Demo Tape | Nr. 4 mit Simon Meier-Vieracker

Two hosts, one guest (sometimes two), a screen and a piano. And an audience who appreciates a nice sing-along – welcome to Demo-Tape, the political song salon!

Every era fights its own struggles, and every protest movement creates its own songs. They remind us of long-forgotten industrial actions or revolutions. Some songs are for the street fighting men and women, other are on heavy rotation at radio stations. They are about struggles over emancipation and workers‘ participation, environmental protection and better conditions of work. They tell of oppression and resistance, of exclusion and solidarity in difficult times.

We will discuss songs Martin loved to sing by the campfire (which Fatima hated), and at parties; songs that inspired us to practice our first chords on the guitar; and songs we added to our holiday playlist with lyrics that stood out upon closer inspection. This includes well-matured classics as well as new-found gems that are definitely worth giving a listen.

For each show, we will invite a special guest to bring along a favourite song. We will talk, watch video films and make music, and sing along with the audience at the end of the show, accompanied by the musician Sir Henry on the piano.

Simon Meier-Vieracker, born in Basel in 1981, has been stirring up TikTok and Insta communities with his passion for language and linguistic details. As @fussballinguist he likes to explain linguistic phenomena of everyday speech in entertaining and insightful ways on his channel #LinguisTikTok. He is chair of Applied Linguistics at the Technical University Dresden and published the book Sprache ist, was du draus machst! (Language is what you make of it!) in 2024, in which he also addresses the question of how policymakers are making use of language. We hear that he plans to bring his guitar to the Demo Tape show.

Fatima Çalışkan is a theatre maker, moderator and author. fatimacaliskan.de

Martin Kaluza is a journalist, author and occasional musician. His blog daspolitischelied.de explores protest songs across the globe.