1 Going Underground: The Impact of the Cold War on Popular Music. When the Cold War began, music exploded. The study of this music enables us to understand and analyse the Cold War because music allows us to access the psyche of a period in time. Throughout the Cold War, popular music was there to explain how ordinary people felt about events that were often out of their control. Jazz, rock and roll, folk music, Vietnam protests, doomsday songs and much more provided a common understanding for people who neither understood, nor agreed with the actions of their government. This essay will demonstrate that when it comes to learning about the Cold War, there is no better cultural reference than popular music. While high culture could be said to be classical music, theatre and art, popular culture is a whole way of life. According to Nachbar and Lausé, popular culture ‘surrounds us the way water surrounds a fish, as a transparent environment crucial to our survival.’ 1 Culture can be folk, popular and elite, but moving away from the Whig view of history of the top ten percent, social history recognises that no one culture is higher than another. 2 Popular culture includes artefacts and events; it reflects and shapes beliefs and values and forms the fabric of everyday life. The 1 Jack Nachbar and Kevin Lausé, ‘Getting to know us: An introduction to the study of popular 2 Russell Nye, ‘Notes for an introduction to a discussion of popular culture’, Journal of Popular Culture, Vol.5, 1971, p.1032 and Jack Nachbar and Kevin Lausé, ‘Getting to know us: An introduction to the study of popular culture: What is this stuff that dreams are made of?’, Popular culture: an introductory text, Ohio, 1992, p.16.
Transcript
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Going Underground: The Impact of the Cold War on Popular Music.
When the Cold War began, music exploded. The study of this music enables
us to understand and analyse the Cold War because music allows us to
access the psyche of a period in time. Throughout the Cold War, popular
music was there to explain how ordinary people felt about events that were
often out of their control. Jazz, rock and roll, folk music, Vietnam protests,
doomsday songs and much more provided a common understanding for
people who neither understood, nor agreed with the actions of their
government. This essay will demonstrate that when it comes to learning
about the Cold War, there is no better cultural reference than popular
music.
While high culture could be said to be classical music, theatre and art,
popular culture is a whole way of life. According to Nachbar and Lausé,
popular culture ‘surrounds us the way water surrounds a fish, as a
transparent environment crucial to our survival.’1 Culture can be folk,
popular and elite, but moving away from the Whig view of history of the top
ten percent, social history recognises that no one culture is higher than
another.2 Popular culture includes artefacts and events; it reflects and
shapes beliefs and values and forms the fabric of everyday life. The
1 Jack Nachbar and Kevin Lausé, ‘Getting to know us: An introduction to the study of popular 2 Russell Nye, ‘Notes for an introduction to a discussion of popular culture’, Journal of Popular Culture, Vol.5, 1971, p.1032 and Jack Nachbar and Kevin Lausé, ‘Getting to know us: An introduction to the study of popular culture: What is this stuff that dreams are made of?’, Popular culture: an introductory text, Ohio, 1992, p.16.
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Zeitgeist – the major beliefs and values that describe the outlook or spirit of
a particular culture during a period of time – of the Cold War can be seen by
examining music.3 It is popular because lots of people choose to like it and
when examined, tells us who we were.4 Studying popular culture is a quest
for meaning as it mirrors its audience.5 Popular culture influences the way
we think, then we act, influencing popular culture, which then changes to
reflect us.6 This ever-changing reflection helps to define a zeitgeist.7 As
the “consumers, producers and examiners of popular culture”, we can use
it to ascertain its importance in the Cold War.8
The Cold War lasted forty-five years and was driven by the ideological
differences of the main players: the United States and the Soviet Union.9
With both sides amassing and testing weapons of mass destruction and
convinced that the other should submit to their ideals, the world lived with
the fear of the atomic bomb and nuclear war.10 Russia had been allies with
the West during the Second World War, which although necessary, did not
equate to a trust between them.11 They disagreed over Germany from the
3 Nachbar and Lausé, ‘Getting to know us: An introduction to the study of popular culture: What is this stuff that dreams are made of?’, p.4. 4 Ibid., p.105 Ibid., p.6. 6 Ibid., p.7. 7 Ibid., p.4. 8 Toni Johnson-Woods and Vicki Karaminas, ‘Letter from the editors’, The Australiasian journal of popular culture, Vol.1, No.1, 2012, p.4. 9 Patrick Major and Rana Mitter, ‘East is East and West is West? Towards a comparative socio-cultural history of the Cold War’, Cold War History, Vol.4, No.1, 2006, p.1. 10 Peter Bastian, ‘Truman: the spread of the cold war,1945-1952’, Bearing any burden: the cold war years 1945-1991, Wareemba, 2003, p.41. 11 Bastian, ‘Truman: the spread of the cold war, 1945-1952’, p.25.
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start and the relationship between East and West deteriorated rapidly in
the years following.12 The basic details of cultural identity proved
impossible to overcome and were an underlying role in the onset of the
Cold War. Within a decade, Berlin was being used as a political football by
both sides.13 The 1948 June Blockade, where the Soviets cut off West
Berlin from supplies, resulted in a ten-month airdrop orchestrated by the
United States. The pretense of East – West co-operation in a united
Germany had ended.14 For the West, the 1950s was about Cold War
defensiveness and the desire to maintain the standard way of life, one of
conservatism and uniformity.15 For the East, there was mounting concern
that through West Berlin, Western influence was penetrating the Iron
Curtain.16 The Russians had every reason to be concerned, for this is
exactly what the United States were planning to do and their chosen
medium was music.
