We have survived the white man's world/and the horror and torment of it all/We have

survived the white man's world/and you know you can't change that. 

The years of Charity rock, epitomised by Bob Geldof's 13 July 1985 Live Aid, of the mega-events of the 1980s which drew attention to the political situation of apartheid and the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela in South Africa, to Prisoners of Conscience through the Amnesty International tour, are over. Most of those involved in rockin' those boats have for the time being, Sat Down. This book Rockin' the Boat, which documents a representative sample of instances of the role of mass music in political struggle, and takes its inspiration from that period, is a rollickin' good read and is bound to be as popular as it is thought-provoking. The moments and places when the interfaces of live musical performance and politics openly fuse, prove how crucial the cultural arena is. And televised mega-events do give the impression that they can re-define what is actively meant by the 'world' in their unparalleled, inextricable linking of very different communities as one community in the same moment. While the book is by no means confined to discussion of these events, understanding the moments when music works as an active part of open ideological conflict, seems crucial in this the last decade of the twentieth century, when a feeling of impasse and acts of barbarism continue to

dog and destroy lives. In Garofolo's introduction he explains Rockin' the Boat as being about 'the relationship between mass-mediated popular music - that is, musics which share an intimate relationship with mass communication technologies and political struggles around the world. From West African Highlife to political cantopop in Hong Kong, from Hungarian punk to the Aboriginal rock styles of Australia, the collection focuses primarily on musics which have combined mass-cultural elements - primarily Anglo-American and African-American - with indigenous music styles and/or those which have made conscious use of advanced technolo- gies aimed at reaching a mass audience' (p. 1). Garofolo believes that the political potential of mass mediated popular music has been largely overlooked, if not systematically devalued, and that these musics play a 'role in a myriad of political functions: "survival/identity, resistance/opposition, consciousness raising/ education, agitation/mobilization".

So, at last, a book on popular music which acknowledges and celebrates the significant link between music and politics, although it is ironic (or am I being cynical) that only when the big names of Anglo-American rock openly engage with politics does it seem kosher for us to be interested. Argentines, Chicanos, Hungarians, and others were much earlier. Folk, traditional and 'world' music has been there for many centuries, ghettoised until recently as much by academics.