‘Empathy is the currency of all music and Joe Mulhall does a great job of explaining how that quality has been used to generate solidarity for the struggle and sympathy for those who suffer injustice’ Billy Bragg
‘A beautiful account of how music has unified, healed and inspired humanity during some of history’s darkest days. Illuminating, uplifting and important’ James O’Brien
While the global history of the dictatorships, oppression, racism and state violence over the last century is well known – the role that music played in people’s lives during these times is less understood.
This book is a collection of stories and hidden histories about how music provided light in the darkest of times over the past century. How it steeled souls and inspired resistance to oppression. Rebel Sounds will explore freedom songs in the Republic of Ireland, the Soviet Union’s oppression behind the Berlin Wall, authoritarian dictatorships in Brazil and Nigeria, institutionalised racism and police violence in America and South Africa, street violence in Britain, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and musical resistance in war-torn Ukraine.
This is a social history of the twentieth century but one that takes in the human impulse to create, share and enjoy the one thing that connects cultures and spans generations: music.
‘Mulhall’s thrilling pilgrimage through the sites of global resistance, from Lagos to Kyiv, reminds us that music is indispensable to struggle, and that wherever oppressed people find their voice, song is usually more powerful than shouting’ – Paul Mason
‘I so enjoyed this book. Mulhall’s envious ability to mix personal history with public brings the book joyously to life, and, on top of that, he supplies a mouthwatering song-list. A triumph.’ – Paolo Hewitt
‘A beautiful account of how music has unified, healed and inspired humanity during some of history’s darkest days. Illuminating, uplifting and important’ – James O’Brien
‘Empathy is the currency of all music and Joe Mulhall does a great job of explaining how that quality has been used to generate solidarity for the struggle and sympathy for those who suffer injustice’ – Billy Bragg
‘Rebel Sounds serves as a potent reminder of how music can epitomize the soul of a movement and be a rallying cry, a way to unify and a reason to persevere’ – Spectator
Dr Joe Mulhall is a researcher and historian of postwar and contemporary fascism and is currently Senior Researcher at Hope not Hate, the UK’s largest anti-fascism and anti-racism organisation.
He has published extensively on the domestic and international far right including reports such as Rewriting History: Lying, Denying and Revising the Holocaust; The International Alternative Right: From Charlottesville to the Whitehouse and From Banners to Bullets: The International Identitarian Movement. In 2020 he has two forthcoming academic books, British Fascist Traditions: Continuities in Interwar and Postwar Fascism and the co-authored,The International Alternative Right: Fascism for the 20th Century?
He has given talks around the world on his research and written for a range of print media including The Guardian, the New Statesman and The Independent, and discussed his work on a range of broadcast media including the BBC News at Ten, Radio 4’s Today Program, Channel 4 News, ITV News, Sky News and the Christiane Amanpour Show on CNN. He also sits on the Board of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust in the UK.