Jazz is an example of cultural diplomacy between West and East. US
President Eisenhower sponsored American jazz musicians on a goodwill
tour with the intention of imparting cultural influence. This tour visited
countries that the West was concerned might be tempted to convert to
12 ‘Turning Points: the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall’, ABC NSW, www.soundcloud.com/abcnsw/turning-point-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-with-dr-erin-ihde?in=abcnsw/sets/turning-points, accessed 06 Nov 15. 13 Ibid. 14 Bastian, ‘Truman: the spread of the cold war, 1945-1952’, p.37. 15 Michael Sturma, ‘The Politics of Dancing: When Rock ‘n’ Roll Came to Australia’, Journal of Popular Culture, Vol.25, No.4, 1992, p.125. 16 Unknown, ‘Berlin Situation Easing’, The Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette, 3 April 1959, p.2.
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communism.17 It was a propaganda campaign against the Soviet Union, as
jazz was viewed as free and democratic and, of course, had its origins in
America, which was keen to show that culture and capitalism fitted
together.18 Jazz was seen as the musical enactment of the principles of
American democracy. A number of jazz musicians were black and sending
them overseas as ambassadors of the United States was designed to
portray a message of racial equality. However, despite the positive image
of race relations that America presented to the outside world, it was not
the case at home.19 The Soviets, on the other hand, had a desire to show
that a degree of freedom of expression was permitted in their communist
society and allowed the tours. As popular culture is a way of life, the use of
jazz as an ambassador of capitalism was designed to demonstrate how one
way of life was superior to another.20
A major concern for the West was that its citizens, particularly the youth,
continued to conform to the principles of a conservative society, including
possessing the Western value of sex being only between married couples.
Behaving otherwise would have been an indication that you were not loyal
to your country and therefore at risk of being a communist. It was a time
17 David Carletta, ‘Those white guys are working for me; Dizzy Gillespie, jazz and the cultural politics of the cold war during the Eisenhower administration’, International Social Science Review, Vol.82, pp.3-4. 18 Alex Ross, ‘Brave New World: The Cold War and the Avant Garde of the fifties’, The rest is noise” listening to the twentieth century, New York, 2007, p.400.19 Carletta, ‘Those white guys are working for me; Dizzy Gillespie, jazz and the cultural politics of the cold war during the Eisenhower administration’, pp.3-4. 20 John Rickard, ‘Cultural history: the high and the popular’, Australian cultural history, Surry Hills, 1988, p.178.
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of McCarthyism and everything that deviated from the norm represented a
threat to society.21 Within this context emerged a very persuasive new
form of music: that of rock and roll. Fifties rock and roll was met with both
political and adult disapproval. The youth listening and dancing to it were
said to be delinquent and there was a genuine fear that this music could
undermine capitalism. These so called juvenile delinquents were acting
outside accepted boundaries and with conservative Cold War fears this was
seen as a direct threat to established society. Rock and roll represented
freedom and standing up to parental authority.22 It was a failure to
conform, rebelling against the norm and moral panic about juvenile
delinquency and sexual license was widespread.23 Popular culture can be
said to be what most people choose to do for most of the time and by 1959,
the youth of the United Kingdom were spending eight pounds a week on
consumables, including music.24 Over the course of the decade, a general
acceptance had been formed for the music of rock and roll and it was no
longer regarded as such a threat to national security.25 Rock and roll did
change the Western world though, as it placed music as an integral part in
the popular culture of youth and became for them, a way of expressing
themselves.26 This expression and group participation in concerts and
21 Sturma, ‘The Politics of Dancing: When Rock ‘n’ Roll Came to Australia’, p.125. 22 Ibid., p.129. 23 Ibid., p.137. 24 Juliet Gardiner, From the bomb to the Beatles: the changing face of post-war Britain, 1945-1965, London, 1999, p.145 and Nachbar and Lausé, ‘Getting to know us: An introduction to the study of popular culture: What is this stuff that dreams are made of?’, p.35. 25 Sturma, ‘The Politics of Dancing: When Rock ‘n’ Roll Came to Australia’, p.136.26 Nachbar and Lausé, ‘Getting to know us: An introduction to the study of popular culture: What is this stuff that dreams are made of?’, p.5
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dances paved the way for the active youth engagement of the sixties.27
During the sixties, music changed and started to deal more seriously with
issues that were relevant to the teenagers listening, including civil rights,
sex, drugs and war.28 The Arms Race was continuing, with both sides
increasing their number of bombers and nuclear weapons, all the while
improving and demonstrating their respective capacities. The Cold War
situation had also increased in Germany and so tense was the situation,
that United States President John Kennedy feared the Russians would go
to war over the issues in Berlin, thereby bringing about the globally feared
Mutually Assured Destruction.29 By 1961, three million people had left the
Soviet Union.30 In August of that year, the East erected The Berlin Wall, a
border stretching 155 kilometres, for the express purpose of preventing
those in the East from entering the West.31 It became a symbol, at least for
the West, of people trying to escape the tyranny of communism, with The
Brandenburg Gate representing a division between two ways of life.32 Both
sides accepted that the wall was better than a war, but the tensions did not
27 Sturma, ‘The Politics of Dancing: When Rock ‘n’ Roll Came to Australia’, p.138. 28 Robert A. Rosenstone, ‘”The Times They Are A-Changin’”: The Music of Protest’, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol.382, 1969, p.133. 29 Walter Laqueur, Europe In Our Time: A History 1945-1992, New York, 1992, p.314 and John Lewis Gaddis, ‘Death and Lifeboats’, The Cold War, London, 2005, p.80. 30 Laqueur, Europe In Our Time: A History, 1945-1992, p.113. 31 Berlin Wall Online, www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/index.html, accessed 24 Nov 15. 32 Turning Points: the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, ABC NSW, www.soundcloud.com/abcnsw/turning-point-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-with-dr-erin-ihde?in=abcnsw/sets/turning-points, accessed 06 Nov 15.
