Music and Cats / Book of Abstracts - Catalog - Page 36
Abstracts
Panel 2: PAW-litics
12:40 – 12:55
ACAB – All Cats
Are Beautiful
Popular Music, Cats and Subversiveness
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetur adipiscing elit.
Tessa Balser-Schuhmann / University of Vienna
In my dissertation, I am researching musical and
sonic practices during times of social and political
crises in the German-speaking region. I explore
the affective potential of sounds and music in
creating specific atmospheres and examine
whether this can disrupt social norms. For my
presentation, I focus on cat-related popular music,
spanning from mainstream to subcultural genres,
highlighting how images of cats as headstrong,
determined, rigid, and resistant serve as symbols
for powerful political struggles and social
transformation. The phrase “All Cats Are
Beautiful” provides an alternative interpretation
for the acronym “ACAB,” which critiques the
police from an anti-racist and antifascist
perspective. In a left-wing subcultural context, the
phrase is often used as a title of songs and bands,
including a song by the rapper Salomé.
Additionally, images and references to cats and
their behaviors can be found on stickers, memes,
and in various forms of pop culture art. My paper
explores the musical, sonic, and artistic uses of
cats, examining how they convey subversive
meanings about political demands. I analyze a
range of examples, from mainstream music—
such as Kerstin Ott’s song “Nachts sind alle
Katzen grau” (2021) (“All Cats Are Grey At
Night”)—to
leftist
conceptual
works,
including the album A.C.A.B. (All Cats Are
Beautiful),
a
self-described
“political
inter-species feline fronted hardcore band”
(2014). In this presentation, I highlight how
cat-related moments in music reflect feline
behaviours, and how these behaviours are
reinterpreted
as
political
demands—
ultimately
idealizing
these
non-human
creatures. Based on selected examples in both
mainstream music and subcultural genres, I
discuss whether this use of cat-related motifs
and sonic presence of cats can be understood
as transformative practices in the context of
today’s political crises, positioning music and
sounds as forces for political and social
change.
AI
34
