Can popular music achieve genuine political change?

Popular music has long had associations with politics, it is often used as a platform in attempt to instigate social and political change. In theory this can be achieved through raising awareness of an issue into the social conscience. A good example of this is Band Aid, which aimed to raise awareness (and money) for the famine in Ethiopia. The campaign did raise a lot of money and awareness for the cause and has seen change.

In the 1980s a organisation of musicians formed to create Red Wedge, who attempted to sway the vote in the 1987 general election towards the labour party. Their campaign was unsuccessful and disbanded in 1990. It would appear from this that music has less impact in instigating this kind of political change, and trying to persuade voters from their established beliefs may seem to be quite blind sighted.