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stop.33 The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of
nuclear war, with pressure increasing during the decade.34 The Berlin
Wall became the physical embodiment of the Cold War and while the East
banned Western books, magazines and jammed Western radio, music,
particularly the protest song, had a huge impact on people in the West.35
One of the biggest examples of this was the 1965 Barry McGuire hit ‘Eve of
Destruction’.36 With emotionally charged lyrics about impending disaster
and a music video depicting a junkyard in a destroyed world. This example
of socio-political propaganda argued that the East and West were on the
brink of Mutually Assured Destruction.37 Lines such as “The Eastern
world it is explodin’ / violence flarin’ and bullets loadin’ / you’re old enough
to kill, but not for votin’ / if the button is pushed, there’s no more running
away / they’ll be no one to save, with the world in a grave” and “take a look
around you boy/ bound to scare you boy/ and you tell me over and over and
over again / ah, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction” were
designed to highlight ignorance in the general population.38 Such is the
33 ‘Turning Points: the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, ABC NSW, www.soundcloud.com/abcnsw/turning-point-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-with-dr-erin-ihde?in=abcnsw/sets/turning-points, accessed 06 Nov 15. 34 Laqueur, Europe In Our Time: A History, 1945-1992, p.320. 35 Ibid., p.113. 36 Barry McGuire, Eve of Destruction, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdARD9Qi8w0, accessed 11 Jan 16. 37R. Serge Denisoff and Mark H. Levine, ‘The Popular Protest Song: The Case of “Eve of Destruction”’, The Public Opinion Quartely, Vol.35, No.1, 1971, p.119 and McGuire, Eve of Destruction, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdARD9Qi8w0, accessed 11 Jan 16. 38 McGuire, Eve of Destruction, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdARD9Qi8w0, accessed 11 Jan 16.
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power of music, that conservative radio stations banned the song.39 This
did little to affect sales though, with the song reaching number one in the
charts within weeks and remaining the best selling 45rpm record in the
United States for many more.40 ‘Eve of Destruction’ is an example of music
infiltrating mass popular culture and the fear of nuclear war would go on to
inspire many songwriters.41
While McCarthyism and the rapid anti-communist witch-hunt had seen
folk move underground during the fifties, its revival in the sixties was a
direct reaction to politics.42 The song ‘If I Had A Hammer’ was originally
recorded in the fifties, but was so relevant to the sixties that it was re-
recorded by a number of artists including Johnny Cash, Aretha Franklin,
Martha and the Vandellas, Leonard Nimroy and Peter, Paul and Mary.43
With obvious Soviet undertones of the hammer and sickle in “If I had a
hammer” and lyrics about “singing out a warning”, referring to the
McCarthy witch-hunts, the song proved popular with artist and audiences
and drew the attention of McCarthy.44
War and music are intrinsically linked, but before Vietnam, songs about 39 Rosenstone, ‘”The Times They Are A-Changin’”: The Music of Protest’, p.136. 40 Denisoff and Levine, ‘The Popular Protest Song: The Case of “Eve of Destruction”’, p.119. 41 Jerome L. Rodnitzky, Popular Music As A Radical Influence 1945-1970, 1980, p.5 and Ron Eyerman, ‘Politics and music in the 1960s’, Music and social movements: mobilising traditions in the twentieth century, New York, 1988, p.124. 42 Eyerman, ‘Politics and music in the 1960s’, pp.119-121. 43Peter, Paul and Mary, If I Had A Hammer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTvr79Oe5w8, accessed 11 Jan 16.44Peter, Paul and Mary, If I Had A Hammer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTvr79Oe5w8, accessed 11 Jan 16.
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war tended to champion traditional ideals, praise bravery and military
success and defend nationalism and patriotism.45 The majority of songs
about the Vietnam conflict, by comparison, did not champion war or
fighting for the cause, but questioned government policy.46 Music played a
big part in helping people express their outrage towards the situation they
found themselves in. Just as popular culture can reflect both stability and
change, the sixties saw populations of many countries question the actions
of their government.47 Anti-Vietnam music displayed confusion and
agitation. It asked questions and when those questions were not answered,
lyrical hostility toward war increased.48 The public resonated with the
music they heard and folk songs became part of their culture.49 ‘Universal
Soldier’, recorded in 1964 by Donovan, makes no mention of Vietnam, but
expresses sentiments of anti-war to both East and West, with the soldier
blamed for their willingness to fight, thereby perpetrating war.50 “He’s the
one who gives his body / as a weapon of the war / and without him all this
killing can’t go on”.51 Marches and protests saw group singing and social
bonding and as public sentiment turned against the war in Vietnam, the
45 Lee B. Cooper, ‘Rumours of war: lyrical continuities, 1914-1991’, Continuities in popular culture: the present in the past and the past in the present and future, Ohio, 1993, p.131. 46 Ibid., p.131.47 Nachbar and Lausé, ‘Getting to know us: An introduction to the study of popular culture: What is this stuff that dreams are made of?’, p.5 48 Cooper, ‘Rumours of war: lyrical continuities, 1914-1991’, p.131. 49 Ibid., p.132. 50 David James, ‘The Vietnam War and American Music’, Social Texts, No.23, 1989, p.123 and Donovan, Universal Soldier, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC9pc4U40sI, accessed 11 Jan 16. 51 Ibid.
