Role Of Music In World War II

World War II was the first conflict to take place in the age of electronically mass distributed music.

Many people in the war had a pressing need to be able to listen to the radio and 78-rpm shellac records en masse. By 1940, 96.2% of Northeastern American urban households had radio. The lowest American demographic to embrace mass distributed music, Southern rural families, still had 1 radio for every two households.

Similar adoption rates of mass distribution of music occurred in Europe. During the Nazi rule, radio ownership in Germany rose from 4 to 16 million households. As the major powers entered the war, millions of citizens had home radio devices that did not exist in the First World War.

Therefore, World War II was a unique situation for music and its relationship to warfare. Never before was it possible for not only single songs but also single recordings of songs to be so widely distributed to the population. Never before had the number of listeners to a single performance (a recording or broadcast production) been so high. Also, never before had states had so much power to determine not only what songs were performed and listened to, but to control the recordings not allowing local people to alter the songs in their own performances. Though local people still sang and produced songs, this form of music faced serious new competition from centralized electronic distributed music.

German English song

"Lili Marlene" was the most popular song of World War II with both German and British forces. Based on a German poem, the song was recorded in both English and German versions. The poem was set to music in 1938 and was a hit with troops in the Afrika Korps. Mobile desert combat required a large number of radio units and the British troops in the North African Campaign started to enjoy the song so much that it was quickly translated into English. The song was used throughout the war as a propaganda tool.

American music

American troops had regular access to radio in all but the most difficult combat situations, and not only did soldiers know specific songs, but specific recordings. This gave a nature to American troops' music during WWII, not as many songs sung around a fire or while marching, but listened to between combat on Armed Forces Radio.

* " Amor" - Andy Russell with Al Sack & His Orchestra (1944)
* "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive" - Johnny Mercer (1944)
* "Bésame Mucho" - Andy Russell with Al Sack & His Orchestra
* " Be Careful, It's My Heart" - Composer: Irving Berlin - From: Movie ''Holiday Inn'' (1942)
* "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" - Andrews Sisters (1941)"
* "Comin' In on a Wing and a Prayer" - The Song Spinners
* "Der Fuehrer's Face" - Spike Jones and his City Slickers (1943)
* "Remember Pearl Harbor" - Sammy Kaye (1942)
* " Don't Fence Me In" - Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters (Cover)
* "Don't Get Around Much Anymore (Never No Lament)" - Duke Ellington & His Orchestra
* " Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree (With Anyone Else But Me)" - Composer: Lew Brown, Sam H. Stept, and Charlie Tobias (1942)
* "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" - Composer: Cole Porter - From: musical '' Seven Lively Arts'' (1944)
* " G.I. Jive" - Johnny Mercer
* " I Don't Want To Walk Without You" - Harry James & His Orchestra Composer: Frank Loesser and Jule Styne - From: Movie '' Sweater Girl'' (1942), performed by Betty Jane Rhodes
* "I Wonder" - Louis Armstrong
* I'll Be Seeing You - The Ink Spots/ Bing Crosby Words by Irving Kahal, music by Sammy Fain
* "I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You)" - Ink Spots
* "I'll Walk Alone" - Martha Tilton
* "It's Been A Long, Long Time" - Harry James & His Orchestra
* "Long Ago (And Far Away)" - Jo Stafford Composer: Ira Gershwin and Jerome Kern - From: musical ''Cover Girl'' (1944)
* "Kiss the Boys Goodbye" - Composer: Frank Loesser and Victor Schertzinger - From: movie ''Kiss the Boys Goodbye'' (1941)
* "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" - Composer: Frank Loesser (1942)
* " Sentimental Journey" - Les Brown & His Orchestra; Composer: Bud Green, Les Brown, and Ben Homer – (1944)
* " (There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover" - Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra (1942)
* "Till Then" - Mills Brothers
* "Waitin' For The Train To Come In" - Peggy Lee
* "What a Diff'rence a Day Made" - Andy Russell with Paul Weston & His Orchestra (1944)
* "When The Lights Go On Again (All Over The World)" - Vaughn Monroe & His Orchestra (1943)
* You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To - Composer: Cole Porter - From: musical ''Something to Shout About'' – (1943)
* "Yours" - Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra

In a nod to the special services and sacrifices the troops were making both overseas as well as domestically, many of these songs were specially re-recorded by their original artists for a Department of Defense musical and morale mission entitled V-Discs for the exclusive consumption by military personnel, similar to Armed Forces Radio.

