Religiously Marked Discursive Construction of Musical Art in Radicalized Russian-Language Media Discourse: A Case Study

Abstract

Introduction. Existing research on the media content of radical movements has been predominantly focused on cultural artefacts produced directly by radical actors – jihadist nasheeds, propaganda videos, farright musical output. Radicalised discourse, however, often operates in a different way: it does not produce musical works, but redefines those already in circulation, investing them with the meaning of a spiritual threat. Cultural studies of radical media content are also thematically homogeneous: they are devoted primarily to Islamist radicalism and far-right movements, while multi-confessional media spaces remain outside the scope of analysis. The aim of this article is to identify the ways in which musical art is discursively constructed, through religiously marked framing, as an object of spiritual and social threat within the radicalized segment of the Russian-language digital media discourse, drawing on the material of a 2022 media event. Content. The empirical base comprises 74 media texts from 2022 published in the Russian-language segments of digital platforms (YouTube, VKontakte, Telegram), as well as contextual materials – publications from 2019 and 2021. The model case is the media scandal surrounding music video "She Loved Music" and its discursive extensions. The research method is thematic analysis. Six thematic clusters have been identified: semiotic recoding (27), reverse listening (19), global conspiracy framing (22), uncritical relay (18), self-reproducing context (14), and legitimation of the conspiratorial interpretation (11). Conclusions. The key finding of the study is that, within radicalised media discourse on religion, musical art is constructed through the discursive redefinition of existing works of popular culture. A hypothesis of confessional invariance of the conspiracy narrative is advanced: an identical conspiracy matrix has been recorded in both the Christian-oriented and the Muslim segments of the discourse. The property of hermeneutic closure has been identified, whereby any statement made by the object of discourse – including its refutation – is reinterpreted and reinforces the original accusation.