Assignment 1-3 Journal Analysis

"The Songs That Fought the War: Popular Music and the Home Front, 1939-1945."

In this article, “The Songs That Fought the War,” the songs that fought World War II were songs from the hearts of song writers. They wrote songs about the soldiers who fought, and songs of lonely girlfriend's and wife left behind. John Bush Jones, a retired Theater Arts Professor collected some 1,700 songs about the war. Songs were found on sheet music, from movies, in war time songs, and musicals.

This article tells that in 1942, the American Federation of Musicians declared a strike and recording ban, which came in the middle of the war. It didn't stop songs from being introduced by Tin Pan Alley writers. The effects of the Cold War, and the years following the War were uncertain times. Jones realized that in WWI there was a favorite song “Over There”, yet in WWII there was an enormous collection of good songs. In the article, it is said that Jones gave examples of songs from different nationalities, and women also.

The audiences of Americans, of the 1940s were the judges of which songs would be popular. Patriot songs were written like "God Bless America" in 1938, and songs were written about the different branches of armed forces, and the songs written for F.D.R… John Bush Jones was said to think that the sentiments of war songs being written were not necessarily mushy and sentimental, but supportive of the American soldier. The Office of War Information was not in agreement, and their argument was the fear of the moral of the soldiers would be compromised with the songs. The belief was that the music would lower the will of the soldiers, sadden the girls left at home, and just lower American morale period. This did not turn out to be true, because personalizing the war gave the troops more fighting power and a reason to fight.

There are words used in the article which give you a sense of the world of that time. Terms like “engraved on his consciousness”, meaning that the songs of the war were memorized by john Bush Jones. He had grown up as a small boy hearing some of them. More wording which caught my attention were, “the music industry looked like stony soil for music sale” which didn’t mean times were good for the industry. The American public had an “insatiable appetite” for new songs. This would explain the numerous songs written, as two thousand new war songs were written. This Jones thought influence the American Home Front culture.

Although, several different groups tried to discourage the efforts of the song writers, and to stop the production of new war songs the writers would not be influenced. They were good Americans from what I got out of the article. The people of America whether they were fighting in the war or on the home front for their rights they all had the same feeling about the need, for the songs that fought the war.

I believe that the article was well organized, and gave details about the songs of the war, and how the right to write the music was tested. The article followed a time line I believe with out jumping around. The article was ok to read, but maybe breaking it down in to more paragraphs would have given it a better flow. The key idea in the article which I have gotten, is as Americans we have the right to speech and music is a part of that freedom, so no organizations should be able to stop us.

References

(2006). The Songs That Fought the War: Popular Music and the Home Front, 1939-1945, 560-561.