MUSICAL RESPONSES TO SEPTEMBER 11TH: FROM CONSERVATIVE PATRIOTISM TO RADICALISM [chapter]

Martin Cloonan
9/11 - The world's all out of tune  
Intr od uc tion I want to propose something very simple in this paper: that the attacks which took place on 11 September 2001 were attacks on the very idea of America. This is not a new idea. It was cited by the New York Times soon after the attack and subsequently by the cultural critic Greil Marcus (2002) . But what I want to add is that as time went on it became clear that the musical responses which were made were defences of America. However, there were not uniform responses, but diverse
more » ... es and that is partly because the idea of America is not settled, but is open to contestation. So what I want to do in the rest of this paper is to first examine notion that the attacks on 11 September were an attack on the idea of America, look briefly at the importance of identity within popular music, chart initial musical reactions to the events and then look at longer term reactions.
doi:10.14361/9783839402566-002 fatcat:vhtxjtcvorc5tnyr5conadx2dm