As far as we know, songs of battle probably were part of many tribal societies.

However, many of the songs that we now sing which appear to carry those connotations were mostly composed fairly recently, and are used in a civilised context, such as sporting events, or social gatherings like concerts, to express solidarity or commmonality of identity.

So, although "Scots Wha Hae" is *supposed* to be based on the address of Robert Burns to his troops at Bannockburn - they didn't actually sing it that way then. And it probably didn't emerge in its current form till Robert Burns "collected"/revised it in the 18th century, by which time Scotland was firmly part of the United Kingdom for better or worse... despite the events of 1715 and '45

So singing that song in Scotland was not an act of rebellion, but an effort to hold on to whatever cultural or ethnic identity we had in the face of the massive changes sweeping through the society of the time. It was a way of saying "We are rebels!" without actually being rebels.

In that way - it's different from songs which emerge from say the American Civil War period, or even the Marseillaise from France - which is one of those songs that makes the hairs go up on the back of my neck...

It also occurs to me that martial music - music used as an enhancer of battle-readiness could be considered as the opposite of rebellious... it's a way of welding a force together in the face of the enemy. It always helps if you have bad things to say about that enemy, and since we've mostly moved on from calling people nun-raping, baby-bayonetting bastards - then maybe "tyrant" or "usurper" is what we need to go with

That's not to say that songs about freedom or seeking liberty or justice are fake or bunk. I just think that you need to look in the right place and context for those true sentiments.

CHeers

SD