{"id":9976,"date":"2017-09-13T23:34:51","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T23:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=9976"},"modified":"2017-09-16T18:37:34","modified_gmt":"2017-09-16T18:37:34","slug":"during-vietnam-war-music-spoke-to-both-sides-of-a-divided-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/during-vietnam-war-music-spoke-to-both-sides-of-a-divided-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"During Vietnam War, music spoke to both sides of a divided nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lauren Rebecca Sklaroff<\/a>, University of South Carolina<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Music is central to Ken Burns\u2019s new Vietnam War documentary, with an original score accompanied by samples of the era\u2019s most popular musicians, from the Rolling Stones to Bob Dylan. According to USA Today<\/a>, the people interviewed for the film were even asked to provide their 10 favorite songs from the war years. <\/p>\n

While it\u2019s natural that a historical film would include period-specific songs, music played an outsized role in the Vietnam War era. Whereas during past wars, musicians wrote songs to unite Americans, Vietnam-era music spoke to the growing numbers of disillusioned citizens, and brought attention to the cultural fissures that were beginning to emerge. <\/p>\n

A unified sound<\/h2>\n

World War II influenced an entire generation \u2013 many say the \u201cgreatest\u201d \u2013 but few of those who came of age in the 1940s would probably call music a core component of their collective identity.<\/p>\n

Music did play an important role in the war, but only as a way to unite Americans; like the films, radio reports and newspapers accounts of the era, World War II music resounded with patriotism. <\/p>\n

Glenn Miller and his lively swing orchestra played hits such as \u201cTuxedo Junction<\/a>\u201d for U.S. troops<\/a>, while bandleaders such as Benny Goodman and U.S.O. entertainers such as Bob Hope reinforced the government\u2019s promotion of unwavering patriotism to willing and eager listeners. <\/p>\n

Young people embraced swing music for what historians David Stowe<\/a> and Lewis Erenberg<\/a> describe as the genre\u2019s democratic ethos \u2013 the way Americans of different races and ethnicities enjoyed a new kind of sound with an upbeat tempo and new dance moves such as the Lindy Hop. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n A huge crowd fills New York\u2019s West 52nd Street for a swing party to raise war bonds in July 1942.<\/span>
\n AP Photo<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I argue in my book \u201cBlack Culture and the New Deal<\/a>,\u201d the government also employed African-American musicians such as Duke Ellington and Lena Horne to boost the morale of black citizens and project democratic values on the home front and for troops. Many African-Americans<\/a> hoped a battle against fascism could lead to the end of discrimination in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Songs of resistance<\/h2>\n

But Vietnam was different. Unlike the 1940s \u2013 when Americans thought the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and Nazi aggression in Europe justified the sacrifices of war \u2013 young people in the 1960s were deeply suspicious of the government\u2019s decision to go into Southeast Asia. As the military\u2019s commitment grew and the body counts piled up, many couldn\u2019t understand what they were fighting for. <\/p>\n

Songs were able to express these feelings of anger and confusion with lyrics that could be abstract \u2013 like Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cBlowin\u2019 in the Wind<\/a>\u201d \u2013 or explicit, such as Phil Ochs\u2019s \u201cI Ain\u2019t Marching Anymore<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

Music also filled a void in the country\u2019s media landscape. Hollywood didn\u2019t release films that probed the complex nature of the Vietnam War until years after the fall of Saigon. While television news broadcasting became more critical after the Tet Offensive, the big networks were hesitant to promote entertainers who were vocally opposed to the war. Popular programs would censor artists who planned to perform protest music; for example, in 1967, folk singer Pete Seeger appeared on \u201cThe Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour<\/a>,\u201d only to discover that his song \u201cWaist Deep in the Big Muddy\u201d would be later be cut due to its anti-war message<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Because Vietnam-era musicians seemed to be the only people talking about America\u2019s failure to live up to its democratic principles, many young people viewed them<\/a> as \u201ctheir own.\u201d <\/p>\n

Protest music took several forms. There was The Beatles\u2019 more tepid \u201cRevolution<\/a>\u201d and Creedence Clearwater Revival\u2019s everyman anthem \u201cFortunate Son<\/a>.\u201d Groups like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane excoriated the hypocrisy of American values, shunned commercialism and supported anti-imperial movements across the globe. People chanted lyrics while marching, listened during gatherings like the \u201cBe-In<\/a>\u201d in San Fransisco\u2019s Golden Gate Park or simply absorbed the meaning and messages of these songs on their own.<\/p>\n

Forgotten voices<\/h2>\n

Much of the power of Vietnam War-era music came from its connection to the civil rights movement. Young men and women in the black freedom struggle had, since the 1950s, broadened their call for freedom to encompass oppressed people around the world. Artists like Nina Simone, Dylan and Seeger had been chronicling the tragedies of southern violence in their music, so pointing out the wrongs of Vietnam came naturally. <\/p>\n

But interestingly, Google searches for \u201cVietnam Era Music\u201d yield only protest music. This disregards the many who found the protesters abhorrent, who undoubtedly listened to apolitical songs or songs that backed the military.<\/p>\n

The Americans that President Richard Nixon dubbed<\/a> \u201cthe silent majority\u201d \u2013 those angered by protesters \u2013 constituted a huge swath of the country. They had catapulted Nixon to the presidency and fueled a resurgent conservative political movement. The deep-seated resentment felt by so many Americans \u2013 against those on college campuses, those who defied military orders, those who questioned American patriotism \u2013 cannot be ignored, and they, too, turned to music that provided solace. Merle Haggard said he wrote his 1969 hit song<\/a> \u201cOkie From Muskogee\u201d to support U.S. soldiers who \u201cwere giving up their freedom and lives to make sure others could stay free.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the hell did these kids have to complain about?\u201d he wondered.<\/p>\n

To many, students on college campuses knew nothing about the true meaning of sacrifice. The Spokesmen\u2019s pro-Vietnam ballad \u201cDawn of Correction<\/a>\u201d insisted on the \u201cneed to keep free people from red domination,\u201d while \u201cThe Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley<\/a>,\u201d performed by C Company and Terry Nelson, topped Billboard charts. (The song defended Lt. William Calley<\/a> who, in 1971, was convicted of slaughtering civilians in the Vietnamese village of Mai Lai.) <\/p>\n

The popularity of these songs paints another portrait of the war; politically, the music was much more multifaceted than is often remembered.<\/p>\n

\"TheHopes for the era weren\u2019t as simple as the Animals\u2019 \u201cWe Gotta Get Out of This Place<\/a>,\u201d which promised \u201cthere\u2019s a better life for me and you.\u201d Instead, understanding the music of the Vietnam War era requires indulging a variety of perspectives. The overseas conflict cannot be divorced from the culture war back home \u2013 a battle over who gets to define the nation\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n

Lauren Rebecca Sklaroff<\/a>, Associate Professor of History, University of South Carolina<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lauren Rebecca Sklaroff, University of South Carolina Music is central to Ken Burns\u2019s new Vietnam War documentary, with an original score accompanied by samples of the era\u2019s most popular musicians, from the Rolling Stones to Bob Dylan. According to USA Today, the people interviewed for the film were even asked to provide their 10 favorite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":9977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293],"tags":[3139,501,3140,500,3137,53,777,989,2121,3138,779,3131,1823],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9976"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9978,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9976\/revisions\/9978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}