Music Connects: Rock Music Powers Inclusion Across Europe

ongoing

Rock music has been the language of European youth for generations. Today, the raw audacity of rock continues to give them a voice. In cities that suffer from ethnic division, rock music expresses anger at political corruption and social immobility. In ‘safer’ societies, rock music revolts against established meaninglessness. Western Balkan youth look to the future. Dutch youth yearn for a meaningful now. Young Berliners connect past to present in rock. Cultural organizers in Amsterdam and Brussels work to connect these worlds. All share the longing for agency, freedom and connection. This project connects young people from the Western Balkans, Berlin, Belgium, and the Netherlands, exploring common ground across borders of history and politics, through rock music. The project builds and strengthens ties between extra-curricular music initiatives in the Western Balkans, an institute for higher education in the Netherlands, which will incorporate the program in the curriculum for its Dutch students, a cultural exchange organization in Germany, and peacebuilding organization MWB in the Netherlands. Capacity building is embedded in all project activities, at all layers of the project’s organization. MWB works with academic partners to enhance existing research on the role of music in post-conflict environments and the potential of music to affect social change. The project reaches 470 direct participants with 11,600 music activities; includes 24 transnational events and exchanges; three music festivals; and an abundance of video material that will be disseminated both in long and short form to 4 million Europeans. The project’s impact will be evaluated by academic partner SOAS – University of London, in research that will focus on the elements of the project’s methodology that can be replicated to promote social inclusion of marginalized youth across Europe.