustainable land. He was in a space that he felt comfortable to discuss. And with him with the environment thing, he just came to a point when he felt deeply concerned about it, he felt he felt he had the responsibility to say something about it. And again, I think that is just who you are as a personality. I am a little bit less forthcoming in that way. My way of doing it is to be supportive of cause which I am supportive of and that is what I can do. Generally, do you think that dance music, its cause its purpose is to give an escape? I think it is a very complicated one. I think dance music is slightly devoid of values. and I don’t think it’s a bad thing I think its great. I think it is wonderful that people get off and get away from their troubles or whatever it is and just have a good time and dancing is good. But 72 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION sort of when I look at what happened in EDM, it is not a cult culture that I find very inspirational, this sort of superstar Dj’s on jets stuff, it’s a bit tacky. I think the value system of dance music changed a lot. I think when I grew up with dance music in the early and mid 90s, when people were sort of, first there was a drugs thing that was getting people into community and there was also a sense that was slightly political about it. That was sort of free party movement, something anti-Thatcher about it. And that had that sort of sense of values there and sort of somewhere within the line it became much more consumer driven and I don’t feel that I ever have political conversations with other dance producers and I think if I did they’d think I was a bit odd. I think our scene is a bit devoid from that, maybe we could be better about that. I think there is a commitment to hedonism, which I think is a good thing, but you can do it to a point when it becomes the only thing that matters and that’s a bit of a shame. So that is nice when I get the chance to DJ on a political platform that I believe in and I think that is good. It is great when people come together and have a party which also has a cause, that can be a really powerful thing, definitely. Do you think the commercial side is involved in it? Yeah, I mean as in a bad PR thing? Or in a good PR thing? It is an interesting point, I think if you think of the big names in dance music, the Tiesto’s and the Guetta’s and Calvin Harris, they seem to me apolitical basically. And I agree that to a great extent they seem to play it very very safe. I think they don’t seem to have huge issues where they choose to play, and the political systems that they chose to play they are not great and it is a bit of a valueless scene, when you think about it and compare it to the 60’s yeah, I think people are probably playing it kind of safe. I think dance music is great but some of it is driven by money and drugs and not things that lead themselves to social causes. If you would see injustice would you speak up about it? That mainly concerns the question of your fan alienation. Would you still be eager to talk about issues? From a personal perspective, it is about recognizing, that most of injustices are subjective. When I feel so flagrantly obviously an objective truth, like climate change, in a desperate need of something positive to come out from those talks in Paris then I sort of get behind it in a big way. It is a rally interesting big thing argument that has been going on all around the Europe is the refugee crisis. I have huge sympathy for what the refugees are going through. But then I get assed to do a Syrian refugee benefit gig. And not that I don’t feel totally comfortable about it. Not because I don’t feel supportive about the struggles they have got but because I feel that there is a much bigger issue that is not addressed about the fact that there have not been peace talks happening in Syria. So I sort of I’d do that, but what am I 73 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION really saying? I need to know that the cause is indisputably a positive one. And not to think well this is the kind of obvious left wing right kind of thing to do. I don’t engage in that level. The Syrian thing has been ad odd one for me because I’ve been asked to do lots and lots of benefit gigs and I thought, what are we actually doing here? What is the goal? I can’t see that situation with enough clarity, to make me feel like that it is just absolutely something that I have to endorse. Have you expressed this concern? No, I need to be honest about the things that I understand. Something like the teenage cancer trust, that is obviously a good thing and I would do anything with my pad to be helpful. The Syrian refugee thing is like I say, there is so much there of a debate to take place, about what’s happening. And to be honest, you do get to think of how many people can Europe except before it comes a very different place to live. And these are too complicated issues that are not straightforward for me to address. I am not the person to address those. Is that because it is not your area of knowledge? Yeah, that is really important to have some really strong confidence about an issue. I think it is some grey area, and to madly endorse some cause cause without understanding it’s a bit of a risk. Why do you think people are disengaging with politics? To some extent they are just not interested. They just don’t engage in politics. It is not part of their daily lives so why should they? And for others, I think you are aware of the sponsorship deals and you want to stay a straightforward marketing proposition and then others are just like you know, at the end of the day we are just there to