Blankness in Alligatoah's song "Musik ist keine Lo¨sung"

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject Musicology - Contemporary music, grade: 1,0, , course: German Music and Politics, language: English, abstract: This paper explores the blankness in Alligatoah's music using Daniel Chua's theory about blankness in music. Lukas Strobel (known as "Alligatoah") refers to himself as an acting rapper, which is why one cannot connect his music with the person behind the pseudonym. By creating an abundance of characters, he manages to create a blankness that allows his music to be used in different contexts. As a consequence, Alligatoah's songs have been appropriated in the past. Alligatoah's song Musik ist keine Lösung is the title track of his fourth studio album that came out in 2015. The song accuses political music of not having an effect and states that political singers depend on political problems in order to fulfill their passion. The narrative claims that music cannot be the solution for any political or societal issues. However, the audiovisual support of the music video provides a greater depth of the work and proves not only the blankness of Alligatoah's musical creation but also of him as an artist.