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. By 1940 96.2% of Northeastern urban households in the United States of America had radio. The lowest group to take up, Southern Rural families still had 1 radio for every two households. During the Nazi rule radio ownership in Germany rose from 4 to 16 million households. As the major powers entered war millions of citizens had home radio devices that did not exist in the First World War. Also during the pre-war period sound was introduced to cinema and musicals were very popular.

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. And 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 perhaps 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 not only a popular song, but a propaganda tool.

American songs
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 much songs sung around a fire or while marching, but listened to between combat on Armed Forces Radio.


 * "(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover" - Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra (1942)
 * "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive" - Johnny Mercer (1944)
 * “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)
 * "Till Then" - Mills Brothers
 * "Waitin' For The Train To Come In" - Peggy Lee
 * "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" – (1942)
 * "Yours" - Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra

Take note of the non-aggressive and hopeful tone of the song “When The Lights Go On Again”:


 * When the lights go on again all over the world
 * And the boys are home again all over the world
 * And rain or snow is all that may fall from the skies above
 * A kiss won't mean "goodbye" but "Hello to love


 * When the lights go on again all over the world
 * And the ships will sail again all over the world
 * Then we'll have time for things like wedding rings and free hearts will sing
 * When the lights go on again all over the world


 * When the lights go on again all over the world

It is also worth noting that by 1943 few Germans would have had many illusions about what the end of the war would mean. It would have been hard to sing about defeat, for when the lights went on again in Berlin it would be on a defeated city. Germans in Berlin sang "Berlin is Still Berlin", clinging to the past and intentionally almost ignoring the future that was sung about in America and the British Empire.

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. The people of America 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
Before the war, BBC radio had had quite an elitist approach to popular music. Jazz, swing or big band music for dancing was relegated to a few late night spots. During the war, the BBC was obliged to adapt, if only because British soldiers were listening to German radio stations to hear their dance music favourites.

This adaptation was not without conflict. The BBC establishment reluctantly increased the amount of dance music played, but censorship was severe. The American hit "Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer" for example was censored because of its almost blasphemous mix of religious words and a foxtrot melody. BBC heads were also worried about American-style crooners undermining the virility of British men.

The BBC establishment tried hard to stick to the jaunty tone which they felt had helped to win the first world war - so George Formby and Gracie Fields were very much played on the radio. Indeed, these two stars were undoubtedly more heroes to working-class people in Britain than was Winston Churchill, since they were seen to "come from the ordinary people."

The United States did not need a forward Propaganda Minister; they could count on big bands producing music that reflected the governments primary interest because they were the interests of the population.

Britain did have a mass media which played popular music, much enjoyed by the Germans stationed in France and the Low Countries or flying over Britain. The most famous single performer was Vera Lynn who became known as "the forces' sweetheart".

Popular concert songs in Britain during the war included:


 * Run Rabbit Run - Sung by Flanagan and Allen (1939) Words by Noel Gay & Ralph Butler. Music by Noel Gay.
 * There'll Always Be An England (1939–40) Words by Hugh Charles. Music by Ross Parker & Harry Parr Davies. Sung by Vera Lynn.
 * We'll Meet Again Words and Music by Ross Parker and Hugh Charles (1939)


 * This is perhaps the most famous war time song with the lines:
 * We'll meet again
 * Don't know where
 * Don't know when
 * But I know we'll meet again some sunny day


 * Vera Lynn's recording was memorably played during an apocalyptic scene in Dr. Strangelove; the Byrds covered it (to similarly ironic effect) on their first album.


 * (There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover Words by Nat Burton and Music by Walter Kent (1941–42)
 * When the Lights Go on Again Written by Eddie Seller, Sol Marcus, and Bennie Benjamin

The theme tune of the TV series Dad's Army, “Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Hitler?” does not date from the war, although it was intended as a gentle pastiche of wartime songs. With lyrics by Jimmy Perry and music by Perry and Derek Taverner, it was sung by one of Perry's childhood idols, wartime entertainer Bud Flanagan who died in 1968, soon after the first episode played.