make people dance and have a good time and sell tickets to parties. I am not saying that that the festivals, and the events should be value free, but I think some people just feel slightly uncomfortable not to get preachy. It is quite people come together for a weekend dance have a good time, maybe they don’t want those things to get forced on them, the negative part is a part of their daily life and maybe the weekend is about their escapism. So maybe its not the place for DJs/producers to be pushing that. The worst kind of the protest songs and so on. I think that in a way social media is a quite good way to do it. Because if I see a cause and something I believe in, that is a nice way to share something you believe in a petition, e.g. Then it is there and it becomes their option, they can opt in and opt out. Its then soft peddling and not in your face and you can click on to the next tweet. That might be a good way of engagement. I feel by large with very few exceptions over the years, when I have been involved in cause or charity related events, they don’t tend to be good events. They sort of 74 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION lack something somehow. I don’t know why that is but, its not like my heart sings when I think of the show of the charitable event I just sort of know it is not going to be a good show. And I think there are certain events, like e.g. Glastonbury stands out as an event going much in its DNA it gives huge amounts of its profits to the charity and that’s lots of it on site. Thus for some events it is much more in their DNA to be political and then maybe you wouldn’t say the same about anything in Las Vegas or Tomorrowland. Do you see in your personal space as an opinion leader in your surroundings? That people come for an advice? Certainly not in a political or cause related area. I kind of I try to, it is more of a humanistic area. I see it depressing to see DJs behaving badly and unpleasantly to people. I try to be decent to be decent to my fellow human beings. That is where that matters to me. And actually I have to say by enlarge the DJ’s and producers by enlarge are very kind people. Is it good that DJ’s support escapism or would you support the apolitical dance scene? If there are specific areas they are passionate about I think everyone should have a level of engagement any human being in society should engage socially with other people, whether that has to be done in a public way that is what I would dispute. I don’t feel just because he has 12 or 15 mln followers Calvin Harris is going to tweet about stuff that matters to him and I don’t think he would do that for minimum, because it is not something that would motivate him. I don’t feel like it needs to be made their responsibility. In that case I think that in that sense I am some sort of libertarian and I would let people live their lives the way they want to live them. Though I think it is really important that people make a contribution and I am sure that they do. When you are dealing with political causes you have to keep in mind that people have different opinions, so its not so straightforward to say that X is the right thing to do. But I think Calvin Harris could give his 10 % of contributions. But I don’t find there is an obligation to be political. So you don’t think that DJs are role models to people? I think they are. But I think people are realistic about what they want DJs to be. No one thinks they are Gandhi. No one is looking at Calvin Harris or Guetta to be that person. They want somebody just to sort of give them a great night out and I think every DJ who starts to believe so needs knocking down a pick or two. But I don’t think people have expectations to be role models. Privately or publically? It can be done privately as well. But as the level of gap between income is getting a bigger issue that is a good thing to do. 75 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
We got the thing in Ibiza, when it was a big campaign for people going drilling for oil in Ibiza. An obvious thing for DJ’s to be political and to have a cause and then lots of people came out. It is always important. Somehow you should have a personal experience or some sort of genuine connection to that cause. Otherwise you may better off leave that to the politicians or to those cause related charities and then endorse them. There are a lot of these kind of single issue political movements and they will come together and go after one issue. What I feel uncomfortable is supporting that one time issue but not a political party with a broad platform, that’s a risk, but when it is a single issue you feel comfortable about tweeting about it. I have never ever had a negative reaction to me tweeting about an environmental or social cause, or being aggressive about it. Which is good. Because I know when Andy started writing about publishing a letter in the Times newspaper, he’s got an extraordinary type of abuse. What type of abuse, if I may ask? Just abusive type of emails. Calling him out, being a DJ, about how bad his carbon footprint was, just really sort of aggressive. Was it from the audience? Not from the audience, just from the Climate change deniers, very organized. It is the kind of people that role out and spout this nonsense. What did he do? He started off by trying to engage to it and then just realized there was no point because they weren’t interested in having a debate. He felt quite damaged about the experience he went more into the farming thing, just trying to do his own thing, practically. They really went after him. But personally I had never had the experience with this kind of stuff.
