Vietnam War & Protest Music'

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)

This scope for differing interpretation can be seen in Pete Seeger's song 'Waist Deep in The Big Muddy'.

Critiques

Vietnam War: The Music of Protest

This Project will explain:

-The Vietnam War as viewed through the lens of 'Protest Music'

Protest Music & The War in Vietnam

Media

Protest Music as a Framework

PROTEST MUSIC

CONTEXT

BACKGROUND

Definition

What made Vietnam different?

What is 'Protest'?

The Vietnam War

1960's America

'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.

Message

Medium

The piece in question must be in a song or 'musical' form.

The message will reflect the political action that is being protested against.

Protest can be defined as a mode of political action that is objecting to one or more policies or conditions, characterized by showmanship or display of unconventional nature, and undertaken to obtain rewards from political or economic systems while working within the system (Mondak, 1988)

A time of social and political upheaval.

Why then, was music such a large part of the Vietnam War?

CONTEXT

Civil Rights

Context

Effectiveness

HOWEVER

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.

Image 1

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 interpreted by the listener.

While this sounds relatively simple...

According to Rikard (2004),

• "Songs were a prominent feature of the anti-war movement and a shaping element of its associated counterculture...and an essential part of G.I. culture in Vietnam. In more subtle ways, the war exerted deep and lasting influences on the form and content of popular music."

• South East Asia from 1955-1975
• Involved the anti-communist forces of South Vietnam and their North American allies in a fight against the communist North.

(3)

4 Elements of Protest Music

Its media reach still exists in the modern day!

Moreover, Protest is complex because leaders must simultaneously appeal to four groups: the members of the group, the media, third parties, and decision-makers.

Statistics

Thanks to....

Why then, music?

Image 5

Image 8

• Martin Luther King helped pave the way for African American civil rights throughout the 1960's.

The YouTube pages on which these videos still cause extensive debate between users in the public sphere.

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 number of views shows that viewers still engage with the music, even 30 years after it was written. (5)

EXAMPLES

• Estimated total of 2,122,744 deaths.
• 58,169 of these were American, and 500 were Australian.
• A combined total of over 2 million wounded for both sides.
• Average age of American dead was 23.11 years old.
• 1/3 American combatants were conscripted under the 'draft'.
• The U.S. government spent more than $140 billion on the war.

Image 9

Some Key Examples of Vietnam Protest Songs.

Reasons for the War

Image 6

THE DOMINO THEORY

Redgum-'I was only 19'

The Sergeant said, "Sir, are you sure,

This is the best way back to the base?"

"Sergeant, go on! I forded this river

'Bout a mile above this place.

It'll be a little soggy but just keep slogging.

We'll soon be on dry ground."

We were -- waist deep in the Big Muddy

And the big fool said to push on.

• Student unions began to form in protest of the great inequality and injustices that currently faced Cold War America.

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.

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.

Image 3

• The fear that as more countries turned to communism, the American allies in the South of Asia would be the next to go.
• This was the USA government's justification for the war in Vietnam.

While music may seem like the perfect medium through which to protest, there are certain downsides.

" “…While the Rolling Stones’ song “Paint It Black” was not written about the Vietnam War, it has great meaning for many combat veterans from that war. The depression, the aura of premature death, loss of innocence, abandonment of all hope are perfectly expressed in the song. When you walk off the killing fields, still alive, physically intact, you want everything painted black, like your heart, your soul, your mind, your life."

~Bill (War Veteran)

Song Facts:

1) Rolling Stones

2) 1966

THE SPREAD OF US IMPERIALISM

Jimi Hendrix-'Star Spangled Banner'

Fortunate Son CCR

Mondak (1988), says that:

• "The possible shortcoming of protest music as political persuasion can be seen as the result of listeners' failure to cognitively process the songs' messages. Since listening to music is typically a voluntary activity, the audience member is likely interested in both the medium and the source of most protest songs."

Image 7

• The hippie movement was in full swing, with many people living a life filled with sex, drugs and rock and roll.

Image 4

• A form of economic penetration of the countries of the Third World. (Kramer & Bauer 1972)
• A means of gaining a foothold in South East Asia.

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:

• Most protest lyrics are creative expressions designed to elicit an emotional response rather than cognitive examination of an issue. They do not call for intellectual processing from the auditors to whom they are directed; the treatment of topics themselves, appeal to the emotions."

And this brings us to...

Analysis:

Each of these three songs has their own special relevance as a form of protest music.

'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.

Textual References

Footnotes

Image References

Image 1

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/vietnam-map.gif

image 2

http://64796893.nhd.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/4/1/10415126/929015602_orig.jpg

Image 3

http://jfkplusfifty.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/domino_theory.jpg

Image 4

http://www.dangerouscreation.com/2012/11/why-the-world-must-unite-to-fight-against-americas-imperialism/us-imperialism-latuff-latin-america-racism/

Image 5

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/martin-luther-king2.jpg

Image 6

http://spencer.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/25th/kc46b.jpg

Image 7

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ln3g75aagg1qjv7jjo1_500.jpg

Image 8

http://flipthemedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/youtube-logo2.jpeg

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.

'Fortunate Son' 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.The song glorifies the link between patriotism and a person's social standing. According to this line, the fortunate sons, born into privilege, are the most vocal of patriots. They are the flag wavers and the ones who find it easy to outwardly express their national pride.

But as the song makes clear, these fortunate sons are not the men who have to back up their flag-waving by putting their lives on the line in War. "And when you ask them, how much should we give? / Ooh, they only answer more! More! More! "

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/

'Star Spangled Banner' is something completely different. Hendrix uses his talent on the guitar to take the listener through the chaos of the war. His personal military experience is an important contextual point in this piece.