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APPEAL TO MUSIC AS AN INTERDISCTURSIVITY TOOL
Political discourse has always been one of the most powerful tools of exerting considerable influence on the audience. This may be explained by the fact that it is usually broadcast on the radio or television and printed in newspapers. In other words, political discourse always reaches the addressee in one way or another. This is also the reason for a careful choice of linguistic material, which can help to influence the audience’s opinion. In addition, in order to interpret the discourse correctly one should be aware of the context in which this discourse is created. To illustrate this idea, it is reasonable to turn to the notion of intertextuality, which enables the author to broaden the scope of his/her discourse and to add new shades of meaning to the words uttered by means of an explicit or implicit appeal to other discourses. However, this only becomes possible if the addressee can identify such a link, i.e. he/she possesses the same knowledge and experience as the author. Allusions to music can serve as one of the most illustrative examples of interdiscursivity as they may be recognized by a considerable number of people. Therefore, they can convey the necessary meaning to the addressee. Barack Obama has always employed this method of impacting people’s consciousness. Following the traditions of African American rhetoric, he employs music in his discourse rather frequently, which enables him to appeal to people of various age groups, add new shades of meaning to his words, turn to American history and at the same time be an up-to-date politician. As a result, interdiscursivity is acclaimed an extremely powerful method of influencing the audience and allusions to music being one of its tools have their own purport.
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