Guerrilla Music - by Leon de Bruin & Jane Southcott (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Guerrilla Music explores bands, events, and musical and social movements to investigate the ways music acts as a means of defiance, resistance, or subversion, and how music brings people together to explicate their social, political, locational, religious, or cultural beliefs.

Review Quotes

Guerrilla Music is a collection of exploratory articles edited by de Bruin and Jane Southcott that motivates readers to reflect about various perspectives of the function of music in society. As a product of several different contributors, the styles of these articles will be comfortable to some readers for the clear language used, and others will feel intimidated by the amount of jargon but remain focused on the message being conveyed by the authors. The book contains a total of 15 chapters, distributed in three parts by topic: "Expeditiousness and Immediacy, "Recurrence and Intermittence," and "Perseverance and Perpetuity." [This] is a thought-provoking book that delves into the hidden role of music making as a tool of social resistance, defiance, and subversion. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

Guerrilla Music is an inspirational collection of thoroughly grounded discussions and illustrations of how music and musicking can be sites of political protest and expression. The chapters cover an exceptionally diverse range of socio-musical contexts, styles and genres from around the world. I learned a lot of really interesting stuff from this exceptional book, which is sure to make a mark on the sociology of music, ethnomusicology, critical musicology, music education and many more areas.

Guerrilla Music takes a daring dive into music as a disruptive, resistant, and rebellious force. This is a relevant and challenging exploration into music as a global means to enact justice, a human initiative that can upset societal norms and help to focus attention on the universality of perpetual harm occurring in our time.

About the Author

Leon de Bruin is senior lecturer in music at the University of Melbourne, Conservatorium of Music, coordinating the Master of Music Performance Teaching Degree (MMPT).
Jane Southcott is professor in the faculty of education at Monash University.