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power of folk music had a noticeable increase in popular culture.52
Country Joe and the Fish recorded ‘I-feel-like-I’m-fixing-to-die-rag’ in 1967,
which was specifically about Vietnam.53 The song argued that the war was
pointless and that death was inevitable for all those involved. You could be
“the first in your block / to have your boy come home in a box”.54 Uncle
Sam is “in a terrible jam / way down yonder in Vietnam”.55 “And it’s one,
two, three / what are we fighting for / don’t ask me I don’t give a damn /
next stop is Vietnam”.56 The band criticised Wall Street for profiteering
from war “there’s plenty good money to be made / by supplyin’ the army
with the tools of the trade”.57 It placed the listener as the soldier about to
depart for war. 58 “And it’s five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates / Well
there ain’t no time to wonder why, whoopee, we’re all gonna die”.59 Bob
Dylan’s ‘With God On Our Side’ is a finger-pointing song that questions war
and the actions of the past then turns to the Cold War fear of Russians.60
“I’ve learned to hate Russians / all through my whole life / if another war
comes / it’s them we must fight / to hate them and fear them / to run and to 52 James, ‘The Vietnam War and American Music’, pp.129-130. 53 Country Joe and the Fish, Feels-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die-Rag, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W7-ngmO_p8, accessed 11 Jan 16. 54 Ibid. 55 James, ‘The Vietnam War and American Music’, p.123 and Country Joe and the Fish, Feels-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die-Rag, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W7-ngmO_p8, accessed 11 Jan 16. 56 Country Joe and the Fish, Feels-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die-Rag, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W7-ngmO_p8, accessed 11 Jan 16. 57 Ibid.58James, ‘The Vietnam War and American Music’, p.132.59 Country Joe and the Fish, Feels-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die-Rag, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W7-ngmO_p8, accessed 11 Jan 16. 60 Bob Dylan, With God On Our Side, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAgAvnvXF9U, accessed 11 Jan 16.
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hide”.61 His song demonstrates that society has made foolish decisions in
the past, but also, that society is continuing to do so.62 “For you don’t
count the dead / when God’s on your side”.63 “You never ask questions /
when God’s on your side”.64 Dylan finished with what most people by this
time were thinking, “If God is on our side / he’ll stop the next war”.65
‘Masters of War’ was another protest song by Dylan, which was against
those who facilitate and profit from war.66 “You fasten all the triggers / for
others to fire”.67 “You play with my world / like it’s your little toy”.68 The
power of folk music was increasing, as was the anti-war sentiment stirred
up by it. ‘I ain’t marching anymore’ by Phil Ochs was so powerful that
when played at protest rallies, people in the crowd were reported to have
burnt their draft cards.69 Here again, we can see the influence of popular
culture on society. Creedence Clearwater Revival used their ‘Fortunate
Son’ to comment on how the upper echelons of society would make
patriotic statements about the war, but then pulled strings to ensure that
their sons were not drafted, while those of ordinary families were sent
61 Dylan, With God On Our Side, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAgAvnvXF9U, accessed 11 Jan 16. 62 James Dunlop, ‘Through the Eyes of Tom Joad: Patterns of American Idealism, Bob Dylan and the Folk Protest Movement’, Popular Music and Society, Vol.29, No.5, 2006, p.560. 63 Dylan, With God On Our Side, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAgAvnvXF9U, accessed 11 Jan 16. 64 Ibid. 65 Ibid. 66 Bob Dylan, Masters of War, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZyfUlxIujA, accessed 11 Jan 16. 67 Ibid. 68 Ibid. 69 Phil Ochs, I Ain’t Marching Anymore, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rVTBCtYjoY, accessed 11 Jan 16.
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instead.70 Many artists spoke out against the Vietnam War, with The
Beatles’ John Lennon being one of them.71 Lennon would later use his
influence with the public to call on the government to “give peace a
chance”.72
The United States had been using black musicians to demonstrate the
freedoms of democracy and capitalism to the world, yet a decade later the
issues of civil rights were still rearing their head. Bob Dylan’s ‘Oxford
Town’ was a folk protest song about these rights, with lines such as, “He
went down to Oxford Town / guns and clubs followed him down / all
because his face was brown”.73 With ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’, Dylan asks a
series of open ended questions about how long it will take for broadly
defined social changes to occur, such as civil rights.74 “How many roads
must a man walk down / before you call him a man?” and “how many years
can some people exist / before they’re allowed to be free?”75 Dylan was an
integral part of the protest movement, who managed to turn the thoughts
of millions into songs.76 His song ‘Only A Pawn In Their Game’ reflects a
70Creedence Clearwater Revival, Fortunate Son, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec0XKhAHR5I, accessed 11 Jan 16.71 John Platoff, ‘”Revolution” and the Politics of Musical Reception’, The Journal of Musicology, Vol.22, No.2, 2005, p.264. 72 Ibid., p.266. 73 Bob Dylan, Oxford Town, http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/oxford-town, accessed 11 Jan 16. 74 Dunlop, ‘Through the Eyes of Tom Joad: Patterns of American Idealism, Bob Dylan and the Folk Protest Movement’, p.562. 75 Bob Dylan, Blowin’ In The Wind, http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/blowin-wind, accessed 11 Jan 16. 76 C. Bayliss, Mary Oliver and Ivor Hayward, ‘Why Barry bugged Bob in the sixties’, Daily Mail, No.33261, London, 2003, p.60.
