“Despite the romantic notion of musicians speaking truth to power, commercial or societal pressures often restrict musicians in what they can express” (p. 352). This statement, which opens the final chapter of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, captures the essence of this study by Noriko Manabe. Using antinuclear protest music in Japan since the March 11, 2011, Fukushima nuclear disaster (precipitated by the earthquake and resultant tsunami on that date) as a lens, Manabe examines in detail protest music and the associated musicians, culture, and social and governmental structures. Although marketed as an ethnomusicology book, the potential readership is much broader: historians, particularly those who study protests, antinuclear movements, or censorship; political scientists; cultural anthropologists; and others will want to add this work to their reading lists.
The book begins with the chapter “Background Information on Analyzing Political Music Under Self-Censorship,” which helps the reader to understand why...
