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Volume 16, Spring 2004 |
Features
Rocking Out: The Changing Sound of Protest Songs
Copy Chief
"War! Huh! Good God y'all. What is it good for? Absolutely nothin'!"
Though sentiment has greatly changed since Edwin Starr's "War" was released during the Vietnam War, protest songs remain as old as war itself.
Though you are more likely to find a love song than a war-related song on the airwaves, the genre of the protest song is still present, offering up much social commentary and insight into world views, as well as into the musicians themselves.
What follows is a brief history of the protest song in modern, mid-20 th to 21 st century, popular music. It is much more than Bob Dylan on an acoustic guitar; it is a rich tradition with a wide variety of sounds and voices.
1950s
The 50s were a time before the boom of protest songs that emerged in the twenty years that followed.
The 50s were a time before the boom of protest songs that emerged in the twenty years that followed; American Bandstand and Elvis ruled.
Some examples remain, like the Kingston Trio's "Tom Dooley" and Harry Belafonte's "Day-O" to name a few.
Many songs turned romantic, focusing on how the war affected love and family life, such as The Heartbeats' "Daddy's Home (Thousand Miles Away)." The song looks at the semi-ritual of a man coming home from war, and the relief that follows, with lyrics like " Daddy's home to stay. I'm not a thousand miles away/ Daddy's home to stay" and "I'd like to thank you for waiting patiently." Another example is "Mr. Lonely" by Bobby Vinton with the lyrics "Now I'm a soldier, a lonely soldier/Away from home through no wish of my own/That's why I'm lonely, I'm Mr. Lonely/I wish that I could go back home."
The decade following World War II was seemingly quiet of protest songs. With a civil rights movement to come and the Vietnam War years on the horizon, the 50s seemed to be directly opposite of the musical landscape in the following decade.
1960s
The far-from-perfect world of the 1960s provided much content to musicians seeking to protest.
The far-from-perfect world of the 1960s provided much content to musicians seeking to protest. To create protest songs, songwriters used Woody Guthrie's example, plus musical styles drawn from folk, gospel, bluegrass and blues, to create protest songs.
These songs were both political and spiritual. One of the leaders of the 1960s protest song movement was Pete Seeger, who published a magazine called Sing Out! Some of the most important performers in the movement were Phil Ochs, Eric Andersen, the group Peter, Paul, and Mary, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan .
With the start of the Vietnam War, protest songs became trendy again. While the genre seemed to pan out in other decades, musicians in the 1960s and 1970s felt that there were many worthwhile events to protest. This was, unfortunately, a sign of the times; but, fortunately, great music and messages were created.
In this era, with female and sexual liberation, civil-rights and anti-war movements swirling around, the protest song was creating some anti-national anthems accessible to protesters, who were provided simple melodies to sing and play. Songs such as Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction" blanketed the radio. Shaggy-haired hippies brought battered guitars to demonstrations, where they serenaded the faithful with impassioned renditions of "Blowin' in the Wind" or "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"
During another bed-in in Montréal, Québec, Canada , John Lennon sang a new song he had written, "Give Peace a Chance." It became one of the most popular songs of the anti-war movement. At a November 15, 1969 war protest in Washington, D.C., Pete Seeger led a crowd of about 250,000 people as they sang the song over and over again.
1970s
Perhaps the protest song that has endured the longest and enjoyed the most popularity is "Imagine" by John Lennon. The song is clearly a classic, creating so much inspiration that the piano it was composed on was a highly sought collector's item in a recent auction .
Protest songs started to be less about how great peace is and more about how horrific war and violence are.
As part of their plea and perhaps as a reflection of the Vietnam War, protest songs started to be less about how great peace is and more about how horrific war and violence are. In showcasing the horrible statistics of war, the protest song became an oral history, such as how Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Ohio" documents the killings of four protesters during the 1970 anti-war protest at Kent State.
With the Vietnam War ending in 1975, musicians turned their sights on the unnecessary violence that still exists in the world. A major component was the protest of nuclear weapons.
Much of Bob Marley's songs are of protest; many emerged in the 1970s. Many of them came from his own experiences, such as a 1976 assassination attempt, which inspired "Ambush in the Night."
1980s
With Bruce Springsteen's backside on the cover, "Born in the USA" became an anthem with a chorus everyone knew. But the verses told a different story, like in the lyrics "Got in a little hometown jam/So they put a rifle in my hand/Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man" and "I had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong/They're still there, he's all gone."
