Rebel Music, Communal Dancing, and the Class Politics of Movement

Revolutionary Left Radio

Breht O'Shea

Communism, Politics, Liberalism, Society & Culture, Philosophy, News, History, Leftwing, Socialism, Marxism

4.8 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2018

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Born in Beijing and based in Berlin, Leo Zhao (AKA Dj Zhao) is a writer, revolutionary, rhythm ambassador, and musicologist, bringing a poly-cultural understanding of sound to his deeply percussive cross-genre sets.

Leo joins Brett to discuss music theory and history from a radical leftist and materialist perspective.

Topics include: His families history living under Mao, Laws against social dancing throughout history, music and dance stratification in class societies, the roots of American music, Slavery, Africa's influence on music, the evolutionary and sociological underpinnings of social dance and beat-driven music, Hip Hop, New Orleans culture and history, Trap music, cultural appropriation vs. cultural exchange, the connections between oppression and music, the body and sexuality, and much more!

Dj Zhao's soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/djzhao

Dj Zhao's Website: https://ngomasound.com/

Follow DJ Zhao on FB: https://www.facebook.com/zhao.ngoma/

The DJ mix of lefist music we discussed in the episode can be found here: https://www.mixcloud.com/djzhao/dance-dance-revolution/

For people who might want to read more on these and related topics: https://medium.com/@leohezhao

Music on the show in order of appearance:

https://akwaabamusic.bandcamp.com/track/baro

Guem & Zaka - Gia from the album Giants of Percussion

DJ Dikota - Pitori Streets

konono nº1 - Paridiso http://www.konono.net

Les Tambours de Brazza - Brazza https://www.facebook.com/JEBiayenda/

Please support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RevLeftRadio

and follow us on Twitter @RevLeftRadio

Follow us on FB at "Revolutionary Left Radio"

Intro Music by The String-Bo String Duo. You can listen and support their music here: https://tsbsd.bandcamp.com/track/red-black

This podcast is officially affiliated with The Nebraska Left Coalition, the Nebraska IWW, and the Omaha GDC.

Check out Nebraska IWW's new website here: https://www.nebraskaiww.org

Transcript

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0:00.0	Please support my daddy's show by donating a couple bucks to patreon.com
0:05.8	forward slash rev left radio. Please follow us on Twitter at rev left radio
0:11.2	and don't forget to rate and review the revolutionary left radio on iTunes to
0:16.9	increase our reach.
0:18.1	Workers of the world, unite!
0:20.3	Revolution Revolution Revolution Revolution Revolution Revolution
0:37.1	Revolutionary left radio now, opposed the system in you way you know how.
0:44.1	You like the left to get the capital of the slides and liberate the proletariat's mind.
0:52.0	Farm for the world, be class for the quality, fire against the right, be fascist ideology,
1:00.0	to get in and turn it all out. Revolutionary left radio starts now!
1:09.4	Welcome to Revolutionary left radio, I'm your host Dan Comrade, Bred Oche.
1:13.9	And today we have on Leo Zau aka DJ Zau all the way from Berlin, Germany to talk about
1:20.7	music, dance, the historical roots of music and the emancipatory power of dance.
1:25.9	Leo, would you like to introduce yourself and say a little bit about your background?
1:30.4	Hey Brett, yeah, my name is Zhao DJ Zhao.
1:36.5	I work at DJ, I'm in Berlin, Germany at the moment but I lived in the US for a long time,
1:41.7	for 20 years of my life. Before that I was born and raised in China.
1:49.2	I grew up born and raised in Beijing.
1:52.6	And a lot of people, I mean I'm a communist today, not because I was born in China but
2:01.2	against that fact. Even though I was born and raised in China, I'm still a communist.
2:12.7	Would you like to talk before we get into the bulk of this conversation?
2:16.9	Would you like to talk a little bit about your family history in regards to China and what
	...

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