Every war has spawned musical expressions of support, opposition, or just general angst. The war against Iraq is proving to be no different- it's just happening a whole lot faster.
In the Civil War, Confederate soldiers bonded to The Bonnie Blue Flag and Dixie, while Union troops rallied to The Battle Hymn of the Republic. World War I sent doughboys Over There, and World War II soldiers will always Remember Pearl Harbor.
Every military conflict has had its music, both patriotic calls to arms and anthems to antiwar sentiment. Decades ago, soldiers sang them while marching off. Today, high-tech music fans are downloading them off the Internet as fast as they can be recorded....
And musicians already are turning out new music addressing the war in Iraq. R.E.M., Lenny Kravitz and Clint Black are a few who have released new songs -- via the Internet.
"Music adds a dimension; it's a language to itself," said Thomas J. Crow, chair of music and associate professor of history at the University of St. Thomas. "It adds connotation you can't get any other way."
Before the Vietnam War, most American war music was patriotic or inspirational. If it presented a dark side, it was about personal loss, not political dissent.
"I can't think of any (pre-Vietnam) antiwar song not rooted in the loss of the individual," Crow said. "There's nothing about the philosophy of (war)."
With Vietnam, however, the protest song came fully into its own. The country was deeply divided. At the same time, rock and folk music were emerging as a platform for social and political issues.
Many baby boomers can still sing Country Joe McDonald's I'm Fixin' to Die Rag (And it's one, two, three, what are we fightin' for?) or John Lennon's (All we are saying is) Give Peace a Chance. But that era also produced Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler singing Ballad of the Green Berets.
R.E.M.'s newly recorded The Final Straw can be found on the band's Web site, remhq.com. Likewise the Kravitz song, We Want Peace, available for free download on rockthevote.org. Black's I Raq & I Roll has been posted for downloading at www.clintblack.com.
Perhaps the biggest difference in this conflict is the overwhelmingly pro-war orientation of today's war-related music. Most of it is clearly and unabashedly pro-war. Artists that are anti-war are having trouble getting airplay for their songs, but releasing songs on the Internet at least gives them a medium to get their point of view out there. Things have certainly changed since the Vietnam War, eh??