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belief that the old leadership can no longer be trusted.77 Music portrayed
what was on the minds of youth and reached out to them; no protest was
complete without music.78
The sixties was a decade of change and popular culture reflected this in
song. The Beatles were the most influential pop group of the sixties and
their song ‘Revolution’ was both political and controversial.79 “You say
you want a revolution / well, you know / we all want to change the
world”.80 The Beatles also released the hit song ‘Back in the USSR’, which
was a lighthearted, upbeat song intended to humanise those living behind
the Iron Curtain.81 The Rolling Stones were almost as popular as The
Beatles, but more political. So much so, that the band members were
targeted in politically motivated drug busts.82 Their song ‘Street Fighting
Man’ was banned in certain parts of the United States for fears it would
incite violence.83 The Rolling Stones did not like the generation who were
running things. ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’ was a call for change. “And
the man comes on the radio / and he’s telling me more and more / about
77 Dunlop, ‘Through the Eyes of Tom Joad: Patterns of American Idealism, Bob Dylan and the Folk Protest Movement’, p.564 and Bob Dylan, Only A Pawn In Their Game, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXWM84rUV-Q, accessed 11 Jan 16. 78 Rodnitzky, The Evolution of the American Protest Song, p.42 79 Gardiner, From the bomb to the Beatles: the changing face of post-war Britain, 1945-1965, p.149 and Platoff, ‘”Revolution” and the Politics of Musical Reception’, p.241. 80 The Beatles, Revolution, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGLGzRXY5Bw, accessed 11 Jan 16.81The Beatles, Back in the USSR, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHD5nd3QLTg, accessed 11 Jan 16.82 Platoff, ‘”Revolution” and the Politics of Musical Reception’, p.255. 83 Platoff, ‘”Revolution” and the Politics of Musical Reception’, p.261 and The Rolling Stones, Street Fighting Man, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFvtMp7hRF8, accessed 11 Jan 16.
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some useless information”.84 The lyrics were about dissatisfaction with the
status quo.85 Despite being banned in some areas, ‘Satisfaction’ reached
number one in the charts and came to embody the same sentiments as folk
and protest songs.86
Music was seen as essential to the expression of society’s views on class,
gender, race and war.87 It helped convey the message that people would no
longer meekly accept the way society was heading.88 People were against
racism, war and conformity and music mirrored their concerns and
brought their issues to the masses.89 Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are A-
Changin’’ is call to rebel against authority. “And don’t you criticize / what
you don’t understand / your sons and your daughters / are beyond your
command / your old road is rapidly agin’ / please get out of the new one it
you can’t lend your hand / for the times they are a-changin’”.90 In his
finger-pointing songs, Dylan directed the frustrations and dissatisfactions
of the generation and called for change.91 Dylan was connected to folk
music to such an extent, that in 1965 when he introduced electric music at
the Newport Folk Festival, the audience were shocked and booed him from
84 The Rolling Stones, Satisfaction, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoxRFOr_sQ0, accessed 11 Jan 15. 85 Rosenstone, ‘”The Times They Are A-Changin’”: The Music of Protest’, p.142. 86 Jack Doyle, “… No Satisfaction, 1965-1966”, www.pophistory.com/topics/stones-no-satisfaction_1965-1966/, accessed 09 Dec 15. 87 Eyerman, ‘Politics and music in the 1960s’, p.113. 88 Rodnitsky, The Evolution of the American Protest Song, p.42. 89 Ibid. 90 Dylan, The Times They Are A Changin’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6_RV4VQ, accessed 11 Jan 16. 91 Eyerman, ‘Politics and music in the 1960s’, p.125.
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the stage, one person even calling him Judas. 92
Music reflected the issues, beliefs and values of a culture.93 The popular
music of the sixties was politically charged and aimed at the under thirties,
who had cultural and political self-awareness.94 Popular music was
instrumental in the transformation of American and global culture and
helped the youth to define their own subculture.95 Popular music put the
spotlight on social issues and in doing so, changed a generation.96 As the
sixties came to a close and the seventies began, the Cold War went on and
popular music became more and more linked to the radicalisation of
youth.97 Protest songs and their messages infiltrated mass culture and
were used for political agitation.98 The guitar had become a symbol of
social protest and the protest song had changed to something that was
pervasive, technologically vivid, with the ability to drastically influence
the opinions of the youth.99 It was a time when strong anti-communist
leaders Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher came to power and the
Soviet invasion of Afganistan. When the Sex Pistols sang that there was
92 James, ‘The Vietnam War and American Music’, p.132. 93 Nachbar and Lausé, ‘Getting to know us: An introduction to the study of popular culture: What is this stuff that dreams are made of?’, p.4. 94 Eyerman, ‘Politics and music in the 1960s’, pp.109-110.95 Eyerman, ‘Politics and music in the 1960s’, Music and social movements: mobilising traditions in the twentieth century, New York, 1988, p.106 and Rosenstone, ‘”The Times They Are A-Changin’”: The Music of Protest’, p.131. 96 Eyerman, ‘Politics and music in the 1960s’, p.138. 97 Rodnitzky, ‘Popular music as a radical influence, 1945-1970’, p.5. 98 Ibid. 99 Ibid.
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“no future” in ‘God Save The Queen’, people readily believed it.100
Opposition to the Vietnam War continued in the seventies. Crosby, Stills,
Nash and Young’s ‘Ohio’ was a protest song about the shooting of four
students at the Kent State University in 1970.101 The students had been
protesting America’s involvement in the Vietnam War when the National
Guard opened fire on them. The refrain, ‘four dead in O-hi-o’ captured the
frustration and anger of a generation.102 Such was the influence of the
song and the power of music that AM radio refused to play it because of its
anti-war sentiment.103 FM played it as part of its underground music
scene and it remained in the top forty for seven weeks.104 Just as Vietnam
War issues continued, so did the use of jazz music for cultural diplomacy.