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Interviewee #10, 26,6 K Facebook followers, 10 K Twitter followers
How interested are you in politics? As interested as an average male in the UK can be. I mean the government that we have seem to favor the rich. No one is a fan of David Cameron. It is the same old lies, it has been the same for years and it seems like he just wants to have walls all the time. I would prefer Jeremy Corbin to step in, because he seems to sort of not bomb people, while Cameron was the main voice in bombing Syria, which population voted against and parliament decided to bomb innocent people. There are guilty people there as well but they don’t seem to care about what the public want they do what they think is best. So to answer your question, yes, when I feel like it makes a difference to me and the general population. But I don’t feel that the politics that we see on TV, they don’t care about the general public. So in a sense I do, and I don’t because I don’t see any change. Do you vote? No I never voted in my life. And that is not because I am against politics, I just don’t think there is anyone worth voting for yet. There has been no party put forward. How do you get your information? I am trying to get my information from an unbiased sources, so I try to see as much as possible online. I don’t go and actively search for political information but I always try to take it with a pinch of salt. Do you engage into discussions on social issues? Ive got opinions, strong opinions on most of the issues but it is tough for me to discuss these issues on my social pages, because you could upset, alienate some people, you could sadden somebody, everybody is entitled to their own opinion and my opinion is not necessarily the right one. Do you discuss argue and try to convince people within your surroundings? A lot of my friends are opinionated as I am, but I don’t try and go convincing of my own opinion. I don’t fight for it. Do people come to you for advice regarding social or political matters? If lets say we are in a group of friends and these issues would come up, we would discuss it but no one actively comes to me to talk about or ask for an advice. I don’t profess to be a guru on the matter. What do you think about artists expressing their opinion about a certain political or social matter on public media? 77 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
I like it! It shows humanity to the artists, and not always just a robot, its not always DJ, DJ, the artist shows a little side of their personality, you get an insight into them, rather than just the music. Have you done it yourself? Usually on Twitter. If I post anything social, or aside music its always on Twitter. I treat Facebook as mostly for mu music and I’m on Twitter all the time. When you post about it, what is your intention? Just to show people I have got an opinion, that there is more to me than just music, like I said Im not just a robot who posts just pictures of gigs, music, gigs. I like seeing DJ’s not being just DJ’s. It shows that I am just a normal person, who listens to the news and cares what is going around the world and in the country. Have you ever tried to consciously encourage your followers to engage into politics or social issues? I never did that consciously, in the sense that “you should say that or do that”. It is just I just post my opinion. It is not my intention to persuade my fans into politics. What effects did it have and what did you post? It is mainly “Anti David Cameron” posts. It was during the election race. I though Ed Millen was a better candidate. So I posted my true dislike about Cameron. Do you think people who follow you would adhere to your opinion more than their peers? Yeah, I do. I do feel that people who follow artists would listen to them more, that they look up to them. People who I look up to, if they post something I listen to that more than I would listen to my friends or my family. I don’t know why, I think that “he is cool, you must be right”. I do think they would listen a bit more. When you posted your opinion, did you think about the results of the past, were you concerned about alienating your fans? No, I don’t see how bad the consequences could be about posting something like that on my social networks. Lets say others disagree with you? That is fine everyone has got an opinion, I respect that and I did upset a couple of people by posting that. But it was not malicious, it was in a healthy way, these are my followers on Twitter and they still follow me now. I couldn’t have upset them that much. I did consider upsetting people, because opinions might have that result. But everybody is entitled to their own opinion and I dint think people should hide their opinions either. 78 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
It does thus sound like you were encouraging your fans for having an opinion. Well maybe. Do you think artists, as people who are followed, have a social moral obligation towards their fans to engage into civic participation? I don’t think anyone has an obligation, but they should have a choice. Because one or other DJ has thousand s of followers on Twitter, he should post about political matters. I don’t think it should be that way. If the DJ himself would have an opinion I think he shouldn’t shy away from voicing it. There should be no pressure, only if that is what you truly believe in something. Why do you think dance music artists refrain from engaging into political expression? I think they don’t want to upset people and unfortunately you are a brand, dance artists are a brand now, and they try to keep as many people happy as possible. They don’t want to talk about the matters that may affect their demographics, their followers and fans. Plus, you’ve got management on top of the artist, who’s going to vet all your tweets and facebook posts, plus you got the agency, that you don’t want to upset, because if the artist posts something negative they are going to lose demographics in that area. There is a whole host of people who are on top of the artist. Have you ever had a conversation with your manager on what you can do and what not? Yes, its mainly on Facebook, they just asked me not to post such stuff on Facebook. They said twitter is cool. They couldn’t stop me to be honest, because it is my twitter it is my choice if I would want to post something Ill post it, but with Facebook I try to keep it just about the music, just about the artist. And with Twitter I can pretty much do what I want. So they did not actually ever silence you ro ask to refrain from an opinion? No. What do you think about mixing music or putting political messages? I think that could be quite dangerous, because I think music should be a place where you get away from all your worry. I make music for clubs I don’t want to hear anything political in a dance music record, because it is just, like I say nightclubs are an escape for most of the people and as an escape the last thing people would like to hear is hidden messages on politics. Do you ever consider your own role in changing or solving a societal problem that you would like to change? 79 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
I was quite outspoken about the bombing; I was avidly against it. But again, that was something of which we had no control of, which was frustrating. The British public had no say in whether Britain can bomb Syria. So you ever feel you could ever play a part in changing a social or political problem?
