DISCUSSION: MUSIC, IDEOLOGY AND ART AS SOFT POWER

‘Soft power,’ a term coined by historian Joseph Nye to describe Cold War efforts to win the hearts and minds of countries caught between Soviet and American political ideologies, has become an increasingly salient tactic to push geopolitical aims. In this panel, we consider the ways in which art and cultural institutions in and beyond nightlife today can act as tools to push agendas and meet broader government goals. Moderator Chloe Lula and panellists Philip Sherburne, Pavel Niyakhayeu, Gosia Płysa and Rabih Beaini also reflect on the implications of artistic censorship and the defunding of public media; the efficacy and preponderance of ‘pop washing’; and the responsibility of today’s artists, musicians and independent arts organisations to imagine new forms of solidarity and resistance.