In 1971, at the behest of Richard Nixon, musician Duke Ellington went on
tour in Eastern Europe. The tour was hailed as a success and assisted
bringing about new cultural exchanges between the Soviet Union and the
Unites States.105 The Moscow correspondent of The Chicago Tribune wrote
at the time, ‘Ellington’s arrival was being seen as a big shot in the arm for
100 Worley, ‘One nation under the bomb: the cold war and British punk to 1984’, p.75 and Sex Pistols, No Future (God Save The Queen), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaHhxRGYjFA, accessed 11 Jan 15. 101 Jack Doyle, “Four Dead in O-hi-o”, www.pophistory.com/topics/kent-state-shootings/, accessed 09 Dec 15 and song (find reference) 102 Doyle, “Four Dead in O-hi-o”, www.pophistory.com/topics/kent-state-shootings/, accessed 09 Dec 15 and Neil Young, Ohio, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI1gcH2XCEw, accessed 11 Jan 16. 103 Doyle, “Four Dead in O-hi-o”, www.pophistory.com/topics/kent-state-shootings/, accessed 09 Dec 16. 104 Ibid.105 Harvey G. Cohen, ‘Visions of Freedom: Duke Ellington in the Soviet Union’, Popular Music, Vol.30, No.3, 2011, p.298.
17
the cultural exchange program… which served as one barometer of the
overall state of Soviet-American relations’.106 Music was therefore being
used to gauge Cold War attitudes on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The
American protests of the fifties and sixties over money being spent on jazz
musicians was no longer an issue, jazz was a worthy ambassador to the
United States and Western democracy.107
Artists continued with their opposition of The Berlin Wall, with David
Bowie’s song ‘Heroes’ being an example of this.108 The use of popular
music to both define and gauge the mood of the youth continued in the
eighties, with British youth displaying more concern and pessimism than
their American counterparts.109 The ‘cool’ period of the Cold War had
come to an end by the close of the seventies, with the very real possibility
of nuclear war once again on the geopolitical agenda.110 Popular music had
continued to be the medium of social change and cultural diplomacy
though, with Western artists regularly touring the Eastern Bloc.111
However, it was the punk movement of the late seventies to early eighties
that would cast the greatest shadow over society by reflecting the angst
felt by eighties youth against the politics ‘that provoked and sustained the
106 Cohen, ‘Visions of Freedom: Duke Ellington in the Soviet Union’, p.297. 107 Ibid. p.310. 108David Bowie, Heroes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgcc5V9Hu3g, accessed 11 Jan 16.109 Stephen Holden, ‘Critics Notebook; Rock Music, or Songs On The End of the World, The New York Times, 17 January 1985, p.16. 110 Worley, ‘One nation under the bomb: the cold war and British punk to 1984’, p.67. 111 Major & Mitter, ‘East is East and West is West? Towards a comparative socio-cultural history of the Cold War’, p.14.
18
Cold War’.112
The punk movement appealed to both the left and right wings of Western
politics. The left saw punk as an outlet for dissent against capitalism, while
the far right appreciated its anti-establishment motifs.113 Punk engaged
with the world and sought to express the opinions of everyday people,
becoming a core outlet for the expression of Cold War concerns.114 Punk
can be used to assess how a large proportion of youth understood and
responded to the cultural implications of the Cold War.115 The youth of the
late seventies to early eighties were a generation who grew up under the
shadow of the bomb, and the fears and anti-establishment mentalities they
depict through punk, can be used to demonstrate the fears of wider
society.116 The punk movement attacked the established social order.117 It
produced record sleeves featuring bombs dropping and dead children.118
The Clash’s ‘London Calling’ seems to be referring to a news broadcast.
“London calling to the faraway towns / London calling at the top of the dial
/ the ice age is coming”.119 This is a direct link to Cold War fears.
112 Worley, ‘One nation under the bomb: the cold war and British punk to 1984’, p.78. 113 Matthew Worley, ‘Shot By Both Sides: Punk, Politics and the End of Consenses’, Contemporary British History, Vol.26, No.3, 2012, pp.340-342.114 Ibid., p.344. 115 Worley, ‘One nation under the bomb: the cold war and British punk to 1984’, p.66. 116 Ibid., p.68. 117 Simon Steggels, ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained: Midnight Oil and the politics of rock’, From pop to punk to postmodernism: popular music and Australian culture from the 1960s to the 1990s, Sydney, 1992, p.140. 118 Worley, ‘One nation under the bomb: the cold war and British punk to 1984’, p.66. 119 The Clash, London Calling, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfK-WX2pa8c, accessed 11 Jan 16.
19
“Meltdown expected / London calling to the zombies of death”.120 Sex
Pistols were another punk band that railed against society and the plight of
the common man.121 Their song ‘Holidays In The Sun’ references the
Berlin Wall and the seeming absurdity of it all.122 Sex Pistols, like The
Clash, used music to fight the establishment and reflect the anxieties that
existed as the backdrop to their world.123 Cold War tensions were
portrayed in punk, where music was used as a platform to reveal the truth.