I don’t think any artist could change the way the government acts. Unfortunately, that is the way it is. And that is a shame but it is true. Generally, I don’t think youth is engaged or interested in political matters in the UK. None of my friends vote. The majority of people my age they are not interested in politics. So if you have got an opinion you should definitely voice it, because it gets the younger generation talking about it. And I think that’s what we need. How about civic actions, such as volunteering, donating, fundraising? For charities? I donate every month to cancer research and I played last year in a gig for free, because it was to donate money for cancer research. I was the only one who said I’d play for free. And this year I’m going to return and play for free and get my friends play there too, hopefully. Have you ever made it to public? (endorsed) I posted on to my FB and my Twitter, that I played at this festival which was 100% non profit and all the profit went to cancer research. Im going to be public as well and get other DJ’s to play there too. Because cancer research is the only one that is not government funded. But I was really quite public about it.
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Interviewee #11, 66,6 K Followers of Facebook, 1 K on Twitter
Do you ever think of changes within the society? How so? Like me making changes? Yes. Let’s say generally what issue bother you, what would you like to be changes in the society? I often think about economic and social justice, and the changes that would be necessary for that, that would be my number one thought for social change, for more economic equality. Specially coming from US, right? Yes, for sure. Do you ever think you could do something about it? No I never think that I personally would be able to exact social changes probably because I am not a politician and I am not an activist, you know I just do music. And I am happy doing that and I wouldn’t want to do politically active music, because I think that it is always very bad The music that is political. I usually hate it. I wouldn’t ever want to make music like that Why so? Why do you hate it? I think it is just bad for the most part, because it is too obvious and not subtle and to me it is not the format of thinking through necessary changes for economic justice or gender equality, I don’t think a 3 min pop song can sufficiently address those complex issues. So I don’t think this is the right medium for that kind of stuff. How about putting a quote within the mix? Well, I mean you can put a political message over a techno track. But I don’t think that that’s really political and that is going to cause any political change. I think that is only a façade of being political. Do you think that it is rather an act? Well I am sure that people black guys who make house music and sample martin Luther king believe in racial equality and I am sure that Ben Klock believes at the rights of man. I just don’t think it is the right platform for that. Because to me it comes across as maybe cheapening the real struggles of people who are fighting for equal rights and really trying to overcome inequality and these sorts of things. So it seems to me that putting a little sample of JFK on a techno track doesn’t sufficiently address the main social problem.
