Popular Music and Populism in Italy

Populism and the causes of its recent success in Europe (and beyond) has been addressed by many different approaches in political science and sociology. The rise of populism in Europe have been in fact alternatively (or in combination) associated to a political, economic and migratory crisis. Without denying the presence of grievances in society (i.e. political, economic and immigration related) as triggering of populism, in this paper we want to give more leverage to cultural elements such as ‘music’ and the construction of (political) ‘meanings’ through music among potential populist voters. This paper, by focusing on Italy, aims to investigate the link between music, and in particular ‘pop music’, and populism and its potential role in the striking success of populist parties and movements. Mainstream pop music is in fact a central element of peoples’ daily lives and an essential part of popular culture. In this paper we will explore the nexus between music and populism in Italy by adopting a triangulation strategy and a mixed method approach. First, we conduct a content and visual analysis of the lyrics and the official videos of over 170 top-of-the- pops songs from 2010 to 2018 in order to investigate to which extent mainstream pop music, during the last decade, have contributed to spread messages that lend themselves to diffuse populist interpretations of the Italian social and political realities. Secondly, by applying the technique of Musicological Group Analysis (MGA) on a restricted sample of relevant ‘populist’ Pop songs, explore the growing role of mainstream pop singers in Italy as opinion-makers and opinion-leaders, by adding empirical evidence to the sociological concept of concept of “celebrity politics” (Street, 2014). Third, though a participant observation during party congresses and various political events (of the two Italian populist parties: the 5SM and the League) and an analysis of their websites and social media, we will analyze to which extent and in which forms populist actors ‘appropriate’ and exploit mainstream music for their political purposes, identifying some common strategies as for “brand-building” or “surfing” popular culture. While populism is a recurrent phenomenon in Italian politics, during the recent years – and particularly since the beginning of the Great Recession - it became a inescapable dimension for comprehending the party system and, later, for motivating governmental coalition-building, generating strong sympathies and aversions throughout the broad citizenry and amongst the own mainstream music scene, thus making the Italian case particularly suited for an in-depth analysis. Our analysis suggests that mainstream music in Italy during recent years effectively contributed to reproduce, to a certain extent, populist frames (either in the case of left wing-or hybrid- and right wing populism), as well as it has served as a valuable resource in the process of “partisan cultural identity” building of these parties, by reflecting or complementing the populist ideological platforms and the social and political values they back and vehicle. Our research thus emphasizes different paths through which music and populism are linked in Italy.