War through Music?

Through the course we have watched documentaries about war and we have read books which used different methods of portraying war stories to us. There are the journal entries in Griffin, the letters in Sakamoto, and the photographs in Nadir. We have watched the film version of Jarhead. These are all mediums which rely on sight, although the film sources do use audio as well as visual narratives. This led me to wonder, other than the radio, audiobooks, and the audio narratives of film media, how else could the war be brought to people who are sight impaired. I've decided to look at songs to do with war.

One of the most famous singers during WWII in Britain was Dame Vera Lynn. She is famous for her song 'We'll meet again' which can be found here. This song seems very optimistic that people separated by war will meet again. It was certainly good for morale, especially during the Blitz.

Later on there, both during and after the Vietnam War, songs were written to protest against wars and to highlight what had happened during these wars. The one that I find the most hard hitting is '19' by Paul Hardcastle, which can be found here. The repetition of '19' is especially disturbing to me as I am only twenty myself and my younger brother is eighteen.

In recent years the songs have been as critical of those behind the order to go to war as they are of the wars themselves. 'When the President Talks to God' by Bright Eyes is an example of this. He criticises both the then President of the United States and amongst other things, his decisions to invade both Iraq and Afghanistan. This can be heard here.

These three songs are just a tiny selection of a much wider genre. It seems as though over the years people have become less united and more critical of war. This could be because they have a wider availability of sources of information or because WWII could be seen as a just war and Vietnam and the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions cannot. Either way, it is interesting how the attitudes have changed.