Music's impact on WW1

      American music during the World War 1 era inspired many people. Music gave people hope and provided perseverance that maybe it would all be ending soon and loved ones fighting in the war would be safe. Without music, the war probably would have been more horrifying than it already was!

      During WW1, there were many different genres of music. Some main themes of music were: "Patriotic Americans Fighting Across the Foam"; "The Life of the soldier, on and off the Battlefield"; "Love During Wartime"; "The Fight Viewed from the Home Front"; "War Perpetuates the Status Quo"; and" Remembering the Troops". For example the very famous song "Over there" which was a hit tune in 1917, gave a good insight as to what the war was like. The lyrics say, "prepare, say a prayer, send the word, send the word to beware/we'll be over, we're coming over, and we won't be back til it's over there." It is clearly shown to me by the lyrics of this song that Americans used their music to intimidate enemies and let them know they were in no position of giving up.

      Not only did Americans try to use music as a way to show they were not inferior, they also used it as a way to show signs from all different ages and positions to the war. The song "Don't Take my Darling Boy Away" was used to show how mothers feel about their sons getting taken into the war and tried to use the song as a way to get people to sympathize and maybe understand. The lyrics of the song say, "Don't take my darling boy away from me, don't send him off to war. You took his father and brothers three, now you've come back for more." This song describes the mother's horror at having to face reality that she might lose her husband and all her sons to fight in a war. Many women, however, thought that taking their husbands and sons away was "wrong". I believe that the women do have a good point, but their husbands and sons are going for a good cause and to protect the country so it should be somewhat understandable  Other songs like "What Kind of American Are You?"- try to influence Americans to honor and be with their country, rather than sit aside and be afraid.

      Music around the WW1 era, was known as the "golden age". Many people said that music definitely did help with the war because song writers used their lyrics as a way to persuade Americans about their opinions of war using "patriotic isolationism". Though in 1914, very few American songs were related to the war... songs about the war became more popular as WW1 started to come to an end especially because of the invention of radios. Radios were made March 4th 1921. "Before radios, people used parlor pianos, sheet music, and a mechanical playback device to keep them in touch with music".  This was before the President Wilson was in charge and people were not as familiar with music. "During President Woodrow Wilson, citizens were making music on a larger scale to support dozens of piano manufactures, publishers of sheet music, producers of phonographs, and entrepreneurs of sound recordings". By the citizens doing all of this, it made music become even more popular through many different ways and styles.  It is said that by 1919 they marketed as many as 7,300 songs that were patriotic or had to do with the war. Without President Woodrow Wilson, music would have come about much different than it did.

      "Cylinder" recording format was very important to music during the war. It is said that one of the most popular genres of this era was the sentimental love song which were meant for soldiers to remember the happiness of their home life and why they are fighting the war. Each of the different kinds of way to play music all had a huge impact on the way music influenced the war because each little step meant something to the soldiers and the citizens.

      To say music greatly impacted World War 1 would be an understatement. Music was the absolute perfect way to advertise feelings or thoughts any one had about a specific topic of the war. Even today I think everyone can agree that music can be very influential and persuading whether it is true information or misleading. In the World War 1 era, music let people express themselves and open up to how they truly feel. I think peoples attitude would definitely of been different if music was not present during the war.

Music Inspires

Goodbye Little Girl

Music Will Help Win the War

Over There 

Cylinders Preservation and Digitization Project- I used this source to find out some popular songs of the WW1 era and how each kind affected the soldiers/the people

Cylinders Preservation and Digitization Project: popular songs of WW1-I used this source to find out popular song writers of the WW1 era 

World War One As Illustrated On Sheet Music- - I used this source to figure out what genre of music was generally liked the most and how they tried to use music to influence the war and make it as a necessity

Topical Rearch in popular song-I used this source to find some more songs and lyrics

American music goes to War-I used this source to find some issues that were involved with music and some famous songs that are still very popular today

Popular Songs of the Great War- I used this source to see how much money was spent on music and how much people listened to it. 

Over There song- - I used this source to listen to the song Over There and get a understanding of the lyrics and the kind of music they listened to
A Nation's Song- I used this source to show how some people thought that music would help win the war