“Revolution in D Minor,” The Village Voice, 2020.

1. John Bull, “God Save The Queen,” 1619, England, Classical
2. Yoshiisa Oku and Akimori Hayashi, “Kimigayo,” 1869, Japan, Waka poetry
3. Moranbong Band, “With Pride,” 2012, North Korea, North Korean Pop
4. Derek Warfield & The Young Wolfe Tones, “Come Out Ye Black ‘n’ Tans,” Call of Erin Vol. 1, 2016, Ireland, Irish Folk
5. Vadim Kazachenko, “Goodbye Forever, Last Love,” Goodbye Forever, 1996, Russia, Synth-Pop
6. Various Artists, “Africa Stop Ebola”, 2014, various, African Pop
7. Yuji Ohno, “Car Chase 1 & 2,” Lupin the Third The Castle of Cagliostro Original Soundtrack, 1979, Japan, Jazz
8. Bond, “Victory,” from Victory, 2000, London, Classical Crossover
9. Nalan Altınörs (Original Composer: Azeri Bekirof), “Nazende Sevgilim,” Sırası Mı Şimdi, 1995, Turkey, Turkish folk
10. Don McLean, “American Pie,” American Pie, 1971, United States, Folk rock

At a cursory glance, hybridity and unity seem to be contradictory forces. Hybridity combines dissimilar concepts to create new genres of diverse qualities, while unity revolves around focusing and highlighting a single specific concept. However, it is possible for a song to contain both of these concepts because hybridity can introduce new elements that elevate the ability of a song to unite groups of people. For example, many anthems have the goal of unifying the people in a nation while also taking influence from a variety of different music styles. In this playlist, both unity and hybridity are recurring topics and in general, hybridity works to strengthen the unifying force of the piece.

The first three songs on this list, “God Save the Queen”, “Kimigayo”, and “With Pride” are similar in that they are all songs focusing on nationalism and national identity. It is clear that these three songs aim to create a sense of unity among people in a nation. “God Save the Queen” promotes unity by stirring support for the monarch of Great Britain. “Kimigayo” promotes unity by promoting the reign of the Japanese emperor. “With Pride” speaks to how the North Korean state will progress and “leave others behind.”

However, what is more interesting is that all three of these songs also represent hybridity. The tune of “God Save the Queen” was used to represent the monarch of many countries around Europe before the song became the national anthem of Britain in the early 19th century. Thus, this shows how this piece has an identity that is inherently a mix of other European countries and cultures at the time. “Kimigayo” was created when the lyrics to a Meiji era poem was combined with a tune by Englishman John William Fenton, reflecting the westernization of Japan in the late 19th century (Tai 1999). Lastly, the instrumentation of “With Pride” consists of synth pianos and electric guitars, showing a clear Western influence, reflecting the growing influence of Western culture in North Korea.

These three songs not only represent different countries, but they represent different time periods, as well as different styles of music. “God Save the Queen” reflects the classical style of the 18th century, and the serene tone of “Kimigayo” represents the romantic music of the 19th century. In contrast, the bombastic music of “With Pride” represents electric music of the 1970s.

The next three songs on the list represent songs that aim to unify people around a social or political issue. However, these songs also find roots in hybridity. “Come Out Ye Black ‘n’ Tans” is a song about Irish unity against the English during the 1922 Irish civil war, berating English supporting Catholics and Protestants. However, the song itself is written in English as opposed to Gaelic, despite the fact that Irish was still well spoken and intuitively more patriotic than English. This song to some extent represents a hybrid of English and Irish cultures. “Goodbye Forever, Last Love” focuses on the fall of the Soviet Union and compares it to the loss of a loved one. This song attempts to unify people by rallying those who are sentimental to the Soviet Union, yet its usage of synth instruments shows clear Western influences, speaking to the greater influence of Western culture during the later Soviet Union. Lastly, “Africa Stop Ebola” hopes to unify people against the spread of the Ebola virus by spreading awareness through pop music. The song itself represents hybridity because the members of the band are from Mali, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and several other African countries, reflecting how the fight against Ebola is a united one (Jones 2014).

