ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the music of Peter Gabriel help point out that hegemonies of the intellect and hegemonies of the material are intertwined and interdependent, even in the practices of a single musician or band, and even if those musicians try to work around them. When western musicians appropriate music from somewhere else and use it in their music, or even work with other musicians, the old subordinating structures of colonialism are usually reproduced in the new music, though in complex ways that need to be analysed carefully. The chapter concludes by theorizing the idea of intentionality with relation to Gabriel's music. He attempts to make empowering statements about the preservation of world musics, and the empowerment of peoples from around the world. But Gabriel's positionality as a westerner and as a male star in the music industry means that his musics are always appropriative in some ways.
