This research project examines the role of popular music in normalizing and routinizing exclusionary
populism within democratic societies. While exclusionary populism—defined by its construction of
“the people” in opposition not only to elites but also to marginalized groups—has been recognized as
a threat to liberal-democratic norms, much of the existing research has focused on its manifestations
in political and ideological terms. Less attention has been given to the cultural mechanisms through
which such ideas gain legitimacy and become part of everyday social life.

Building on cultural studies approaches, this project argues that popular music provides a significant
arena with distinct affordances through which exclusionary populist narratives are circulated,
normalized, and embedded in preexisting “structures of feeling.” The research explores how popular
songs and music discourse reflect and reinforce exclusionary definitions of “the people” during times
of societal crisis. Crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Israeli
judicial overhaul, and the October 7 War heighten social anxiety and polarization, providing fertile
ground for exclusionary populist narratives to take hold. This study investigates how these dynamics
are mediated and amplified by popular music.

The project has two central aims: first, to analyze how popular music in Israel and Germany
contributes to the everyday normalization of exclusionary populist ideas; and second, to assess the
ways in which these cultural processes may erode democratic norms. By comparing two highly
divergent national contexts—historically and institutionally—the study seeks to identify broader
patterns and mechanisms that may be at work beyond these specific cases.

The working hypothesis is that popular music does not simply mirror political developments but plays
an active role in shaping the emotional and symbolic dimensions of exclusionary populism while
providing discursive resources in public debate. The project further hypothesizes that different types
of crises produce varying yet comparable impacts on how exclusionary populist narratives are
articulated, normalized, and routinized in popular music. Preliminary research suggests a strong
connection between crisis discourse and exclusionary populist themes in both Israeli and German
music scenes from 2020 to 2025. However, the specific ways in which these connections operate
remain underexplored. This study aims to fill that gap by conducting a comparative multimodal
discourse analysis—integrating lyrical, sonic, visual and performative dimensions of popular songs
with their mediated reception in public culture.

The project brings together a team of cultural musicologists with expertise in populism, popular
music, and the politics of culture. Drawing on an international advisory board of populism experts, the
research will develop a comparative typology of how exclusionary populism draws on and becomes
embedded in popular music cultures across crisis contexts, offering new insights into the cultural
dimensions of democratic erosion and related threats to equality.

Main Project Partner: Dr. Oded Erez, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

This project is funded within the Future of Democracy and Social Inequities initiative of the German-Israeli Foundation (GIF).