Yvonne Wasserloos:

‘Destroy Democracy’ -  Undermining society through Mainstream-Music and AI-generated Hate

Anti-democratic groups have been expressing themselves and staging performances through various musical formats for more than 30 years. In the recent past, for around 15 years, the political activities of the far-right scene in Europe, i.e. the Identitarian movements, have been shaped by a common strategy. At its core is a move towards the mainstream at the centre of society, and the suggestion that it is not a niche phenomenon anymore but part of a broader social consensus. This is achieved through deliberate ‘cultural camouflage’, behind which lie aggressive, harmful and even destructive intentions directed against democratic values.

Music and its media play an important role. Since 2010 in particular, audio-visual productions have been added to reach a wider target audience. The use of “mainstream”-music and -media obscures extrem-right, radical positions through the misuse of different genres of pop music and film music. Behind this lies a self-image of heroism that sees itself as a fighter against social and cultural change.

Recently AI has been playing the role of a game changer. Parallel worlds are created through the production of one’s own music and images in enormous quantities and at tremendous speed. So called AI-generated hate songs and Deepfake Music open up a completely new and even more worrying dimension to popularise and spread exclusion.

The lecture traces the increasing use of music and media within the European far-right scene, each with new phases beginning in 2010 and 2022 in order to make racism, antisemitism, misogyny etc. ‘consumable’ and even ‘shareable'.