IDEOLOGIES ARE (UN)DEAD: LEFT AND RIGHT AS CULTURAL MODELS IN POLITICAL SONGS

Dario Martinelli, Ph.D. Professor at Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania

The “death of ideologies”, and the perception of the left-right distinction as something obsolete, have been a dominant discourse in the last few decades, particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Within popular music, the ideological status of politically-committed songs and songwriters also seems to have become less relevant than it used to be, occasionally disappearing in a melting pot of neutrality, disengagement and most of all program-based – as opposed to ideology-based – politics. 

The presentation intends to present ideological commitment as a vivid process within/through the various phenomena related to popular music (individual acts, entire genres, etc.) as still a very lively one, particularly when it comes to the infamous left/right distinction. Indeed, despite a visible crisis at the level of “political action”, ideologies, even in their clearest connotations, have never been “dead” as cultural models: to mention recent and tragic examples, one could look at the demagogical rhetoric employed in some of the ongoing conflicts, with reciprocal accusations of being “fascists”, promises of “denazification”, and the likes.

The vitality of these cultural models has been constantly tangible throughout the whole of popular music history, last decades and present-day included.

Biography

Prof. Dr. Dario Martinelli (1974) is a Full Professor in History and Theory of Arts at Kaunas University of Technology, Adjunct Professor in Semiotics and Musicology at the University of Helsinki and Adjunct Professor in Semiotics and Communication Studies at Lapland University. As of 2025, he has published seventeen authored monographs and ca. 200 among edited collections, studies and scientific articles. Besides his affiliations, he has been a visiting professor in numerous academic institutions, and has been a recipient of several prizes, including, in 2006, a knighthood from the Italian Republic for his contribution to Italian culture.