edited by James Garratt, Turnhout, Brepols, 2025 (Music, Criticism & Politics, 12).
In relation to music, the word censorship immediately calls to mind the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century, in particular those of Nazi Germany and the USSR. But music censorship is arguably even more prominent and pervasive in our own age, not only in authoritarian states but also in Western liberal democracies.
This book aims to enhance our understanding of censorship practices, the social and political values they serve, and the governmental and legal frameworks that have enabled them to flourish. Its twenty chapters – written by a team of international scholars – explore both historical case studies and the new forms of censorship that have emerged in the digital age.
It evaluates different theories and models for understanding censorship, applying the concept not only to top-down government controls but also to the measures that cultural institutions, the media, and global corporations have put in place to police music and musicians. Crucial too is the exploration of how music censorship relates to other forms of political action, including cancelling, critique, and performative activism.
The book also reveals the diverse strategies that musicians and listeners have employed to circumvent censorial control and to march to a different beat.
James Garratt is Professor of Music History and Aesthetics at the University of Manchester. His research centres on German music, thought and culture in the long nineteenth century; aesthetic theory and music aesthetics in modernity; and music, politics and political theory. His publications include four monographs: Music, Aesthetics and Value (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming); Music and Politics: A Critical Introduction (Cambridge, 2018); Music, Culture and Social Reform in the Age of Wagner (Cambridge, 2010); and Palestrina and the German Romantic Imagination (Cambridge, 2002).
