On September 27, 2023, the US government launched the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative according to a press release on the government’s website.
The article states that, since World War II, the United States has “called upon American musicians and artists to use music as a diplomatic tool to promote peace and democracy” and that music “gives voice to democratic ideals, to the powerful and the powerless, across borders and beyond barriers, and to generations of citizens – from all walks of life – worldwide.”
Being quite the troublemaker around the world as well, the United States government has been met with mixed feedback and doubts about the initiative.
Veteran US protest musician, David Rovics, predicts, sarcastically, that “people writing songs against US imperialism” will not be winning any awards on behalf of the initiative.
As Rovics furthermore points out, this music and peace initiative is, in part, sponsored by corrupt, oil spilling monsters Chevron and war tools manufacturers Boeing. One could argue, that such corporations who have been accused of being affiliated with war crimes, silencing and killing activists and polluting nature for decades should not be connected to a global initiative meant to spread art, peace and unity.
As an alternative there is always Music Action International and Freemuse, Musicians Without Borders, Playing for Change and many more.
