Abstract

This chapter points to the core role of culture (and music) in social movements, and the recognition of this importance across a wide spectrum of anarchist perspectives. The chapter considers evaluations of ‘anarchist music’, identifying the aspects which are too easily recuperated by the State and capital (such as aesthetics and lyrics), and highlighting those aspects which contain radical transformative potential (such as Do-It-Yourself or DIY production processes – though this is necessarily marginal in character and scope). However, no form of music (in terms of its aesthetic or production process) is entirely immune to co-optation, and it is argued here that music’s radical transformative potential is most fully realised, and most resilient, when engaged within a culture of resistance.