Rhetoric in Protest Music - Case Study Example

A Vietnamese gun boat was rumored to have attacked an American ship. The resolution allowed the United States a carte blanche to invade Viet Nam. For the better part of 16 years, the North Vietnamese Viet Cong fought against South Viet Nam in a bloody battle that claimed roughly six million Asian lives, and 59,000 American lives.1 Although one cannot compare tragedies, Viet Nam was the Holocaust of Asia. The music that encompassed this era was naturally going to be very anti-war. As young men from the countryside, poorer whites, and minorities got shipped off to war in Viet Nam, people in Congress and in Washington sat around and debated and had moral quibbles about whether or not the U.S. should have been in the war in the first place.

One rock band which was "most widely known for musical protests against the Viet Nam War"2 was Country Joe and the Fish. There were riches in a mountain, and one of the peoples talked about sharing the riches. The other people, however, took the mountain by force and found a message in lieu of riches that said "Peace on Earth." However, by this time the invading people had "destroyed the treasure in pursuit of it."5 There was another protest song, called "Universal Soldier," written by Canadian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie.

6 This song was essentially about how people have personal responsibility for war and how fighting hurts everyone. Another protest song, "Eve of Dest. There were riches in a mountain, and one of the peoples talked about sharing the riches. The other people, however, took the mountain by force and found a message in lieu of riches that said "Peace on Earth." However, by this time the invading people had "destroyed the treasure in pursuit of it."5There was another protest song, called "Universal Soldier," written by Canadian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie.

6 This song was essentially about how people have personal responsibility for war and how fighting hurts everyone. Yet another protest song, written by folk singer Bob Dylan, is entitled "Blowin' in the Wind."7 The song asks many deep questions, basically all about "peace, war, and freedom."8Another protest song, "Eve of Destruction," is a protest song written by P.F. Sloan in 1965.9 The song has to do with the end of the world. It represented the feelings that people had during the Viet Nam war era, in terms of what the United States was facing on a daily basis, seeing their youth be ground to bits in a senseless land war in Asia.

One of the most frequently used lines today from the song is "You're old enough to kill, but not for votin'," which "refer[red] to the fact that in the United States, men were subject to the draft at age 18, while at that time the minimum voting age (in all but four states) was 21. Additionally, "The song makes reference to Selma, Alabama, where Bloody Sunday took place'According to Sloan, the lyric 'The pounding of the drums the pride and disgrace' relates to the Kennedy assassination.

"10 The song "If I Had a Hammer" was written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays.11 Written in 1949, this song did not have enormous popularity when it was first released. Rather, it was recorded 10