the many ways music is used and the variety of its meanings. As Springsteen
introduced his version of Woody Guthrie "This Land Is Your Land," he said,
"This is the greatest song ever written about America" but added, "I'm not
sure this song is true anymore. I hope it is, but I'm not sure. It's about a promise
that's eroding every day for a lot of people. Just remember, with nations, as
with people, it's easy to let the best of yourself slip away." Then, in a voice
of raw pain that Immamu Amiri Baraka compared to that of the great black
blues and soul shouters, ² he began a solo vocal, harmonica, and guitar version
slower than any other previously recorded. It had a somber, solemn quality and
yet grew in intensity to a determined, almost march-like processional anthem
for the dispossessed that engulfed the stadium. As it ended Springsteen said
resolutely, "Remember, nobody wins unless everybody wins!" What did this
mean? What was he trying to say? What could it possibly mean to the audience?

In September 1988 Springsteen, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman, and
Senegalese star Youssou N'dour launched the Amnesty International "Human
Rights Now!" world tour with an entourage of some 160 people and projected
costs of $23 million, the deficit to be covered through a sponsorship by the
Reebok sports shoe company. At a London news conference Springsteen said,
"I like to believe that music can change people's minds and feelings about their
own humanity, and in doing so may change the way they look at the next guy." ³
Was he correct?

The soundtrack of Platoon, the "Born in the USA" tour, and the Amnesty
International "Human Rights Now!" world tour strike this observer as powerful
evidence of the political potential of popular music in the late 1980s. Certainly
Springsteen's performance of Guthrie "This Land Is Your Land" is one of
the more eloquent versions of any song of protest. But what does the audience
do with it? To paraphrase the Buffalo Springfield's 1967 "For What It's Worth,"
something is happening here, but what it is "ain't exactly clear." The Springsteen
phenomenon of the 1980s and the many recent efforts to fuse rock and other
forms of popular music to political causes provide significant and deeply moving
examples of mass popular culture consumed and experienced by millions of
people that may, some suggest, function simultaneously as a national and perhaps
even international language. Yet precisely what are its functions and effects?
Does it carry messages? If so, are the particular messages really heard? If heard,
how are they heard and interpreted? If understood, how is the audience affected?

From the time of Plato ( 428-348 B.C.) observers of political life have seen
the significance of music to political attitudes and behavior. Socrates is reported
by Plato in The Republic as saying:

When the poet says that men care most for "the newest air that hovers on the singer's
lips," they [the Guardians] will be afraid lest he be taken not merely to mean new songs,
but to be commending a new style of music. Such innovation is not to be commended,
nor should the poet be so understood. The introduction of novel fashions in music is a

-2-