About:
Freedom Beat is a production company and social justice organization focused on the role of music in global nonviolent civil resistance movements. Freedom Beat has produced over 30 short form documentaries highlighting significant international music artists and the movements they are associated with. We have screened our documentary films at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., and the Urban Voices Festival in Sweden.
Freedom Beat was founded by Tim O’Keefe, a composer, artist, producer, and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. Tim teaches electronic music and digital media arts at New York University’s Music Technology and Integrated Design & Media departments. Tim has produced large scale music and arts events in addition to film, podcast, and music related projects.
As a producer for Freedom Beat, Tim would research social justice movements and the artists connected to their causes; recruit local production teams, activists, and academic experts; coordinate each project’s production from planning to post; produce film, music, and written content to educate others about the importance and significant role of artists within the movements and social justice causes they are associated with.
His interest in nonviolent civil resistance led him to be invited to participate in the Fletcher Summer Institute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He is deeply interested in the intersection of art, policy, activism, and technology. Bringing together his interests in politics, policy, storytelling, and audio, Tim has worked as a producer and sound designer on a variety of podcasts including The United States Institute of Peace & Burning Man Project’s Culturally Attuned podcast series, and Revolution 1: The Story of The Tunisian Uprising.
Freedom Beat is a globally distributed record label, website, and meeting place for artists, activists, filmmakers, journalists, researchers, educators, and listeners interested in music of nonviolent resistance, and the role music plays in nonviolent conflict. Our mission is to provide resources, distribution, and awareness of the artists creating music of nonviolent resistance, and to the causes they are inspired by, or a part of.
Freedom Beat will be releasing periodic music of resistance compilations, albums, and singles distributed through all major digital retailers in every region of the world, in addition to utilizing methods of distribution in regions without digital access.
The Freedom Beat website/blog will track emerging stories about music of nonviolent resistance in the media, artist profiles & features, the history of music of nonviolent resistance, artist’s streaming music & video, and provide a curriculum for educators. We will also provide current and aspiring artists with technical resources on recording techniques, music hardware & software, distribution, marketing, and a social network made up of fellow music of nonviolent resistance artists.
Definition and Categories of Nonviolent Resistance Music:
What is nonviolent resistance music?
Music that advocates a form of nonviolent “active resistance,” not passive resistance or something that is solely “spiritual” or “principled” nonviolence.
Music and artists that do not, in any way, endorse or promote the use of violence (physical harm, use racist or derogatory remarks intended to inflict or incite harm on another person or persons)
Music that touches on a strategic element of nonviolent action. In other words, music that in some way aids civil resistance as a method of struggle. Categories of music that provide clarity and purpose to this definition are listed below:
Music as Subversion:
Music that is used to subvert state censorship and media control. Lyrics in a song that communicate a message that can be shared through music, but would otherwise be banned or censored.
Music that informs the general population about an issue, agitates one’s adversary, builds solidarity, and/or reduces fear?
Possible examples come from movements in the Maldives, China, Burma, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Iran.
Music as Anthem:
Songs that are adopted as the musical symbol of a struggle.
Music whose lyrics, rhythm, history, instrumental choice, performing artists, and/or cultural references capture the unity that a movement seeks to create between diverse segments of the population.
Music that keeps people inspired to participate in the struggle.
Possible examples come from movements in Egypt, Mexico, Sudan, South Africa, West Papua, Brazil, Turkey, and Palestine.
Music as Cultural Preservation:
Music that is used as a way to resist cultural imperialism, genocide, and occupation.
Music that keeps cultural meaning and heritage alive in new generations that are growing up under occupation or some other form of cultural imperialism.
Updated and modernized historical songs of a culture the appeal to younger audiences while still maintaining their significance and meaning.
Possible examples come from movements in Tibet, West Papua, Palestine, Ukraine, Mali, Western Sahara, Bolivia, United States, and Canada.
Music as Builder of International Solidarity:
Music that “expands the battlefield” of a movement by appealing and drawing in allies outside of the country or region of conflict.
Music and lyrics that are developed stylistically and linguistically, etc. to reach audiences that are not directly engaged in the conflict.
Possible examples come from movements in Palestine, South Africa, Tibet, Egypt and Russia.
Music as History:
Music that captures the story of a nonviolent struggle.
Music whose songs and lyrics have been used by historians to understand the dynamics at play in past nonviolent movements.
Music that has been used by historians to understand what kind of actions nonviolent movements have used in the past.
Music from nonviolent movements that have been integrated into the larger history of a nation and the impact that has had with respect to how citizens of that nation view and understand conflict.
Possible examples come from the US Civil Rights Movement, South Africa’s Anti-Apartheid Struggle, Mali’s Nonviolent Movement in the early 90s, the Iranian Revolution, and Ghana’s Independence struggle.
Music as Amplifier:
Music that has taken the ideas, words, and perspectives of a thinker or group and been able to extend its reach and appeal.
Music that transforms speeches and texts into musical art and increases those who hear the message and the way in which is resonates with them.
Music as Pop Culture Appropriation/Re-Mix:
Music that takes pop culture songs (or others) and transforms them into something different than its original intent.
Songs that strategically co-opt pop culture references found in music, jingles, movies, etc.
Music that re-mixes popular songs or mashes-up pop culture and movement references.
The development of Freedom Beat was supported by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, an independent nonprofit organization that helps the world to learn about nonviolent action and civil resistance.