Music and Politics - Folk Music

Folk Music

The song "We Shall Overcome" is perhaps the best-known example of political folk music, in this case a rallying-cry for the Civil Rights Movement. Pete Seeger was involved in the popularization of the song, as was Joan Baez. During the early part of 20th century, poor working conditions and class struggles lead to the growth of the Labour movement and numerous songs advocating social and political reform. The most famous songwriter of the early 20th century "Wobblies" was Joe Hill. In the 1940s through the 1960s, The Weavers as well as Woody Guthrie were influential in this type of social and political music. Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" is one of the U.S. most famous folk songs and the lyrics describe his sympathetic views of communism. Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", was a popular anti-war protest song. Many of these types of songs became popular during the Vietnam War era. Blowin' in the Wind, by Bob Dylan, was a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary, and suggested that a younger generation was becoming more aware of global problems than many of the older generation. In 1964, Joan Baez had a top-ten hit in the UK with "There but for Fortune" (by Phil Ochs). It was a plea for the innocent victim of prejudice or inhumane policies. Many topical songwriters with social and political messages emerged out of the folk music revival of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, and many others.

The folk music revival during the Cold War era produced a number of political folk tunes within the United States and elsewhere. The Revival in the United States began in the 1930s after the Great Depression as a response to the new wave of modernization that triggered the post-industrial era. Folk songs of this time gained popularity by using old hymns and songs but adapting the lyrics to fit the current social and political conditions. Artists such as Alan Lomax, Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie were crucial in popularizing folk music, and they soon began to be known as the Lomax singers. This began an era of folk music in which artists and their songs expressed clear political messages with the of swaying public opinion and recruiting support. An example of this is Lead Belly’s “Bourgeois Blues”. As the fear of communism began to dominate the United States population and government, it was more difficult for folk artists to travel and perform since folk was pushed out of mainstream music. Nevertheless, folk music began a resurgence in the 1960s as an underground movement. During the revival, folk music became popular mostly with college students since universities provided the organization necessary for sustaining music trends and an impressionable audience looking to rebel against the older generation. It was at this time that folk artists, such as Bob Dylan, began writing their own songs to fit current times, as opposed to only adapting existing folk songs. Nevertheless, the rhetoric of the United States government during the Cold War era was very powerful and in some ways overpowered the message of folk artists, such as in regard to public opinion about communism. Various Gallup Polls that were conducted during this time suggest that Americans consistently saw communism as a threat. For example, a 1954 poll shows that at the time 51% of Americans said that admitted communists should be arrested, and in relation to music 64% of respondents said that if a radio singer is an admitted communist he should be fired.

Folk music was used outside the United States during this time as well. Hungary, for instance, experimented with a form of liberal communism in the late Cold War era, which was reflected in much of their folk music. During the late twentieth century folk music was crucial in Hungary, Romania, and the once existing Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia by allowing ethnicities to express their national identity in a time of political uncertainty and chaos.

These folk protest traditions are still being carried on today by many old and new topical songwriters and musicians of all types and varieties. Today's socially conscious musicians not only sing at rallies, demonstrations and on picket lines, but typically have professional web sites and post videos on YouTube and other popular internet sites. Examples of such activist musicians include Ray Korona (environmental, labor, peace, social justice), Charlie King (labor, social justice) and Anne Feeney (labor, protest), among many others. Although these musicians each have their own followings and performance circuits, good sources for finding many of them include the Peoples Music Network for Songs of Freedom and Struggle and the Labor Heritage Foundation.

Blues songs tend to be resigned to fate rather than fighting against misfortune, but there are a few exceptions. Josh White recorded "When Am I going to be Called a Man" in 1936. At this time it was common for white men to address black men as "boy". He also wrote "Silicosis is Killing Me" in 1936. Billie Holiday recorded "Strange Fruit" in 1939. With great sophistication, it draws a comparison between fruit on the trees and the rotting corpses of lynched black men. It also exposed American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans, and was performed as a protest song in New York venues, including MSG. Paul Robeson, singer, actor, athlete, and civil rights activist, was investigated by the FBI and was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) for his outspoken political views. The State Department denied Robeson a passport and issued a "stop notice" at all ports, effectively confining him to the United States. In a symbolic act of defiance against the travel ban, labor unions in the U.S. and Canada organized a concert at the International Peace Arch on the border between Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia on May 18, 1952. Paul Robeson stood on the back of a flat bed truck on the American side of the U.S.-Canada border and performed a concert for a crowd on the Canadian side, variously estimated at between 20,000 and 40,000 people. Robeson returned to perform a second concert at the Peace Arch in 1953, and over the next two years two further concerts were scheduled.

In Communist China, exclusively national music was promoted. A flautist named Zhao Songtime, a member of the Zhejiang Song-and-Dance Troupe, attended an Arts festival in 1957 in Mexico. He was punished for his international outlook by being expelled from the Troupe. From 1966 to 1970 he underwent "re-education". In 1973 he returned to the Troupe but was expelled again following accusations.