Is all music political and social commentary?

I’ve been reading through “No Sound is Innocent” by Eddie Prévost. The book is his account of the philosophy guiding the free improvisation group AMM. There is a lot of heady theorizing related to dialogue and heurism in the book, leading to a very philosophical approach to the subject of making music. But there is also a lot of theorizing related to the political and social function of music. Prévost describes how music in industrialized capitalist economies is excessively commercial and inauthentic. At the same time, he critiques classical formalism and its offshoots as representing an authoritarian political system. In response, he contends that we can discover a more authentic version of our humanity through free improvisation, critically examining every convention that has stifled personal expression and undermined honest communication.

He’s obviously not the only musician to contend that politics and music are inherently related to one another. Consider the variety of examples. Theodor Adorno was both a serious composer of 12-tone music based on his training with Alban Berg and was also a noted sociologist from the Frankfurt School; he believed 12-tone music was part of a rejection of commercialism and a challenge to middle class disposable culture. In another example, the jazz bassist Charlie Haden contends that his music and political thought are intimately connected even though very little of the music Haden has performed has explicit lyrics or text to indicate a political context.

Personally, I’m skeptical about this and think music can be an expression of an individual’s thoughts and feelings independent of political intent, but of course members of the critical school of Marxism would note that my own thought on this matter is a reflection of the atomistic individualism inherent in contemporary industrialized society.

Does the music here say anything political or social? Should it? Does the method of providing music for free make a social statement? Does using computers as part of the process of recording? Is rejecting conventional musical techniques as taboo or using them as fodder for an ironic deconstruction of their elements provide a critique of the society that produced these techniques? I’ve got no answers here, that’s for sure.