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It is not a real struggle. If you would really care about it, you would be out three fighting for equality but you are in Berghain at the Panorama Bar. I mean its not like I hate Ben Klock, but just referring to the example. Would you say you are completely politics? Or social issues or activism? Do you see that as a separate thing you are unassociated from? It is not that I am uninterested in these things. I read about them, I talk about them. But I think there is a time and a place for things. And for me drug music isn’t the place for sham politics. Would you say that it is particular of dance music? No, I think it is any music. Do you support the statement that music should be just entertainment and stay away from politics? I think so. I think for the most part it is very rare that great music or great art form comes from an extensively political subject. I wouldn’t shy away from such opinion, but if someone asks me these kind of questions I wouldn’t have a problem discussing them. Would you ever promote your views yourself? Without an interview? No. It is funny that you are doing this interview with me, because I am very anti-social media, I never use it, and I don’t care for it that much so I would never ever go on Facebook or twitter and do a political rant about my views on music and politics. It is not necessarily on social media. DJ Sprinkles is talking about a lot of various social issues, including social issues completely outside social media spectrum. So maybe in the terms of the society we are in right now, that social media became pat of our lives. But let’s say, would you actively act as an opinion leader in this case and try to convince someone on it? Unless I think that it is so bad, that intersection about dance music and politics I would say something. In general, how persuasive are you in arguments? I think yes, I was raised in a very combatable educational background. My dad was a PHD student when I was growing up and then he was a professor when I was growing up, so he was very opinionated, there were a lots of arguments around the dinner table, that went pretty intense. Universities for graduates and undergraduates. I don’t have any problem arguing it is fun to do that. But I also don’t want to come across as pedantic and know-it-all and this kind 82 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION of thing, you know. I think I like to argue with my friends lets say, instead of someone on the street. Do friends come for your opinion on social issues? Yeah, a lot of my very close friends are academics because that was what I’ve been doing before I was doing music so in the last months there has been a lot of issues in the states about African American students on the campus protesting, demanding more rights more recognition. And one of my friends has been a professor on a very elite east coast school and we’ve been talking every day all throughout the day about these issues, about how he is going to teach classes and you know a lot of my friends are writing books and I am always talking with them about those sort of things. And it is very effortless and natural in terms of the way I interact with my close friends of these kind of matters and we argue about these things, but by enlarge we have similar political point of views. Would you say your opinion is adhered more? I don’t think so. If any of my friends need advice they would come to me, but I am not sure I am sought out for my advice. Did I understand you correct that the reason you would not make political music is due to the fact that it doesn’t coincide with the way you understand art and it wouldn’t be good as an art form? Well this is a complex thing. I think that all art forms can be inherently political as the form itself. But what I am hesitant bout is the art that is overtly political. That to me sometimes seems like propaganda. That to me sometimes is what I am hesitant about when we are talking about political art. But in terms of art, the very expression of art can be in itself a very political act and I believe in that kind of art. I think there is a distinction between political messaging, which can just become propagandistic, and art which in it of itself maintains a political force. Like you would know, for example Eastern Europe’s communist history, where overtly political art for the state was bad art, right? It was propagandistic. But you had artists working within that framework whose very art was subversive. But it wasn’t overtly political. For me that seem s to be an important distinction. Do you think then artists have a social or moral obligation to be leaders within society? I don’t know. Would you rather support then or not that artist would induce engagement, interest in social issues? 83 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
It seems to me that art should just help see people something they have never seen before. And that very act of changing perception, in one instance of the art that you are looking at, maybe that can train people to have that kind of change of perception in outside of looking at art objects as well. So what art could and should do,
Lets in this specific case go back to dance music, because art is a very broad concept. What dance music can do, not just dance music but the clubs that people can go and dance, the raves that can go on and on forever. The importance of dance music in this regard provides a sense of hope and utopia. That is why I got into dance music, I think that is why so many people got into dance music. And that sort of apparatus of dance music, crowd it provides a potential of transcendence of utopia, that is outside of the machinery of the state or the regime of capitalism, or the market or this or that. But I don’t think putting a message in a dance track is potentially utopic or revolutionary about dance music. It is the very form itself. That is where I’ve been trying to get before. The difference between overtly political music and art as itself of political act. What is the role of the DJ then? I think the most ideal would be that if everyone’s in this transcendent community of togetherness, the DJ should be separate from that, the DJ should be part of that. I don’t think you can think about it outside of it in the sense of the utopian community. To be like, oh, the DJ is the Christ-like figure who’s bringing people there, doesn’t seem to makes sense to me. So would you ever say a DJ has a different status from the rest? I don’t think so. I think that it is weird that people try to parade in the way. I think it should be much more communitarian. I would say that, lets say rock music I think for me it was compelling about rock show, same as a rave. You get lots of people together and that it is kind of a utopian togetherness. And that for me is more important than the one dude playing the song or the DJ playing the records. In that kind of sense, what is important about any kind of art is not the actual message but that potential for hope, utopia and subversion. And I think the little individual players in that are not important as the music itself. Would you say that artists should refrain from political expression within public media as well? I think if they want to do this or that, that is fine, but that seems to be very egocentric to act as a leader in any way. 84 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
