Have anti-war songs changed anything?

Subject: RE: Have anti-war songs changed anything?
From: GUEST, mikefule
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 04:12 PM

Yes, anti-war songs have changed something: they have become an important aspect of a stereotype of anti-war protestors, making it easier for the authorities to categorise all anti-war protestors as beardy-weirdy folk singing Guardian reading idealists. Thus, the anti-war song makes anti-war protestors feel good about themselves, whilst making them an easier target for satire.

But that's more to do with style than content.

So, take the powerful, "Last Night Another Soldier" by the Angelic Upstarts... well, that helped to stereotype anti-war (peace in Northern Ireland) proetestors as scruffy thick anarchist punks... an easy target for satire.

Songs don't change the world. They do, however, act as a bonding agent for groups of people who might change the world, but probably won't.

Subject: RE: Have anti-war songs changed anything?
From: Joybell
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 04:02 PM

That's a good old thread alright. I agree that even if songs don't appear to have much effect outside the group singing them, they are at least useful to cement relationships and work towards solidarity. My husband talks about the use of songs, within the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s when people feared for their lives.
I've never had my life threatened for my beliefs but I've lead singing in front of bulldozers a time or two. Once we stopped in the middle of "We Shall not be Moved" just at the point when a huge tree crashed to the ground from where it had been "standing by the waterside" for over 200 years. We WERE moved that time, just like the tree, but we influenced a few more people and we gained a few converts.

Subject: RE: Have anti-war songs changed anything?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 02:59 PM

Examples of songs that changed something is a fine old thread with some examples.

A song that altered history? 'Granola Vila Morena' perhaps, though it could be argued that any other song could just as well have triggered that revolution.

In the history (before '45) of the German armies there have always been forbidden songs. You could get punished for singing them. If the people deciding about censoring such songs thought these songs might have a possible detrimental effect on the military, we should seriously consider the possibility they were right.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Have anti-war songs changed anything?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 02:41 PM

(oops...)

But that doesn't mean one shouldn't try....

Subject: RE: Have anti-war songs changed anything?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 02:40 PM

A song ain't gonna change nothin'!

Subject: RE: Have anti-war songs changed anything?
From: greg stephens
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 02:37 PM

Won't do to be too pessimistic, and say the songs have no power. When the powers that be decide these things, it is often a finely balanced decision. Politicians will balance the likely benefits to the world(or themselves) of going to war, against the undoubted miseries. Sometimes it goes one way, sometimes the other.
    And songs of peace undoubtedly reinforce our awareness of the horrors of war. So it is a fairly safe assumption, that whenever a group of people decide on a peaceful course of conduct, they will have done so partly because of the influence of song. So, what I mean is, don't dwell on the wars the songs failed to stop: think about the wars that didn't happen, that songs helped to stop. And keep singing.

Subject: RE: Have anti-war songs changed anything?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 02:34 PM

They are as good a form of protest as any. They are a form of identification; it's important for us to recognize each other. Other than that, it's impossible to say for sure. Besides, a good song is it's own vindication.

Subject: Have anti-war songs changed anything?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 02:29 PM

Following on from the choice of best anti-war song thread, is it fair to ask if any of those beautifully written songs have changed anything. The songs mentioned in that thread cover every aspect of war. Eric Bogle's songs highlight the human cost and the futilitiy of war . "Universal Soldier" blaims the foot soldier, but " Masters of War" blaims politicians and big business. BUT, has any of this altered history? Prevented a war from starting? Ended a war? Or, are all those talented songwriters wasting their creative efforts on a lost cause?