---
title: "The arts and politics"
chunk: 2/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_arts_and_politics"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:57:32.078754+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Classical music ===
Ludwig van Beethoven did not use the original title "Ode to Freedom" of Friedrich Schiller's lyric, known in English as "Ode to Joy" (1785), in setting it to music in the final movement of his Ninth Symphony (1824), which "Napoleonic censors had forced the poet to change to 'Ode to Joy'." After the fall of the Berlin Wall, on 9 November 1989, that Christmas Day, when Leonard Bernstein conducted a performance of Beethoven's Ninth at the site of the former East German–West German border in Berlin, a concert telecast nationally in the United States, he substituted Freedom for Joy to reflect his own "personal message".

=== Folk and protest music ===
In February 1952, the United States Customs Service seized the passport of Paul Robeson, preventing him from leaving the United States to travel to the Fourth Canadian Convention of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; but, after "The convention heard Robeson sing over the telephone", the union organized "a concert on the US-Canada border". According to the account of the "Paul Robeson Centennial Celebration": "Robeson sang and spoke for 45 minutes. He introduced his first song stating 'I stand here today under great stress because I dare, as do you—all of you, to fight for peace and for a decent life for all men, women and children' … [and, accompanied by Lawrence Brown on piano,] proceeded to sing spirituals, folk songs, labour songs, and a passionate version of Old Man River, written for him in the [1920s], slowly enunciating 'show a little grit and you land in jail', underlining the fact that his government had turned the entire country into a prison for Robeson and many others."
In the 1960s the songs of Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and others protested further racism, war, and the military-industrial complex, continuing an American artistic tradition of political protest founded during its colonial era.

=== Restrictions on live-music venues ===

==== In the United States ====
In force from July 1985 until May 2002 and considered by its opponents a Draconian "anti-music law", the Teen Dance Ordinance (TDO), imposing restrictions on clubs admitting those under the legal drinking age of 21 in Seattle, Washington, was still the subject of protracted political and legal opposition in U.S. Federal Court in early 2002, when a suit filed by the Joint Artists and Music Promotions Action Committee (JAMPAC) in 2000 was still being adjudicated. In May 2002, Judge Lasnik ruled for the City of Seattle on JAMPAC's suit, finding no Constitutional infringement of the First Amendment and deciding that the matter is a political one for the Seattle City Council to decide, not the courts; during the course of the suit, Mayor Schell's successor, Greg Nickels, a proponent of the bill, resubmitted the ordinance to the Seattle City Council, and, on 12 August 2002, the new All-Ages Dance Ordinance (AADO) replaced the TDO, but was not considered much of an improvement by its critics.
In May 2008 a "Promoters Ordinance" proposed by the Chicago City Council aroused opposition in Chicago, Illinois, for being regarded as overly restrictive and stifling free expression.

==== In the United Kingdom ====

Following the implementation of the Licensing Act 2003, the London Borough of Hillingdon cited "the interest of public order and the prevention of terrorism" as reasons for expecting promoters of live music events to complete the Metropolitan Police's Form 696. Though later clarified by a police spokesperson as not "compulsory", the perceived "demand" for the information solicited on such "risk assessment" forms motivated Jon McClure, lead singer with Reverend and The Makers, to post an electronic petition in the "E-Petitions" section of the official website of Gordon Brown, the UK Prime Minister, at  Number10.gov.uk, in order to facilitate protest against what McClure alleges is "racial discrimination" occasioned by such bureaucratic constraints, which some have deemed "police authoritarianism". It begins: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Scrap the unnecessary and draconian usage of the 696 Form from London music events".  By 11 November 2008, according to Orlowski, "A dozen London boroughs [had] implemented a 'risk assessment' [Form 696] policy for live music that permits the police to ban any live music if they fail to receive personal details from the performers 14 days in advance."  Orlowski points out: The demand explicitly singles out performances and musical styles favoured by the black community: garage and R&B, and MCs and DJs. ... However all musical performances – from one man playing a guitar on up – are subject to the demands once implemented by the council. And the threat is serious: failure to comply 'may jeopardise future events by the promoter or the venue'. ... UK Music chief Feargal Sharkey ... speaking to the Department of Culture Media and Sport's hearing on venue licensing today [11 Nov. 2008] [concluded that] ... 'Live music is now a threat to the prevention of terrorism'. ... In response, Detective Superintendent Dave Eyles from the Met's clubs and vice office told us that 10,000 such Risk Assessments would be processed this year. He said they weren't compulsory: ... 'We can't demand it – we recommend that you provide it as best practice. But you're bloody silly if you don't, because you're putting your venue at risk.'  By early March 2009, over 16,000 British citizens or residents had signed McClure's E-Petition, which remained open to potential signatories until 1 December 2009.

== See also ==

== Notes ==

== References ==

== External links ==

"Art and Politics".  "NOW's David Brancaccio talks with noted American author Kurt Vonnegut about art, politics and everything in between" on National Public Radio.  (Includes hyperlinked related programs.)
Art for Social Change.net ("Art for Social Change is part of DigiCare Foundation and is based in the Netherlands.")
Imagining Art and Social Change 2008 Community MusicWorks conference, co-organized by Providence Youth Arts Collaborative (Providence CityArts for Youth), Providence, Rhode Island, 28–29 March 2008.