As the United States was able to utilize the exponential growth of the technological age to compose music for various reasons, in '' Sounds of War: Music in the United States during World War II'', it is made clear that music composed had various purposes, but more importantly, it mentions the tension that grew between institutions in order to find the right way to use music for U.S overall interest. Examples can be seen throughout the different types of songs being produced and publicized during this time. Songs like '' I'll Be Seeing You'' (1938) and ''Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition'' (1942) were songs that kept the citizens back in the U.S calm and hopeful for the return of their loved ones. On the other hand, these songs had other effects on the soldiers fighting abroad. For them, songs like these brought nostalgia and homesickness.

With the war brewing through the 1940s, other initiatives to help the soldiers continue fighting arose. With drafting numbers reaching close to 500,000, the Army along with other Defense institutions began to make military bands which would serve the purpose of boosting morale in the home front, while at the same time keeping patriotism and nationalism at an all-time high. The first patriotic war song of WWII in the U.S. was "''God Bless America''," written by Irving Berlin for a World War I wartime revue, but was withheld and later revised and used in World War II. There were many other patriotic wartime songs during this time such as, "''A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square''" by Glenn Miller and "Arms for the Love of America" by once again Irving Berlin in 1941.

After the successful incorporation of music into the war efforts, more was needed in order to keep hopes alive and stable both back in the U.S and in the Home Front. At various times music was used as a tool for battle in the war, whether it was to entertain or to recuperate the soldiers during the war., More importantly, was the impact that the music during the 1940s had on the people then and the effect that it continues to have now. Sounds of War: Music in the United States during World War II argues that music composed during the 1940s was unlike any other time of music because of its emphasis on making the listener feel like they are part of the war or if they are somewhere else. It adds that songs from World War II continue to be used today in order to remember those harsh times of war and to remind everyone of what the cost of liberty and freedom was. Some examples of this would include Aaron Copland's "''Fanfare for the Common Man''" (1942) and "''Lincoln Portrait''" (1942). These are still being played for presidential inaugurations and continue to have the effect of "loss for freedom".

During the 1940s the United States State Department also encouraged the mutual exchange of music on the radio with the neutral countries of Latin America in order to promote President Franklin Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy and Pan-Americanism. Through the establishment of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OIAA), President Roosevelt utilized music as a form of cultural diplomacy in order to improve international relations with Latin America and forestall the spread of military hostilities throughout the Americas.Media Sound & Culture in Latin America. Editors: Bronfman, Alejanda & Wood, Andrew Grant. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 2012, Pgs. 41-54
books.google.com See Pgs. 41-54
/ref>''Dissonant Divas in Chicana Music: The Limits of La Onda''
Deborah R. Vargas. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2012 p. 152-158 FDR's Good Neighbor Policy, CBS, Viva America and Eva Garza on google.books.com Professional musicians and composers from both North and South America were invited to concertize together on radio shows such as '' Viva América'' in support of these efforts. Included among these musicians were: Alfredo Antonini, Juan Arvizu, Nestor Mesta Chayres, Eva Garza, Elsa Miranda, Miguel Sandoval, John Serry Sr. and Terig Tucci.

In the years immediately after World War II, the United States Army continued to utilize music as form of cultural diplomacy amidst the ruins of western Europe. In 1952, the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra was established under the musical direction of the composer Samuel Adler in an effort to demonstrate the shared musical heritage of the United States and the vanquished nations of Europe. Through a series of live musical performances and broadcasts over the Armed Forces Radio Services network, the orchestra successfully promoted mutual understanding and peace between the German and American people for a decade until 1962.

The number of concerts greatly increased along with the incorporation of women and African American musicians into military bands and groups. Whether women were incorporated because of sexual attraction or actual acceptance by the institutions is still not very clear, what is clear is that groups were now mixed sexes and some even mixed races in an era of sexism and racism. This goes to show that the role of music not only had effects in the international sphere but in the domestic as well.

Japanese music

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Music in the Democratic Allies

What is remarkable about the efforts in the UK and the USA during World War II is the degree to which the desires of most people were in line with that of the leaders. This meant the American and British government could count on popular music reflecting much of the same war aims that the government wanted. American people wanted a quick final victory over the Axis without compromise and the songs about a world after the war at peace with the boys coming home not only meet the personal desires of people but also reflected the goals of US government. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had always been motivated for a quick end to the war.

This unity of private and state desire likely gave the UK and the USA a degree of energy that allowed the nations to accomplish a great deal more at less human cost than the other major powers in the war. The mass suffering at the hands of the governments was not necessary as it was in Germany.

British popular music and the BBC

During the war, the BBC
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