In the early years of the Cold War, Western nations increasingly adopted strategies of public diplomacy involving popular music. While the diplomatic use of popular music was initially limited to such genres as jazz, the second half of the 20th century saw a growing presence of various popular genres in diplomatic contexts, including rock, pop, bluegrass, flamenco, funk, disco, and hip-hop, among others. This volume illuminates the interrelation of popular music and public diplomacy from a transnational and transdisciplinary angle. The contributions argue that, as popular music has been a crucial factor in international relations, its diplomatic use has substantially impacted the global musical landscape of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Mario Dunkel (Prof. Dr.) teaches in the music department of the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. His articles have appeared in 'American Music', 'Popular Music and Society', 'The European Journal of Musicology', and other outlets. He is the principal investigator of a European research project on populism and European popular music (funded by the Volkswagen Foundation). His research interests include transcultural music pedagogy, the practice and history of music diplomacy as well as the conceptualization and performance of music history in Europe and the U.S. Sina A. Nitzsche is the founder of the European Hiphop Studies Network and holds a PhD from the TU Dortmund. Her research interests include hip-hop, popular culture, urban, and media studies. She has also become one of the most renowned commenters on hip-hop culture in German media.