It claimed to represent ‘the sounds of the street’ and engaged with the
world around it.124 The Jam’s record ‘Going Underground’, uses oblique
references to nuclear war. “You want more money / of course I don’t mind
/ to buy nuclear textbooks / for atomic crimes”.125 Here too, we see how
the study of popular culture can demonstrate the impact of the Cold War
on the thoughts and actions of ordinary society.126
The threat of nuclear war continued to be of great importance in the
eighties. The Police, U2, Culture Club and Frankie Goes to Hollywood all
120 The Clash, London Calling, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfK-WX2pa8c, accessed 11 Jan 15. 121 Worley, ‘One nation under the bomb: the cold war and British punk to 1984’, p.68. 122 Sex Pistols, Holiday In The Sun’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ah1JM9mf60, accessed 11 Jan 16. 123 Worley, ‘Shot By Both Sides: Punk, Politics and the End of Consenses’, p.333. 124 Worley, ‘One nation under the bomb: the cold war and British punk to 1984’, p.70. 125The Jam, Going Underground, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE1ct5yEuVY, accessed 11 Jan 16.126 Ray Browne, ‘Conversations with Scholars of American Popular Culture’, Americana: The Journal of Popular Culture, 1900 to Present, 2012, http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2002/browne.htm, accessed 28 Jan 11.
20
had nuclear messages in their music.127 Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ displayed
an oblivious attitude, with lyrics such as, “The end is near and there’s
nothing we can do about it, so let’s have fun”.128 Sting’s song ‘Russians’
was a deeply political message about the recklessness of launching a
nuclear strike.129 The song drew on Cold War rhetoric of Mutually Assured
Destruction and brought attention to the fact that, in the end, we are all
the same. “We share the same biology / regardless of ideology”.130 In a
time where tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union were
high, with Europe caught in the middle, Sting made a simple statement: “I
hope the Russians love their children too”.131 The song was well received
around the world, reaching number two in the charts in France, with over
half a million copies sold and in the top twenty of the United Kingdom and
United States.132 Other songs that expressed exasperation over the
situation include Kate Bush’s ‘Breathing’, about surviving an atomic
bomb,133 ‘Dancing With Tears In My Eyes’, a song about the distress of an
127 Stephen Holden, ‘Critics Notebook; Rock Music, or Songs On The End of the World, The New York Times, 17 January 1985, p.16. 128 Holden, ‘Critics Notebook; Rock Music, or Songs On The End of the World, p.16 & Prince, Purple Rain, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLsv2q1LIo4, accessed 11 Jan 16. 129 Jack Doyle, “Sting: ‘Russians’, 1985”, 2009, www.pophistory.com/topics-sting-russians-1985, accessed 09 Dec 15 and Sting, Russians, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHylQRVN2Qs, accessed 11 Jan 16. 130 Sting, Russians, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHylQRVN2Qs, accessed 11 Jan 15. 131 Doyle, “Sting: ‘Russians’, 1985”, 2009, www.pophistory.com/topics-sting-russians-1985, accessed 09 Dec 15 and Sting, Russians, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHylQRVN2Qs, accessed 11 Jan 16. 132 Doyle, “Sting: ‘Russians’, 1985”, 2009, www.pophistory.com/topics-sting-russians-1985, accessed 09 Dec 15. 133Kate Bush, Breathing, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzlofSthVwc, accessed 11 Jan 16.
21
incoming nuclear attack and the satirical ‘Christmas At Ground Zero’.134
Music videos from the eighties impart messages just as much as the songs
do. In ‘Two Tribes’ by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Ronald Reagan and
Konstantin Chernenko are depicted fighting in a boxing ring, with the
spectators eventually joining in and destroying everything.135 ‘Two Tribes’
held the number one spot in Britain for nine weeks.136 Nena’s ’99
Luftballoons’ was about accidentally mistaking balloons for missiles and
the conflict that ensued.137 The song mockingly suggested that releasing
99 balloons into the German sky in the mid-eighties could be enough to
trigger a nuclear war. But this was just the case at the time, which again
demonstrates how the study of a zeitgeist can reveal much more than just
what was popular.138
The Glastonbury Festival was a political music event linked to the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. During the eighties, it took on a new
life, with big bands practically donating their time for the fundraising
cause. Midnight Oil was a band that concentrated on social change and
formed at a time where in Australia, troops were being withdrawn from
Vietnam, there were anti-apartheid protests on the back of the Springbok
134Ultravox, Dancing With Tears In My Eyes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ_OetMwdPs, accessed 11 Jan 16 and Weird Al, Christmas At Ground Zero, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t039p6xqutU, accessed 11 Jan 16.135 Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Two Tribes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXWVpcypf0w, accessed 11 Jan 15. 136 Worley, ‘One nation under the bomb: the cold war and British punk to 1984’, p.68. 137 Nena, 99 Lutfballoons, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lur-SGl3uw8, accessed 11 Jan 15.138 Nachbar and Lausé, ‘Getting to know us: An introduction to the study of popular culture: What is this stuff that dreams are made of?’, p.5
22
rugby tour, the women’s movement was gaining momentum and Prime
Minister Whitlam was introducing radical political changes.139 Where The
Clash pushed back against the establishment, Midnight Oil sought change
from within.140 They were strongly linked to the Green movement and
their concerts seemed like political rallies. 141 Their 1982 album
‘10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1’ was a countdown with the direct link to nuclear
war.142 Their Stop the Drop concert in 1983 was a fundraiser for the
People for Nuclear Disarmament and they later performed in London with
proceeds going to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.143 In 1984 they
released their album ‘Red Sails In The Sunset’, which featured an album
cover of the iconic Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge
surrounded by bomb craters and red dust.144 One of the songs on this
album, ‘Minutes to Midnight’, was a direct reference to the Doomsday
Clock.145 Midnight Oil’s lead singer, Peter Garrett, was a New South Wales
senate candidate for the Australian Nuclear Disarmament Party in the
same year as Red Sails In The Sunset was released, which contributed to
the success of the party.146 The party were accused of failing to declare the
political messages of Midnight Oil’s songs as donations. Such was the 139 Steggels, ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained: Midnight Oil and the politics of rock’, p.140. 140 Ibid. 141 Ibid., p.141. 142Midnight Oil, 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3-yHdr8VwU, accessed 11 Jan 16.143 Steggels, ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained: Midnight Oil and the politics of rock’, p.141. 144Midnight Oil, Red Sails In The Sunset, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-0icQQZ-6g, accessed 11 Jan 16 and The Authentic History Centre: Primary Sources from American Popular Culture, www.authentichistory.com, accessed 09 Dec 15.145Midnight Oil, Minutes to Midnight, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-0icQQZ-6g, accessed 11 Jan 16.146 Steggels, ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained: Midnight Oil and the politics of rock’, p.141.
