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American songwriter Joe Hill explains it best.
"A pamphlet, no matter how good, is never read more than once. But a song is learned by heart and repeated over and over." Cousins (2007)
Rodnitzky (1971) also notes how folk music in particular is open to various interpretations 'since you can read your own problems into them (the songs) and reap existential answers or solace in return.'
This scope for differing interpretation can be seen in Pete Seeger's song 'Waist Deep in The Big Muddy'.
Listen again, this time placing Seeger's words in the context of 1960's America and their involvement in Vietnam.
Why then, was music such a large part of the Vietnam War?
According to Rikard (2004),
Its media reach still exists in the modern day!
'A protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs (or songs connected to current events). Princeton (2013)
As protest songs are a form of media themselves, it is hard to judge the effective media reach of the music as data on the number of hours dedicated to such music is unavailable.
The piece in question must be in a song or 'musical' form.
The message will reflect the political action that is being protested against.
A time of social and political upheaval.
According to Mondak (1988), protest can be defined as a mode of political action oriented toward objection to one or more policies or conditions, characterised by showmanship or display of unconventional nature, and undertaken to obtain rewards from political or economic systems while working within the system
As the music itself is the media, the song needs to effectively communicate its point to the audience.
There must be a relevant context within which the song can be placed in order to give it meaning.
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As the Pete Seeger video shows, it is necessary to take the context within which the song was written into account, in order to appreciate and understand its cultural relevance. The political climate at the time of the songs conception can play a major role in how it is to be interpreter by the listener.
(3)
Mondak goes on to note how ' Protest is complex because leaders must simultaneously appeal to four constituencies: the members of the group, the media, third parties, and decision-makers.
Thanks to....
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The YouTube pages on which these videos still cause extensive debate between users in the public sphere.
This number of views shows that viewers still engage with the music, even 30 years after it was written. (5)
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THE DOMINO THEORY
Redgum-'I was only 19'
While the words in the song talk about a captain leading his men across a river, there are plenty of other interpretations that can be drawn from Seegers words.
A popular interpretation of this is that the captain represents the American government, sending their men to die in a hopeless war with reckless abandon. (3)
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While music may seem like the perfect medium through which to protest, there are certain downsides.
THE SPREAD OF US IMPERIALISM
Jimi Hendrix-'Machine Gun'
Bob Dylan-'Blowin' in the Wind'
Mondak (1988), says that:
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These critiques show that there are some long term disadvantages to using music as a medium of protest. However, in the short term goals associated with the Vietnam War, music was a fantastic way of raising awareness on the issue, and enacting a form of social change. It was a cheap and easily accessible form of protest that reached millions, and within the cultural context of the Vietnam War, proved effective. This project report is a testament to that.
Kizer, quoted within the above article also notes:
Each of these three songs has their own special relevance as a form of protest music. (4)
'I was only 19' is heavily narrative based, delivering the message of the song through a 1st person recount of the events that took place.
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http://www.dangerouscreation.com/2012/11/why-the-world-must-unite-to-fight-against-americas-imperialism/us-imperialism-latuff-latin-america-racism/
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1. American statistics were primarily used in this section as the statistical and numerical information for other allied nations is not readily available.
2. Not an intended generalisation, more a noticeable theme of the 1960's. Also relevant to the culture of music.
3. I created this system myself, as I was struggling to get my head around the theory of protest music. It would appear that there actually is no concrete theory available, so I tried to make something that had 4 elements on which you could judge whether or not a song was indeed a piece of protest music.
4. I tried to relate these songs back to my framework mentioned in footnote number 3.
5. There are hundreds of examples on YouTube where there is consistent debate between users over the relevance of these politically charged songs today, compared to when they were first written. From the videos I searched, the ones involving Vietnam as a theme often contained heated arguments as to whether Vietnam was a just or unjust war.
'Blowin' in the Wind' is far more contextually based. As the song itself doesn't specifically mention the Vietnam War, one needs to consider the context in which it was released in order to gauge its relevance.
Australian War Memorial 2013, Australian casualties in the Vietnam War, 1962–72, accessed 09/06/2013, http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/vietnam/statistics.asp
Cousins, A 2007, 'Can protest music influence social change?', weblog post, Inside Time, 19 November, accessed 07/06/2013, http://www.insidetime.org/articleview.asp?a=87
Field Battery 2013, General Statistics Vietnam War, accessed 10/06/2013, http://www.103fieldbatteryraa.net/documents/74.html
Mondak, J 1988, 'Protest music as political persuasion, Popular Music and Society, vol.12, no.3, pp25-38.
Princeton 2013, Protest Song, accessed 09/06/2013, http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Protest_song.html
Rikard, D 2004, Patriotism, Propoganda, Parody and Protest: The Music of Three American Wars, (in) War, Literature and The Arts: An International Journal of the Huma, vol.16, no.1, pp129-144.
Rodnitzky, J 1999, The Sixties between the Microgrooves: Using Folk and Protest Music to Understand American History, 1963-1973, (in) Popular Music and Society, vol.23, no.4, pp105-122.
Statistic Brain 2013, Vietnam War Statistics, accessed 10/06/2013
http://www.statisticbrain.com/vietnam-war-statistics/
'Machine Gun' is something completely different. Hendrix uses his talent on the guitar to take the listener through the chaos of the war, with the lyrics only serving as a backdrop to the mood he is trying to create. His personal military experience is an important contextual point in this piece.