CfA: Special Issue: Fascist Songs? (Volume! Research on Popular Music), Deadline: 1. November 2026
Fascism is a political and historical phenomenon that emerged in 1919; the term has since been used to designate or describe not only the party and the regime established in Italy, but also a multitude of very different movements, regimes, ideas and figures, set against a variety of historical and geographical contexts. It can nevertheless be argued that fascism is a modernist and ultra-nationalist political project aimed at anthropological regeneration (Griffin 1991), anti-Marxist, most often racist and anti-Semitic, with totalitarian and imperialist aspirations (Matard-Bonucci 2018), which gives primacy to action (Paxton 2004), notably through its fascination with violence and war. As a regime, it functions as a political religion (Gentile 2004) that subjugates the masses through the ritual celebration of mythologized figures and a glorious past which it appropriates in order to build and eternalize its own glory. However, debates over the relevance of these characteristics – or over the ‘Europeanness’, international character, origins, repertoire of actions or aesthetics of fascism – have preoccupied researchers engaged with the political issues of their time, without a settled definition ever having been established (Costa Pinto 2011; Forlin 2013).
This themed section aims to incorporate research on the conception and political uses of popular music into the work of defining fascism. Indeed, fascist movements and regimes made extensive use of popular music, particularly songs, to disseminate their ideas and imagination through representations of their Leader, their nation and their people, their mindset or their enemies, whilst shaping how these were received through chosen affects designed to meet the political needs of the moment. Fascist movements thus used songs to indoctrinate and mobilize their militant community, and even to accompany their transition into a regime (Niedhart & Broderik 1999). This rare development amplified the political functions of song: the ‘fascistization’ of the narrative surrounding national current affairs and history (Mastrangelo 2006), the perceptual reframing of periods of crisis (Thomas & Zucconi), and the support of fascist imperialism (Chiriaco 2022). Songs also took center stage within an entertainment industry serving the totalitarian state (Cavallo & Iaccio 2003). Adapted to the spirit of the times (Tomatis 2019), popular songs and dance music were disseminated by fascist regimes through the mass audio media they controlled (Cannistraro 2022; Monteleone 1985) or which they allowed to flourish to their advantage (Thomas 2026).
When these regimes collapse and are recognized as criminal – such as German and Italian fascism – these songs continue to exist through their recordings or sheet music. They take on a commemorative function, thereby contributing to the persistence of fascist ideas (Chielli, Héry & Razous 2026) that remain relevant to contemporary political issues. This was the case, for example, when Jean-Marie Le Pen released a record of Nazi songs during the campaign for the 1965 French presidential election (Thomas 2020), or, more recently, when the song ‘Erika’, adopted by Wehrmacht soldiers during the Second World War, was used online by the German far right to capitalize on its virality (Simon 2026).
Whilst not excluding other considerations, these few points already enable us to embark on a broader reflection on the political imagination and agency of music within fascist movements or regimes, on the possible specific nature of the relationship between popular music and fascism, and on what might constitute the foundations of a musical definition of fascism. We might thus consider fascist policies on the dissemination and consumption of music by comparing the practices of different movements or regimes, taking as a starting point, for example, the Nazi regime, where strict control over listening to propaganda songs via radio broadcasts was preferred to their free circulation and listening via records (Elste 1984; Gàlvez). One could also compare the aesthetics and uses of fascist songs from the 1930s with those of contemporary neo-fascist movements, such as CasaPound Italia and its identitarian rock band Zetazeroalfa (Toscano & Di Nunzio 2016; Cammelli 2024). And whilst the common use of the word ‘fascism’ to describe any manifestation of the far right has caused it to lose some of its historical and political relevance, the insights gained from a study of the aesthetics and uses of interwar fascist songs could help us identify genuine fascist traits in the political practices of the second Trump administration, Alternative für Deutschland or Fratelli d’Italia. Thus, it would be necessary to determine in what ways the musical apparatuses established by fascist movements or regimes correspond to or differ from those deployed, in other eras and by other political organizations, including anti-fascist ones, such as that established by the French Communist Party to shape the sensibilities of post-war youth, notably through the popular music that emerged between the 1950s and 1970s (Sklower 2024a; 2024b).
