The Melody Of War
How much does music affect our lives? Anywhere one goes its possible to be assaulted every step of the way. iPods, cell phones, CD’s, the list is endless. If you are one of the unfortunate (or fortunate) ones to not plug your ears with Seashell radio’s (Fahrenheit 451 anyone?), every store, mall, restaurant, or house has it blasting from surround sound speakers.
This entry actually stems from a portion of the last discussion in class, where we watched two military advertisements, one of the Marines and one of the Army. In class, the main object of discussion was the language and wording in the clips. Now language is well and good and very powerful, but I must say, the two things that make our generation tick more than anything, are music and images.
Now as far as images go, we all know what to expect from a military ad. Ripped, attractive guys push themselves through ridiculous looking obstacle courses with ease, tanks blow though underbrush and sand with disregard, and Special Forces rise out of the wilderness with their automatic machine guns and their faces painted like its Halloween, looking to kill the first unlucky terrorist they see. And to top it off, they all get a smart looking uniform and a bright silver medal to prove their masculinity and fearlessness to others, to show their significant other that they have become a man. Oh, excuse me. The one token female they showed was successful too.
The words that flash across the screen are monotonous repetitions of strength, courage, and honor, telling me that I will always be a scared little boy unless I join an organized killing machine in order to be at peace with myself and reclaim my manhood. Now that’s a lot to take in visually. It’s almost enough to make me quit my sissy job to join the Navy. But they have a special surprise waiting for you when you sit down in front of the television to see their 30-second ad. The music.
The music adds a completely different element to the scenario. If you don’t believe me, stop reading this, go to YouTube, and search for “Awesome US ARMY Recruiting Commercial”. The swelling orchestra instills a sense of pride and commitment that no amount of images or words could ever do. It fills every sense of your being and makes you believe you can be a part of something great.
Rupert Brooke wrote poems about England during WWI, and many young men read these poems and enlisted in the army because of them. He was one of the world’s first recruitment advertisers. This poem is entitled “The Soldier”:
“If I should die, think only this of me:
there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust conceal’d;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air.
Wash’d by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven”.*
Now imagine this poem with the London Symphony Orchestra playing a riveting piece that is so moving and inspiring that even the most wimpiest of men cannot deny the urge to waddle to the nearest recruiting tent and sign up for the infantry division for England’s front lines. Seriously though, think about how much more powerful these words would have become with a touch of music to guide their way. The words are almost music enough, the way the iambic pentameter rolls off your tongue, and how the rhyme scheme is just perfect.
Coming back to present day, I wonder what would happen if the Army tried different music behind their ads. I was just watching the trailer for the new Rambo movie, and Stallone is pictured butchering hundreds of greasy Asian fellows with huge turret guns, blowing up their huts, and shooting a guy with a bow and arrow so hard he flies backwards into the rain and mud. For the entire trailer, the song that played was “Let The Bodies Hit The Floor”. Now for those of you who don’t know this song, it’s a hardcore metal song by Drowning Pool that just makes you shiver if you hear it. As much as I hate to admit it, that trailer made me want to go out and kick the shit out of someone, and I didn’t care who it was or if I got caught doing it. No one could stop me! I’ve got a badass theme song playing behind me!
In a post by The Usual Suspect, one of the military blogs I am reading, Suspect comments on the music of war. The entire blog, fittingly called “The Rock”, is dedicated to the worshiping of metal over other forms of music. He thinks it should be the only music listened too by any infantryman.
“Metal that reaches through the speakers and whips your pansy ass into a puddle of goo, attacks you with sheer masculine animosity, and melts the face off of your bitch-ass friends, especially the hip-hop enthusiast types.”**
This is an essential part of the Suspect’s world. Metal music has become his theme song in Iraq. When he wakes, when he patrols, when he eats, when he sleeps, hardcore metal is his life.
So I wonder what the turnout rate of young American males to sign up for the Army would be, if, at the end of the Rambo trailer it said this:
“Sign up for the Army, and you will look this cool, be this awesome, and be unquestionably invincible. Period.”
Then it flashes its “Army Strong” tagline and the screen goes black.
The Usual Suspect would be proud of the music choice…
What does that say about our culture? Are we that riveted by pictures of masculinity and destruction, and that motivated by intense songs and powerful language? Can we be so manipulated by advertisements that we sign onto a cause we don’t even check to see if we believe in? It happened during WWI. We still do now.
