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Article published In: The Politics of Sound: Intersections of Music, Discourse and Political Communication
Edited by Lyndon C.S. Way
[Journal of Language and Politics 18:4] 2019
► pp. 509–525

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From Ireland to the States

The re-contextualisation of U2’s “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” in different political contexts

ORCiD logo with link | Universidad de Valladolid
Published online: 28 June 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.18061.fil
Abstract
In this article I start from an understanding of songs as socio-cultural discourses which may also perform a political function. This political function can be reflected in the promotion of particular world-views about given socio-political events and/or in the attempt by the singer to make the audience perform given political actions. To prove this, I will look at the re-contextualisation process undergone by a well-known song by U2: “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” (1983). This song was originally written to respond to the violence of the Northern Irish conflict, but it has been later used to react to other socio-political events. By relying on a cognitive approach to the study of songs, this paper tries to answer two questions: (i) how can we explain the re-contextualisation process undergone by the song and why is it possible? and (ii) how is politics embedded in musical performances?
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Context: U2, the Northern Irish conflict, 9/11 and other political events
  • 3.Method
  • 4.Analysis
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (49)
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