In addition, we must also examine the musical genres that emerged from the 1970s onwards, some of whose practitioners have adopted an aesthetic framework centered on memory and the reinterpretation of symbols of interwar fascism. Thus, industrial music (Reed 2013), its offshoots such as neofolk (Shekhovtsov 2009), or certain variants of metal (François 2022), sometimes enter the realm of metapolitics by suggesting fascist ideas, depicting features of fascism (Ballet 2018) or revolving around its aesthetic. This music therefore raises questions regarding the choice of musical means employed to convey fascism outside the favorable political and cultural context of its regime – that is, when it is widely reviled or even banned – and the political strategies that these musical means might serve.
All these lines of inquiry, amongst others, may help to develop a definition of fascism within the field of popular music: songs associated with fascism certainly existed, but were they essentially fascist songs? If we accept the idea that a sector of political activity can derive its existence from the realm of music, is there a genre of songs, past or present, that would be fascist insofar as it is an aesthetic expression of the political characteristics of fascism, or as the best means of highlighting them? If so, how does this genre-specific aesthetic evolve in line with the historical conditions under which fascist movements were formed and expressed? Furthermore, are there ways of listening to or performing music which, when engaged in specific contexts, might be considered fascist? Asking these questions leads us to consider popular music at the intersection of politics, history, aesthetics and the media in order to:
To gain a better understanding of how these songs were conceived and used as powerful tools for spreading fascist ideas and imagination
To determine whether songs created by other fascist movements and regimes function in a similar way
Examine whether the political power they possessed at the time of their creation continues to be expressed today and, if so, in what forms, with what effects and for what purposes.
This themed section of the journal Volume! aims to address these questions through case studies drawn from the musical activities of movements or regimes whose political and/or historical affiliation with fascism, its memory, or one of its contemporary forms has been previously established. The aim is therefore not to label every expression emerging from the vast, nebulous spectrum of the global far right as ‘fascist’, but rather to examine this characterization from a musical perspective, within the framework of a definition of fascism that remains a matter of debate.
Two historical lines of inquiry into the popular musicalization of fascism emerge: that of the original forms of fascism (Italian fascism and German nazism) and that of their successors; alongside two lines of analysis: that of its musical aesthetics and that of its political uses.
Selected articles may, in particular, address one or more of the themes and questions listed below.
Aesthetics
By what musical means is fascism represented and sought to be popularized?
Is it possible to trace an aesthetic continuity between the songs of the original fascist movements and those of current movements or regimes that claim a fascist heritage or are recognizable as one of its contemporary forms?
What national and political characteristics shape the aesthetics of fascist songs?
What role does ‘noise’ play in the musical representation of post-war fascism?
Emotions
What emotions do propaganda songs associate with the elements of fascist ideology and politics that they convey?
Are fascist songs generally cheerful in nature?
Are fascist songs generally martial in nature?
Imagination
What are the recurring musical representations of fascism and its imagination?
How do they vary or evolve across time and cultures?
How do certain musical genres relate to the dissemination of an imagination or the evocation of a fascist spirit?
What notions of ‘the People’ do these popular musical representations convey?
Is it reasonable to conceive of the representation of fascism in terms of musical genres?
Memory and Persistence
What are the conditions for the preservation, transmission and reformulation of fascist repertoires with a view to their revitalization?
How do fascist songs function over the long term?
How are they revived, but also adopted as models or counter-models?
In which musical genres are fascist songs reimagined?
How does the production of fascist songs after 1945 accommodate the banishment of the original forms of fascism?
The structuring of political practices
How do fascist songs shape the practices of fascist movements, both past and present, or of those who claim to follow in their footsteps?
After 1945, did fascist songs serve to unite activists or to fragment organizations claiming to be fascist?
Dissemination strategies
What dissemination strategies did fascist regimes and movements employ?
How do fascist regimes or movements incorporate popular music into their propaganda apparatus?
How were these strategies developed in conjunction with, or in opposition to, the distribution methods and structures established by the music industry for other forms of popular music?
Proposals for articles, which must not exceed 300 words, should be sent to jonathan.thomas@ehess.fr by 1 November 2026.
The selection of accepted proposals will be announced in mid-December 2026.
Articles must be submitted by 15 April 2027 and will undergo a double-blind peer review process.
They must comprise no fewer than 30,000 and no more than 40,000 characters, including spaces and paratexts.
If you have any questions, please write to jonathan.thomas[at]ehess.fr.