Next, “Car Chase 1 & 2”, “Victory”, and “Nazende Sevgilim” are examples of storytelling songs where both unity and hybridity interplay. “Car Chase 1 & 2” from Lupin the Third, a series about a thief and his partner, is a reoccurring song and it in a way helps unify the series into one cohesive narrative. Simultaneously, the songwriter Yuji Ohno took clear influences from Western Jazz when writing this piece, which reflects the way Lupin the Third as a franchise is a hybrid of Japanese and Western movie and musical themes. “Victory” is a song that tries to capture the vibrant nature of dancing and partying in South America, made more evident by its music video. This song acts as a unifying force because it aims to connect the cultures of many of these countries, and it also clearly contains elements of hybridity because it draws from both popular and classical forms of music from Europe. Its usage of orchestral instruments really sets it apart from most other pop songs of this type. Lastly, “Nazende Sevgilim” is a romantic song about saying goodbye to a loved one, and to some extent acts as a unifying force between Turkic countries such as Turkey and Azerbaijan because this song was related simultaneously in all of these countries. This song exists in a very similar form in many of the countries in Anatolia and Central Asia, crossing national and cultural borders. Fittingly, this song was created in Turkey by an Azerbaijani person, showing the hybrid nature of the song’s origin.

“Car Chase 1 & 2”,  “Victory”, and “Nazende Sevgilim” were all relatively recent songs, but musically they are quite different. The bombastic jazz of “Car Chase 1 & 2” represents the increasing tendency for Japanese artists to draw from Western culture for local cultural ends. The passionate pop feeling of “Victory” is an experiment using orchestral instruments to replicate the sound of Latin pop. On the other hand, the more somber tone and minor key of “Nazende Sevgilim” reflects the music that is popular in Turkic countries such as Turkey and Azerbaijan.

The final song, “American Pie,” is a complex about the rapidly changing America in the 1960s. This song doesn’t necessarily follow the definition of hybridity in the sense that it combines music from different cultures. However, it is hybrid in an abstract sense where the more jovial music from the 1950s is combined with the darkening political environment of the 1960s, yielding something unlike anything else that came before (Wegiel 2021). Additionally, this song acted as a unifying force within the American rock community, referencing the problems and tragedies that all of these people have experienced in recent history.

This list explores a diverse array of songs from a variety of time periods, geographical regions, cultures, and intentions. However, there is one common thread that ties all of these songs together: the ability for hybridity to elevate the song’s unifying force. Interestingly, van Klayton argued in his paper that hybridity can lend itself to multiple interpretations of works (von Klyton 2016). This is clearly the case in songs such as “Goodbye Forever, Last Love” or “Kimigayo,” where the hybridity tells a second narrative on the modernization of nations. Despite having multiple interpretations, however, these pieces are still able to push a unified message regarding nationalism because many nations themselves have many different facets, and thus it would be wrong to portray these nations with a non-hybrid song. The relationship between hybridity and unity is complex, yet they both potentially play an important symbiotic role in many songs, as well as in social actors such as composers, performers, promoters, and consumers.

Jian Park is a first-year math and economics double major at the University of Chicago. In his free time, he enjoys playing board games, reading about history, taking walks, and surfing.

Bibliography:

Kawabata, Tai. 1999. “Identity of Kimigayo’s Composer Remains Mystery.” Japan Times. August 5. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/1999/08/05/national/identity-of-kimigayo-composer-remains-mystery/

Jones, Sam. 2019. “African Musicians Band Together to Raise Ebola Awareness.” The Guardian. October 24. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/oct/29/african-musicians-record-song-ebola-awareness

Wegiel, Natalie. 2019. “Remembering Rock ‘N Roll: 50 Years of Nostalgic Longing in Don McLean’s ‘American Pie’.” ProduceLikeaPro. May 26. https://producelikeapro.com/blog/don-clean-american-pie/

Van Klyton, Aaron. 2016. “All the Way From… Authenticity and Distance in World Music Production.” Cultural Studies.