SXSW hosted a surprising guest on Saturday, March 15, when it conducted a panel discussion with Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas, and Daryl Friedman, covering the role music can play regarding Homeland Security.

McCaul currently serves as the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and spoke to SXSW artists about his bill, the Arts Require Timely Service Act, which would require Visas filed for foreign musicians who wish to perform in the U.S. to be processed in a timely fashion.

The bill states that applications for performer visas need to be processed within 14 days of submission, or be pushed through in the 15 days following, meaning that the longest one would wait for an application to be processed is almost a month.

McCaul said that he believes it is important for foreign musicians to be given the opportunity to perform in the United States because, when they return to their country, “They become ambassadors for the U.S.”

“As I look at it from a homeland security perspective; music is really the universal language. The influence that music can have can be very powerful,” McCaul said during his panel.

Not only could visiting musicians bolster up the U.S.’s reputation abroad and strengthen an American presence overseas, but sending American music abroad would also benefit Homeland Security, McCaul claimed.

“I think Western music could have an influence in countries where people otherwise don’t want to listen to us. We need a combination of hard and soft power, and I think the music piece goes to that soft-power idea,” McCaul said in an interview prior to his SXSW panel.

McCaul sees music as a means to get messages across to foreign countries without the need for government oversight or interference. He sites musicians such as Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie as artists who impacted social consciousness and encouraged to political movements.

“Growing up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, I saw the power of music and how it can impact society. I just think as I deal with these threats that I’m briefed on from more radical parts of world, that if some of the extremists out there listened to our music, then it might have an effect. This music event brings in hundreds of bands from all over the world, so it is a global event, and music is important globally,” McCaul said prior to the panel.

One particularly notable moment from the panel came when McCaul likened music to a soft version of drone strikes, killing ideology instead of people.

“While [drones] have been successful with high-value targets, they are not alone going to kill an ideology.… Music has a very strong role to play in [persuasion] and in diplomacy and in that soft power to try and change the world and make it a better place,” McCaul said.

McCaul called music an example of the “soft power” the U.S. can use to fight tyranny and injustices overseas. He concluded his talk by calling music a “tool against oppression.”

– Olivia Truffaut-Wong

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