Since 2010, political protests and revolts have erupted in more than a dozen Arab nations, and one of the American media’s most significant impacts on the demonstrations came from a medium that is, perhaps, least expected.

Rap, a music genre rooted in the United States, became an outlet for people to express frustration and discontent with their governments during the Arab Spring. This summer, Samantha Cantrall ’14 participated in an undergraduate research opportunity at Augsburg College, and she identified the influence of music on contemporary politics.

“This relatively new and almost exclusively Western genre appeared in some of the most unexpected places of the world,” Cantrall explained. “In the midst of these protests, music was clearly prevalent.”

Cantrall for 10 weeks conducted research through a grant from the Augsburg College (URGO).

URGO researchers are mentored by Augsburg professors who assist students with their proposals, research methods, data analysis, and final reports.

As an Augsburg Concert Band member and a communication studies major from Tomahawk, Wisc., Cantrall coupled knowledge from her degree program with her interest in music. Her research focused on rap music in the uprisings of Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen.

Cantrall’s adviser, Robert Stacke, is the chair of the Augsburg music department and a scholar who has studied revolutionary music in countries that include Haiti, Nicaragua, and Northern Ireland, which makes him the near-perfect adviser for this project. When most countries undergo political upheaval, “the revolutionaries have music that demonstrates or expresses their desire for change,” Stacke said.

As a mentor, Stacke introduced Cantrall to leading scholars in the field of ethnomusicology: the study of music in a sociocultural context. Cantrall’s research chronicles the history of the Arab Spring through the hip-hop art form and succeeds in “capturing a musical idiom in words,” Stacke said. While Cantrall’s summer research is complete, she plans to investigate whether rap can sustain its popularity during peaceful times in Arab nations. She is applying for an additional URGO grant for the upcoming academic year and will work toward publishing her findings in a scholarly journal.

Cantrall has analyzed news reports and has conducted interviews with members of Augsburg’s diverse student body. “Interviews take this research further than just synthesizing other written material. URGO is more than just a term paper; it’s true research and a contribution to the body of knowledge,” Stacke said.

Cantrall asked her peers to recount their first-hand experiences in Arab nations during times of protest. “In a personal interview, a student from Yemen claimed that chanting and drumming gave people something to do in the square while they waited to be heard,” Cantrall said.

Music gave the protesters a sense of unity, a collective voice, and an outlet to express their dissent, Cantrall said. “Although non-violent, there’s a great amount of energy found in the lyrics of these protest songs,” she said. “The energy could have been used [instead] to wield guns and bombs.”

In addition to speaking with fellow students, Cantrall interviewed journalist David Peisner of SPIN magazine. He published the article “Inside Tunisia’s Hip-Hop Revolution” in August 2011. In order to write the article, Peisner visited Tunisia and spoke with the rapper El General, a musician who Cantrall featured during a post-research presentation. Peisner helped Cantrall understand why the Arab rap protest music movement became popular within multiple nations. According to Peisner, music became a reflective element of the uprisings because it expressed exactly what the protesters had been fighting for: freedom of speech.

Cantrall became interested in rap music, in part, after hearing Dessa—a renowned rapper, singer, and writer—speak at the held at Augsburg in March 2012. Dessa discussed some of the social and moral dimensions of hip-hop as a force for peace with the power unite communities in the presentation “.” The Nobel Peace Prize Forum is a learning experience that brings together Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, civic leaders, scholars, students, and other citizens with the mission of inspiring and engaging people to become full participants in peacemaking efforts around the world.

And, as Cantrall discerned through research, “Rap has served as an alternative dissenting voice to oppose the violent fighting…it is the music of struggle, attitude, and simplicity.”

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Learn about the Augsburg College , held July 25-26. On-campus research is an opportunity for Cantrall—and other Augsburg undergraduate students—to develop research, analytic and problem-solving skills that are critical in graduate school, in professional study, and in the workplace.

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Set in the historical Charenton Asylum, Marat/Sade is a “play within a play” performed by the Charenton inmates. The main story takes place on July 13, 1808, after the French Revolution; the play in the play, directed by the Marquis de Sade, takes place during the Revolution in 1793, culminating in the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat.

Because the play centers on the subjects of revolution and transfer of power, director Darcey Engen took the cast to an organizational meeting of the OccupyMN movement at “The People’s Plaza” (the Hennepin County Government Center plaza) in downtown Minneapolis.

OccupyMN is part of the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in September. The movement is aimed at “corporate forces of the world” which, according to the movement’s declaration of occupation, “place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, [and] run our governments.” Protesters in Minneapolis have been posted at the Government Center plaza since October 6.

In her director’s notes, Engen wrote, “We all sat on the grass with a large, peaceful crowd of people from every walk of life. The organizers of the rally explained the importance of horizontal organizational decision-making and taught the group various ways to discuss the issues at hand that included everyone present.

We felt the visceral passion and intellect of the larger group. We felt the calm patience that everyone seemed to possess. We felt the power of numbers as we participated in the large discussion. We were experiencing something related to what the characters in Marat/Sade experienced during the French Revolution.

Our trip downtown to the Government Center gave us a glimpse of what it might be like for a very large group to communicate and work toward a common goal, a common cause.”

Liz Behnke, a theater major, said she was surprised at the organization and sense of community at the OccupyMN site, which the cast visited on the second day of the movement. “People who perhaps did not even know each other decided to get together and change the injustice happening in the world. And they are doing it by listening to one another and discussing the changes that need to happen,” she said.

Sophomore music and theater performance major, Michael Wesely, plays the Marquis de Sade. Wesely, who said he has spent a lot of time researching his character and his role in the French Revolution, said the OccupyMN movement showed him similarities between what was happening in France and what is now happening in the U.S.  “I saw how close to a revolution we are,” he said.

Performances of Marat/Sade are Nov. 4, 5, 10, 11, 12 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 6, 13 at 3 p.m. in the Tjornhom-Nelson Theater. Request tickets online.

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