“Play it yourself”: Swedish music in movement

Abstract

In Sweden, rock music has in many different ways and phases moved young people into action. Listening to music, and making rock, induces new thoughts that can inspire social and political activity, as is well known in the general myth­ology of rock-as-rebellion. In the 1970s, an “alter­na­tive”, “non-com­mercial” or “pro­gres­sive” music movement was born, and it is informative to study how and why it formed, developed and (at least in some ways) faded away. It can be studied as an interesting historical example of a new, youthful social and cultural movement, and its history mir­rors the general changes of late modern society and culture. This his­to­ry also contains clues to the understanding of music’s moving potentials, in opposition to domi­nant norms of society, to outdated traditional authori­ties, to adult institu­tions and to power interests based on mar­ket, state, class, gen­der, ethnicity or geography. This text will deal with these issues. In what way has the Swed­ish music movement experimented with organizing alternatives to dominant market and state mechanisms, with resisting exter­nal press­ures and with formulating progressivity and emancipation in terms of cultural policy? How does it illuminate the mobilizing potentials of mu­sic?

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