Can popular music be a genuine force for political change

There is no denying that music has a very large impact on people’s lives and can certainly be a powerful force. Yet can popular music be a genuine force for political change? I would have to say no it can’t. Music is very powerful in the fact that it brings people together, for example sub cultures like hippies with flower power. Hippies fought for peace through their music. Reggae music would fight for rights and strength and freedom. And even though these political issues were strong, and a large amount of people believed in them and expressed them through music, the music only may have opened people’s eyes and ears, yet did not ineffectively make a political change. Music is a way of expression and cant really be ignored. We live in a society were music is all around us, from our stereos at home, car radios, television, films and even walking down the street or on the tube (that one person forcing you to listen to their music because its on full blast on their headphones). Music can not make a genuine political change. Yet it is a tool that is used to make people listen, which can be considered a step to political change. For example Bono and Sir Bob Geldof and live 8. This event was to create an awareness of poverty. Did it make a political change? No. yet it did open peoples eyes and start thinking, which is a start.