Musical protest

Music has always been a place for people to fully express themselves, oftentimes talking about love, pain, and many more deeply personal matters, but what happens when these artists feel that something is deeply wrong? Not within themselves, the problem is from the hands of a government force and seems unreachable. A musician will oftentimes use their platform of music to raise awareness about this issue. Music is power.

-Donovan-

More well known examples of musical protest take place in the late 50´s and early 60´s, during the height of the Vietnam war. Popular artist Donovan wrote a song Titled The war drags on released in 1966, 12 years after the U.S’s involvement began and 9 years until its end. The song follows a young soldier named Dan. Dan enlists in the military under the pretenses that America’s involvement in Vietnam was for good, shown in the lyrics “Let me tell you the story of a soldier named Dan Went out to fight the good fight in South Vietnam Went out to fight for peace, liberty and all Went out to fight for equality, hope, let's go And the war drags on”. After arriving in vietnam Dan is met with “Found himself involved in a sea of blood and bones Millions without faces, without hope and without homes And the guns, they grew louder as they made dust out of bones That the flesh had long since left just as the people left their homes”. This undoubtedly is referring to the nearly 2 million innocent Vietnamese citizens that died, and the millions of others that had been displaced from their homes. Throughout the song the phrase “the war drags on” is repeated. The meaning for this is quite obvious, there had been over 12 years of conflict and there was seemingly no end in sight. While not the first time someone has spoken up about the atrocities of the Vietnam war it is a great example of someone so popular using their platform to bring attention to a problem, and surely inspired many to join in the fight against the war.

Singer/ songwriter Donovan

An article written during the war entitled ¨Students protest: make music not war¨. This article details protests that occurred in reaction to President Nixon's announcement that the army would be advancing into Cambodia. Many of these protests were overlooked and shut down by the media. Realizing that they were not being heard, students from many music colleges joined together to hold multiple concerts for peace. These concerts were much more successful in making the students be heard.

From 1981 to 1989 Ronald Reagan was president of the United States, and to put it simply he was disliked by many. His ideals and especially his role in the cold war was hated world wide. While the cold war was nothing new Reagan´s ¨foreign policy¨certainly was not helping. An album titled ¨PEACE/WAR¨ was released in response to this. Featuring bands over 50 from all over the world this album was a collective shout from the punk scene for change. More notable bands include Reagan Youth, from New york. G.I.S.M, from Tokyo. Subhumans, from Warminster. And Mob 47, from stockholm. Each of these bands had a song on The PEACE/WAR album that in some way or another denounced Reagan, Boris, or the war in general.

-Reagan Youth-

Reagan youth contributed their self titled song, Reagan youth to the album. With lyrics such as,

"We are the sons of Reagan ...Heil!

We are the unawakened ...Heil!

Want another war?

Forward to El Salvador!

Gonna kill some communists!"

This song was targeted more directly at Reagan, comparing them to Nazis, hence the repetition of ¨Heil¨ throughout the song. The band also mentions the Reagan administration's involvement in El Salvador during the early 80´s, saying that the only reason for being involved was to kill communists.

-G.I.S.M-

During the cold war, Japan adopted an isolationist strategy. While the country wasn't involved, that doesn't mean the people of Japan were oblivious to the conflict. G.I.S.M, wrote the song ¨endless blockades for the pussyfooter¨ while a bit hazy at first with closer attention to the lyrics their message becomes clear.

“You no way notice the demagogue

You no way notice the militaristic

You no way notice the death in action”

This is the chorus, when listening it is a little confusing to say the least. By looking at the lyrics it seems as if G.I.S.M is either directly calling out Reagan, or generally commenting on the world leaders with the line “you no way notice the demagogue”. If you didn't know, demagogue is “a political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.” If applied to Reagan, this line is pointing out the flaws in his argument, and shows that he is playing on Many Americans' fear of communism in order to scare them into backing his ideals. The other two lines “you no way notice the militaristic You no way notice the death in action” Are referring to the fact that many people, despite what they see on the news, are oblivious to the things that the military does and the true horrors of war.

-Subhumans-

Subhumans, a band based in the united kingdom were one of the early founders of the genre ¨anarcho punk¨ which is a genre of punk that promotes the idea of anarchism, so as you would imagine, they had a lot to say about the state of the world. In particular their song ¨rats¨ was featured on the P.E.A.C.E/ WAR album.

¨We fought their calculations

Money gained from third world nations

All

That money spent on war

Could be used to feed their poor

The papers played

The whole thing down

Said there was nothing to worry about

The rats have all gone underground

But we'll be back again next time round¨

The rats that are constantly referred to throughout the song are referring to how the governmental powers view the citizens. The song was released shortly after Reagan announced his foreign policy. The line ¨Money gained from third world nations all that money spent on war could be used to feed the poor.¨ this is certainly referencing the U.S´s invasion of cambodia. And the lies about death counts from the U.S and cambodia in order to keep morale high.

-Mob47-

Similar to Japan, sweden also developed an isolationist mentality, also just like the japanese citizens the sweden´s eyes were wide open. Bands like Mob47 showed the world what they thought with their song ¨Kärnvapen attack¨ which roughly translates to ¨nuclear attack¨

¨En enorm explosion ett bländande sken

Allt är förbi allt är förbi

Allting brinner allt försvinner

Mänskligheten har utplånat sig själv

Kärnvapen attack

Kärnvapen attack¨

A huge explosion a blinding light

All is over all is over

Everything burns everything disappears

Humanity has wiped itself out

Nuclear attack

This song is taking a slightly different approach than the others, by instead of looking at things and calling them out they are looking at things from a theoretical perspective. Nuclear warfare was a very present danger at the time, and Mob47 is saying if these weapons are used, everything will be wiped out. Saying that ¨humanity has wiped itself out¨ is highlighting that it is man that created the conflict, and it is man that will end it along with everything else.

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