For my class on immigration, race, and labor, we
are studying cultural forces that shape Trumpism, including the White Power
Music genre. Skrewdriver (pictured here) is its most popular band.
I highlight comments from my students:
As I read the paper, I couldn’t help but be
reminded of Burzum, one of the most influential metal artists of all time, who
also happens to be a convicted murderer, arsonist, and known white
supremacist. While he didn’t make white
power music, I couldn’t shake that comparison from my mind. Equally shocking was how the white power
music scene seemed to promote taking advantage of disenchanted youths. I’d bet that a majority of teenagers have
fallen back on some sort of music at some point to give themselves something to
connect with.
The idea of a teenager connecting with white power
music and that being the soundtrack to their high school years is absolutely
terrifying to me, as the music I listened to in high school definitely helped
shape who I am today.
I’d like to close
my discussion of this paper with one last reaction: out of morbid curiosity, I
decided to listen to one song by Skrewdriver so I could get a sense for what
this scene sounded like. What I heard
was some of the most hateful, misanthropic punk music I have ever heard, with
the white race portrayed as victimized by mass media in guttural yelps over
furious, pummeling guitar chords. I
lasted two minutes before closing it, and the only words I could think to react
with were the same words the Dead Kennedys had for Nazi punks.
One key mission of the Aryan movement is the
involvement of young people in white supremacist organizations in order to
increase membership and preserve the racist sentiments of
the groups for the future. The article points to music from a cultural
perspective as a way for pro- Aryan activists of all ages to unite and thus draft
the next generation.
Both intriguing and troubling in terms of this trend is a
quotation from Bryon Calvert, who helped form the WPM record
company Panzerfaust Records,
“. . . your average 14 or 15 year old kid that
came across us by doing an Internet search, or because he saw a sticker or some
friends of his told him about the label. And they go and they actually read the
literature, they read the articles, they listen to the MP3s, they watch the
music videos, they listen to what we’re saying, and it’s like they just soak it
up” (Futrell 284).
This still remains a frightening thought today,
both morally and physiologically. Not only is the music capable of exposing and
drawing in young white people to the racist and characteristically violent
ideology of white nationalism, it can help define their overall music taste for
their lifetime.
A growing number of psychological studies point to the middle
teenage years as the time when musical influence is at its highest, and this is
thought to be due to cerebral and hormonal development. According to a data
analysis by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz from The New York Times on the subject,
popular songs that were released when listeners were around fourteen years of age had a large effect on their
music tastes later on; those who were young teenagers at the time of release
continued to listen to those songs the most (1).
In terms of WPM, this musical influence not only
reinforces a culture and creates feelings of unanimity and power for current
members, it can draw in new ones as well. Though this music scene remains relatively
small, it may still be present in future years.
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