The same was true with "99 Red (Luft) Balloons" by Nena. A pop hook and catchy new wave music seem to mask audience appreciation of Nena's commentary on nuclear bomb devastation.
Don Henley's "All She Wants to Do Is Dance" provided music that was easy to dance to; but, ironically, the lyrics were about Molotov cocktails being thrown around the oblivious dancing American and how "the boys (presumably the CIA, NSA, etc.) are making a buck or two." The song is actually protesting US involvement in Nicaragua.
1990s
The protest song was gobbled up and spit out in the 1990s
The protest song was gobbled up and spit out in the 1990s, and turned into the decade's lyrics of choice for many anti-establishment punk bands. Completely different from anything Bob Dylan would play, the protest song was now pumped up with layers of guitars accompanied by screaming.
Pennywise protested war in "Homeless," citing the folly of spending money on foreign problems while hungry mouths multiply at home. The non-stop activism of Rage Against the Machine also debuted in the 1990s.
Rap from artists like NWA and Public Enemy focus on the faults of government with songs against making black men go to war.
U2 and the Cranberries both advocate non-violence in such tracks as the Cranberries' "Zombie," which is about a child killed in a car bombing. U2 focused on war in Ireland; their front man , Bono , became an internationally recognized peace advocate.
In the 1990s, it was clear to many that the inspiration to create a protest song was lacking, since apathy was as rampant as Saved by the Bell reruns. When Liam Gallagher of Oasis was asked about rival band's involvement with "Stop the War," he said of the band, Blur, "Nobody's gonna listen to knobhead out of Blur. No one even listens to Bono."
2000-present
Now, more than thirty years removed from the prime of the protest song, the Top 40 is vacant of such music.
With the recent war in Iraq, the Beasties Boys released "In A World Gone Mad," which was critically panned, citing lyrics such as, "Now don't get us wrong 'cause we love America/ But that's no reason to get hysterica/They're layin' on the syrup thick/ We ain't waffles we ain't havin' it." Outside of every other song in the Rage Against the Machine catalog and System of a Down's "Boom," the current era's most popular protest song is a more than 20-person cover of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," complete with rap verses from Fred Durst and Eve.
Music critics point out the haphazard nature of the songs of this period, with artists such as George Michael mocking Tony Blair, and Lenny Kravitz calling for peace. It is in this environment that Sleater-Kinney asks in the trio's 2002 song, "Combat Rock," "Where is the protest song?"
Much of the protesting this decade is a response to September 11, 2001. Attempts to capture the emotions behind such an event ranged widely. Songs vary from Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" to country singer Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red White and Blue (The Angry American)," with its snarling, "You'll be sorry that you messed with the US of A/Cuz we'll put a boot in your ass;" this is the antithesis of the protest songs that came from the mid 1960s and 1970s.
Since the 1990s, radio and video music television is dominated less by artistry and more by profits.
Since the 1990s, radio and video music television is dominated less by artistry and more by profits, which affected the distribution of protest songs greatly. According to The Capital Times, the monopolistic effects of corporate radio were seen prominently post-September 11: "Such singular domination of the airwaves was notably demonstrated following the September 11 attacks, when radio giant Clear Channel Communications issued a memo suggesting certain 'insensitive' songs, including AC/DC's 'Highway to Hell' and John Lennon's 'Imagine,' not be played. The Texas-based company has denied that any songs were actually banned."
The more recent examples of protest songs show the mutability of the genre, though some say this is evidence of its limitations. An angelic or scraggily voice and the ability to play the acoustic guitar are not necessary to create one. It is not necessary to be an anti-establishment punk band.
There are plenty of protest songs that have nothing to do with war that, instead, speak out against racism, social injustice and government structures; they also speak up for equality and freedom.
Musicians today, as in other decades, use their art as a means of sending a message, whether it is superficial like Britney Spears' "Oh baby baby how was I supposed to know/ Oh pretty baby I shouldn't have let you go" or something else with a more rallying call.
The study of protest songs showcases lyrics, not the instrumentation. It is hard to make an instrumental protest song. To find the lyrics to your favorite protest song, or to discover if that catchy pop song is really about the Iran-Contra affair, visit one of the many online lyric databases listed to the right.
Catherine E. Galioto, a junior journalism/professional writing major at The College of New Jersey, is the unbound Copy Chief; so if you find any mistakes, please blame her. She is also a freelance writer with several accolades who appears regularly in more than seven publications. Outside of that, things get much harder to define.