Welcome back to Music and Global Politics. Please like, rate and subscribe and support on Patreon at musicandpoliticspod.com

As a thank you and gift to listeners, please enjoy Slava'a "Wagner in Drinks": https://viacheslavv.substack.com/p/richard-wagners-favorite-drinks-announcement

Russia is a font of alternative perspectives usually unavailable in the West. With its strong Byzantine past, Russia, arguably now still, and forever remains an exemplar of Caesaorpapism - the subordination of the church and matters sacred inside the state, a strong symphony or church and state lending the country's overall arc an air of the messianic. This background greatly shaped what is distinct about the Russian reception of the ever popular, if controversial German composer and father of the "total work of art," Richard Wagner.

If in the West Wagner is seen as a problematic arch-reactionary, even a proto-Nazi, however looking out from Russia westward, if anything, Wagner has had a progressive role in musical aesthetics. His works challenged the old regime of the Tsars, and even the Soviet Union championed his work during and after the Nazi invasion. Our guest, Slava Vlasov, a passionate Wagnerian and author of much creative fiction based on Wagner, highlights how in his early career, at least in terms of his contacts and circles, Wagner can be seen as much a Russian composer as one German. This is a very personal journey, a special Russian journey into the world of Wagner.

In this episode we discuss Wagner's Russian side:

• the controversy over his semi-sacred, mostly heretical Parisfal
• Wagner's breaking open of the possibilities on the Russian stage.
• How Wagner was viewed by the Soviet Union and in Post-Soviet Russia.

Our conversation is enclosed by two lovely piano renditions of Wagner :

1. The Quintet from Mastersingers of Nuremberg
2. Album Leaf for Dutchess Metternich

Can Pop be a cure for the melancholy and pain of our age? Has it always been? Today we bring a practicing NYC-based psychiatrist to probe the music of Taylor Swift and Lana Del Ray for pain, therapy and mental health. Given the resounding dominance of their prolonged success, sustained depth-analysis is more than called for. The hopes, fears and travails of generations and millions is now projected onto the mental screen provided by these artists that have captured the age.

For rights reasons, musical selections this time are limited to an innocuous cover.. We are featuring a brief excerpt of Sara Bareilles cover of "Clean," as well as a snippet of "Dark Paradise," by Lana Del Ray, which could well be taken as the actual Heartbroken National Anthem.

Please don't forget to like, rate and subscribe, and buy us a coffee on patreon @ musicandpoliticspod.com In our world one coffee=one episode we gladly dedicate to you for your cherished support.

In this episode we explore:

1. Pop as a symptom of America's ailments.
2. How we can and should think of pop intellectually/psychoanalytically:
3. What is the role of eros, drive theory and repression in pop?
4. How has pop inherited and activated the language of mental health, crises, narcissism etc?
5. Is pop about converting depression erotically?
6. How does pop surveil our emotions especially those that are potentially pre-political?
7. How does Taylor Swift enact a balance of power of the two americas and two worlds of : red state/blue state; girl/woman, adult/child, sex/love, etc.

Stay tuned for alot more coming up this season and thanks so kindly to Dr. Zimmerman for his participation!

Welcome to Season Four dear listeners. Thank you for your patience and today we are proud to present to you Adam Swart, founder of Crowds on Demand—the original paid protesting firm. Adam has unique insider knowledge of how modern protests are built, funded, and staged for media impact, he’s breaking his silence with us as requests for protest campaigns have surged 400% this year.

Here are some of the major points we covered in our talk:

• 400% Increase in Protest Requests – What’s behind the unprecedented spike, especially in Washington D.C.
• Why He’s Speaking Out Now – After years running campaigns on both sides of the aisle, Adam is pulling back the curtain on how protests are manipulated.
• The Optics Playbook – Protests today are less about policy and more about choreographed media moments.
• Paid to Protest – From Capitol Hill staffers to university fellows, many “volunteers” are actually compensated.

Adam has long been inspired by both Hip-Hop - the innovative authentic hip-hop of Lil Jon, as well as classical, especially the extremely challenging duo piano concertos of Mozart as played by the dynamic Dutch brother duo of Lucas and Arthur Jussen. So please stay tuned for some musical clips before and after the conversation. Thanks for joining us and please stay tuned for our next episode on the politics of Wagner in Russia!