23
power of music, that the Australian Electoral Commission was tasked with
assigning a value to the ‘pop star candidacy phenomenon’.147 1985 saw
Garrett berating the hypocritical foreign policies of the Reagan and Hawke
governments in front of 15,000 Adelaide festival attendees.148 Despite
being first and foremost a rock group, ‘entertainment is the medium
through which their protest is voiced’.149
It was no coincidence that so much activity was taking place in the
eighties. It was very much a time of renewed concern and music reflected
that. Jazz again played an important part in the relationship between East
and West. The Brubeck Quartet, who had toured Eastern Europe on behalf
of the United States in the fifties, were invited to play in Moscow at the
1988 summit meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev.150 Although
controversial at first, jazz had come to be regarded as a sophisticated
American art form and the fact that officials from the Soviet government
were free to enjoy it and express approval was evidence of change in the
relations between East and West. 151
Meanwhile, music had been seeping into Eastern Europe. West Berlin
organised a three-day concert to mark Berlin’s 750th anniversary and
147 Steggels, ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained: Midnight Oil and the politics of rock’, p.142.148 Ibid. 149 Ibid., p.144. 150 Stephen A. Crist, ‘Jazz as Democracy? Dave Brubeck and Cold War Politics’, The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 26, No.2, 2009, p.137. 151 Ibid.
24
headlined David Bowie, Eurythmics and Genesis. “On the other side of the
wall, hundreds of young East Berliners climbed trees, clambered up
chimneys and packed onto balconies to get a glimpse of their Western
idols”.152 Some even danced in front of the Soviet embassy, prompting
clashes with police. There were chants that the Wall must go, another
example of the massive effect of music on the people.153 In November
1989 The Berlin Wall, the physical embodiment of the Cold War, was pulled
down by the power of the people and shortly after Russia’s communist
party dissolved, breaking up the Soviet Union.154 The Cold War was over.
The 17th century Englishman Jeremy Collier said that music was “almost
as dangerous as gunpowder” and might require “looking after no less than
the press”.155 Critics have long feared the power of music and its ability to
lead a group of people by shaping and influencing thoughts and actions.
Both East and West knew the power of music as a political vehicle.156 The
Soviet Union used censorship, imprisonment and exile to reduce its
impact.157 It is impossible to separate Cold War-era music from the politics
152 Dominic Sandbrook, ‘How pop culture helped win the Cold War’, The Telgraph, 12 November 2013, www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10441108/How-pop-culture-helped-win-the-Cold-War.html, accessed 24 Dec 15. 153 Ibid.154 Jack F. Matlock, ‘What then?’, Reagan and Gorbachev: how the Cold War Ended, New York, 2004, p.316.155 Jeremy Collier, A Short View of Immortality and the Profanes of the English state, London, 1698, intro. 156 John Street, ‘Rock, pop and politics’, The Cambridge companion to pop and rock, 2001, p.247. 157 Ibid., p.252.
25
of the day.158 Music about the Atomic bomb had started as soon as the first
one was dropped, with songs such as Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup’s ‘I’m Gonna
Dig Myself A Hole’ dominating the airwaves as early as 1951.159 Music
surrounding the issues of the Cold War continued, with artists as varied as
Iron Maiden, Billy Joel and Marvin Gaye participating.160 The threat of
nuclear war manifested itself in the popular culture music of the Cold
War.161 Popular music was able to influence the manner of people’s
thinking.162 It is so recognisable for explaining the ideas of an era that it is
used in films, adverts and documentaries to easily define what the viewer
is watching.163
The study of popular culture can tell us practically everything about a
period of time. The study of music is particularly compelling and with the
two together, we can better understand how ordinary people perceived the
events of the Cold War. Music inspires passion, captures dreams and can
also shape times rather than just reflect them, as evident in the pro- and
anti-war songs of the Vietnam era. The changing sociopolitical and
geopolitical environment of the Cold War was reflected in the music. The
158 Peter J. Schmelz, ‘Introduction: Music in the Cold War’, The Journal of Musicology, Vol.26, No.1, 2009, p.12. 159Arthur Crudup, I’m Gonna Dig Myself A Hole, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb4UQDzJTPU, accessed 11 Jan 16.160 Nachbar and Lausé, ‘Getting to know us: An introduction to the study of popular culture: What is this stuff that dreams are made of?’, p.5 161 Worley, ‘One nation under the bomb: the cold war and British punk to 1984’, p.67. 162 Street, ‘Rock, pop and politics’, p.243. 163 Ibid., p.245.
26
Cold War conflict dominated the 20th century and the Cold War messages
in songs increased and decreased as tensions rose and fell. By careful
examination of the popular music created during an era, we can gain an
understanding of the issues and concerns people living through the period
were also thinking. When it comes to the Cold War, music was shaped by
the politics of the day.
27
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