Hell, I’d join to become like Rambo. Wouldn’t you?
* “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke
** “The Rock” by The Usual Suspect
January 20th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
“The Rock” was a very tongue in cheek post, I gotta tell ya. Partially satire.
As for the recruitment videos, I DREAM of the day when they make just ONE realistic video. One guy standing guard in a tower. Camera doesn’t move at all for 60 seconds while he yawns and sighs and stares at nothing.
Strength For Now. Strength For Later.
Crock of shit if you ask me. And contrary to the commercials, the army doesn’t make anyone cool. Glad to see you’re looking past the horseshit commercials and advertisements though.
January 24th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
I’m glad to see that my ideas are on track with at least one of my classmates. I ended up stealing “The Usual Suspect” from you as a blog of my own on top of my other military blog just for a back-up measure since his other posts seem good as well.
While both audio and visual play the main role in recruitment ads for the military, I think that music serves such a subconscious purpose to the viewer that the visual could just be the anaphoric text going across the screen and you would still have the same effect, although not as drastic as Abercrombie and Fitch models with crew cuts crossing a set of monkey bars in military fatigues.
We seem to know the text so well that the Marines don’t even feel the need to say “The Marines” at the end, and instead just use their symbol to convey the message. But the orchestra blaring with trumpet and drum solos make your fingertips start to tingle and your gut sink a couple extra inches because of the raw patriotic power of the commercials.
And who wouldn’t want to be like Rambo anyways? I’ve always wished to run into a terrorist camp with an unimaginably endless clip of ammo muttering incoherent one line slogans while I kill 300 terrorists standing in open ground, being prone to any attack, but not having a single bullet hit me. Because that’s what I’d be like after I went through basic boot camp!
February 3rd, 2008 at 8:01 am
The first thing I thought of while reading this post was a Dead Kennedys song called Rambozo the Clown. The song is 20 years old now, but its message is still loud and clear today. War is becoming more and more a form of entertainment. I was about 10 years old during the first Gulf War, and at the time, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I made my mom buy me this little toy tank that came with official “Operation Desert Shield” stickers. I watched in awe as the television news repeatedly showed that single piece of grainy green footage of a missile plunging into the roof of a building. I didn’t know or care why we were even there in the first place. I just pushed my little toy tank across my bedroom floor making little blowing up noises with my mouth.
Now that I am older (and hopefully wiser), I realize what a dangerous concept this is. How many teenage boys will go and watch this new Rambo movie and suddenly develop an interest in joining the Army? Not to say that serving in the Armed Forces isn’t a respectable path, but I’m a little concerned with the message these movies and recruitment commercials are sending.
On the topic of music, while it can be a powerful tool for instilling patriotism, it can also be used for the opposite effect. Anti-war songs are nothing new. Bob Dylan’s Masters of War, Bad Religion’s All Good Soldiers and Anti-Flag’s A New Kind of Army are just a few examples. Green Day’s song Holiday broke into the mainstream, receiving frequent airplay even with such lines as “Sieg Heil to the President…” Music plays a large part in the lives of recruitment-age kids, and there seems to be a large amount of influence coming from both sides of the philosophy of war.
February 3rd, 2008 at 10:52 am
I also agree. Advertising today has been very disappointing to me. Commercials, to me, are annoying and most of them make me want to boycott their product in spite. I always seem to perk up during military ads though. I know advertising is to entice you to buy or participate in whatever is being displayed, but it is so one sided it bothers me. It’s not all running, jumping, climbing trees and I know dying doesn’t seem appealing, but it is still honorable, if that word means anything anymore.
I was talking about it with my dad and he mentioned that the only Army ads he sees is when the parent is involved. How the son is convincing the parents how awesome the army is and blah blah blah. Advertising aims to it’s audience and, I guess if it works cool.
I am a firm supporter of our troops, even when the causes seem to be… not in their best favor. I agree with the quote, “If you don’t stay behind them, feel free to stand in front of them.” I think very highly of them and very highly of anyone who joins. But it’s strange how a lot of people don’t see it that way anymore. Or they do, just not enough to join. I admit that I wanted to go into the Marines (b/c ARMY just stands for Aren’t Ready for Marines Yet) but once we actually got into a war, I was scared off. There was fear of the draft before but if people are drawn to the military from their brilliant commercials, is there really another choice?
Nice post. I’ll probably be keeping up with your blog to see what other rants I can’t join in on.
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