Musical metapolitics and the Alt-Right

Abstract

With some notable exceptions, research on the far-right and music has historically focused on rock-derived genres such as punk and metal. As the far-right have shifted political emphasis and sought to mainstream their political views, so, too, has research into the contemporary far-right demonstrated a distancing among political ideologues and parties as well as groups from both extreme lyrics and ‘harsher’ sounding elements. This has gone hand-in-hand with an embracing of a wider range of musical styles. Focusing on the music associated with the Alt-Right, a broad movement which sought to mainstream far-right politics, this article suggests that a cultural shift within the far-right went hand-in-hand with a mode of aesthetic appreciation among Alt-Right adherents, which has implications for the mainstreaming of far-right politics in relation to musical cultures and aesthetics. This form of musical metapolitics emphasized dissonant principles of irony and aesthetic pluralism as a form of strategic ambiguity, but still retained notions of racial superiority at its core despite an avowed openness to genre-based pluralism. Importantly, this process has implications for the mainstreaming of far-right messaging today using a wide variety of musical aesthetics.