Gun Shy

Andy Ward

Background: The political economy of music (Attali,1985) has long been argued for while music’s role in the Fordian labour models of the culture industries (Adorno & Horkheimer, 1945) are often problematised as lacking the discursive potency of music of protest. Pop songs are commonly portrayed as ineffective in political discourse and diminished in their capacity to effect change, yet those models do not recognise the power of pop songs sit with the listener (Way, 2013). As a songwriter this project seeks to respond to these claims by asking how can political discourse be positioned in pop songs as a more potent symbolic act? Contribution: Guy Shy was written, recorded, produced and released by Andy Ward in a time of political discourse proximate to the resurgence of nationalism in both the UK by way of Brexit, and the USA through the election of Trump. In its lyrics, it subverts the notion of millennial activist impotence by positioning a narrative of political and wartime action as present in the millennial zeitgeist. The visual elements seek to disrupt the notion of metropolitan millennial entitlement by placing the protagonist in a nature scene where they engage in movement techniques developed in lower socioeconomic Parisian urban settings. The use of multiple sound design elements mocking and subverting the political climate (including warped Trump and Brexit rallies) contribute to the overall narrative of the song. Significance: This work was commissioned by Sony Music Australia and released internationally in 2017 as part of a recording contract resulting from the artists PhD research. The work received national radio play and has accumulated 300,000 streams in total over multiple platforms. It was featured the proceedings of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music’s ANZ conference in 2019.

Gun Shy

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