I would say that what everybody is trying to do with music or art is transcending your ego and shattering your ego and getting into some kind of higher place. So that is what I think people who are always talking about using their art, their place in society to have opinions on this or that, that is the kind of artist I am not drawn toward. Because then it is about them rather than transcending. How about going back to the social activism. Let’s say being outspoken about environmentalism? It is part of the community, it is engaging, using your position to attract awareness towards a topic. The music that Ninja Tunes puts out has nothing to do with that. And if it would it would be shit for me. Where these two things can come through, that sense of community and utopia that comes through when people gather to listen to the music, that can carry on once people leave the dance floor and I see a lot of this with Burning Man. Burning Man changes the way people live their lives outside the Burning Man. But it is not that Burning man is about political things, it is the very form about Burning man that is political. It changes your perceptions and the very form of the way you live beyond the festival itself. You would become more aware of your environment because of that experience but I think it is all much more than writing a political message in a song. I don’t thing that is going to change a collective behavior. Do you think artists have an opinion leadership due to the fan admiration? No yeah, maybe they are. But there are lots of people that are making music that are total dummies. I think just because you can make a great house or pop track or you are an amazing DJ, I don’t think that gives you any privileged in this sort of “as the one who knows the truth”. Maybe that is the reason why, when DJ’s are talking about politics I feel weird about it: what right do you have to make these claims. You mix vinyl at a club at three o’clock in the morning. That gives them no status to be telling people how to vote or how they should be living their politics. How about you? You are opinionated, educated, and you are not talking about political or societal issues? Because maybe my temperament is to not know. I am skeptical toward everybody including myself. I don’t know, Id rather just do a good show and make people to reach transcendence. But it is an interesting point that you make that there is a responsibility to a society that made you who you are. Maybe that is kind of the Americanism in myself, that society doesn’t make you, you make yourself. But what you are saying is really interesting. Why would you think DJ’s artists are refraining from politics or social stuff? 85 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
I think I am hesitant to talk about social things, that people who are overtly political come across as just silly? I think music is an escapism also. Ten Walls is an example why DJs have no right to be talking about social things. That was an abuse of privilege. There is this funny comedian Dave Chappelle and he was talking that Hurricane Catherina just hit New Orleans and once they went to JaRule, a really dumb rapper to ask what he thinks about Hurricane Catherina. I don’t want to hear what JaRule thinks about Hurricane Catherina!
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Appendix 3: Code list
CODE GROUP CODE NAME MUSIC AS THE aesthetical reasons MEDIA (RQ3) are using political messages in music dance music is an escape dance music is not the right medium expression as PR message in music doesnt have effect music is a form of movement music is the message music, art is separate of politics opinion can ruin image ARTISTS ARE ROLE art is not separate from the artist MODELS (RQ2.B) artists are independent artists are role models artists bring awareness being a role model in life perceives as opinion leader personal obligation responsibility as an artist stimulating is a responsibility strong fan base supportive of expression on politics to involve fans into political discussion ISSUE CONTENT avoid contraversy no ambigueity in causes prefer a positive issue relevant topic supportive on artists expressing opinion on moral issues RQ2 A ARTISTS against celebratization of politics ARE NOT ROLE artists are not perfect MODELS artists are not role models fan alienation musicians are followed for their music not expressive on political issues should adhere to affective fan identification should not abuse position uninformed debate 87 MUSICIANS AS OPINION LEADERS STIMULATING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
RQ3 STIMULATED eager to contribute by playing PARTICIPATION eager to endorse a politician endorses a charity expressive on politics expressive on social issues lack of communication skills not persistant tone petition supportive of activism RQ4 OTHERS DONT artists are entertainers STIMULATE lack of time/ focus on music manager does not silence manager silencing others are afraid to alienate fans others are uninterested / industry is devoid from politics others don't want to get preachy others silenced by their managers others think of commercial reasons stimulating is not an obligation RQ1 CIVIC change within community ENGAGEMENT charity dissapointed with governmental politics doesn't vote Focus on objective news exposure interested in governmental politics interested in social issues left wing not interested in politics much not socially active votes SOCIAL MEDIA backfire bad previous experience on expression fear of social media social media is good for expressing opinion Ten Walls low political efficacy TOTAL: 72