The James McMahon Music Podcast
Episode 91: Winston Marshall on illiberalism in music
I used to think that music – pop music, the space I’ve lived my life in for over twenty years – was akin to a theatre of ideas. A place where different perspectives on art, life, politics, and culture could be shared, and debated, kicked about, agreed with and disagreed with, all of which helped shape lives and world-views.
And yet in recent times I’ve started to see music as something of a monoculture. Everyone is saying the same righteous thing. There’s little room for dissent. Perhaps this is best illustrated by the experiences of today’s guest, one Winston Marshall, the former banjo player in Mumford & Sons, a band I’ve always very much enjoyed, and a man who tweeted about his enjoyment of a book – not a great book, but I think history tells us that when we start banning books, trouble inevitably follows – which resulted in his life being systematically disassembled by the online mob.
Winston Marshall isn't in Mumford & Sons now. These days he hosts the Marshall Matters podcast for The Spectator magazine. I wondered whether, in him, I might find someone who shares my worries that music is losing it's essence of freedom and liberality. Turns out that I did. We don't agree on everything - the very point is that we don't agree on everything - and so for almost an hour this week we both took some time to duke out our opinions on cancel culture, the rigidity of seeing things through the prism of left and right, the cruelty of ‘wokeness’, and a lot more besides.
I think it was a conversation worth having. One I think music culture needs more like…
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En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.