Russian songs

 * "Katyusha"
 * "Proščanije Slavianki" (Farewell of Slavianka)
 * "Na Bezymiannoj Vysote"
 * "Svyaschennaya Voyna" (Holy war)
 * "Oy, Tumany" (Oh, the Fogs)
 * "Tiomnaja Noč" (Dark Night)
 * "Sinij Platoček" (Blue Kerchief)
 * "Ždi Menia" (Await Me)
 * "Ogoniok" (Beacon)

German songs
The Nazi government took a strong interest in promoting Germanic culture and music, which returned people to the folk culture of their remote ancestors, while promoting the distribution of radio to transmit propaganda. The Nazi government had an obsession with controlling culture and promoting the culture it controlled. For this reason the common people's tastes in music were much more secret. Many Germans used their new radios to listen to the jazz music hated by Hitler but loved all over the world.

In art, this attack came after expressionism, impressionism, and all forms of modernism. Forms of music targeted included jazz as well as the music of many of the more dissonant modern classical composers, including that of Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith, and Arnold Schoenberg. Hindemith was one of many composers who fled the Third Reich as a result of musical persecution (as well as racial persecution, since Hindemith's wife was part Jewish). Modern composers who took a more conventional approach to music, however, were welcomed by the Third Reich; Carl Orff and Richard Strauss, for example, were able to stay in the country during the Nazi period.

Also a subtle factor of history makes gaining a reliable picture of the music of Germany more difficult than among the Allies. World War II in the English speaking world is usually remembered as a great triumph and the music is often performed with a sense of pride. Therefore, over time the collective consciousness of this period's music has become stronger. In Germany, World War II is generally seen as a shameful period; it would be difficult to imagine a band playing 'all the old favorites' of World War II in a public place.

Popular music is tied with nostalgia and collective memory. Though a historian can find samples of music that was played in radio or collect soldiers' songs from a period, ranking the subjective meaning and value assigned to a song by the people of that period will be greatly impacted by those subjects' later opinion of that music.

For example, it is known that many Germans enjoyed American jazz music, it is also known that Germans sang songs in Nazi sponsored events; but it would be difficult to determine the relative popularity of this music in the current context of shame concerning the war.

Therefore the best that can be understood about German Music during the war is the official Nazi government policy, the level of enforcement, and some notion of the diversity of other music listened to, but as the losers in the war German Music and Nazi songs from World War II has not been assigned the high heroic status of American and British popular music, although as the music itself goes, it is considered by many as being above the level of the latter, which is also true of Fascist Italian music of the time.

Approved Germanic music
The Nazi were determined to the concept that German Culture was the greatest in history, but as with all parts of art Hitler took an interest in suppressing the work of all those considered unfit while promoting certain composers as proper Germans. Therefore, the Government officially acknowledged certain composers as true Germans, including:


 * Ludwig van Beethoven
 * Anton Bruckner
 * Hans Hotter singer
 * Herbert von Karajan conductor
 * Richard Wagner

Unapproved Germanic music
The Nazis felt a need to identify all art that was somehow degenerate or Entartete though degenerate is probably a poor translation of the use the Nazis made of this sign, for to them it included all things Jewish, Communist, along with mental illness, gay and lesbian behavior, transgender, and expressionist and modernist.

Along with exhibitions of Degenerate Art Entartete Kunst the Nazi government identified certain music, composers and performers as Entartete Musik, these included:


 * Berthold Goldschmidt
 * Ernst Krenek
 * Erich Wolfgang Korngold
 * Arnold Schoenberg
 * Bruno Walter
 * Anton Webern

In 1938 Nazi Germany passed an official law on Jazz music. Not surprisingly it deals with the racial nature of the music and makes law based on racial theories. Jazz was “Negroid”; It posed a threat to European higher culture, and was therefore forbidden except in the case of scientific study.

Popular music permitted under the Nazis
Degrees of censorship varied, and the Germans were likely more concerned with the war than styles of music. But as the war went poorly the objectives of the government moved from building a perfect German state to keeping the population in line, and the relative importance of morale-raising songs would have increased.

Popular songs were officially encouraged during the war including:


 * Berlin bleibt doch Berlin (Berlin is still Berlin) this was a popular with Joseph Goebbels near the fall of Berlin.

A strange note is that Goebbels commissioned a swing band called "Charlie and His Orchestra" which seemed to have existed for propaganda purposes

Polish songs of World War II
There were specific songs of Polish resistance, Polish Armed Forces in the West and Polish Armed Forces in the East. Notable ones included Siekiera, motyka, the most popular song in occupied Poland; Rozszumiały się wierzby płaczące - the most popular song of the Polish partisans; Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino - the most popular song of the Polish Armed Forces in the West; and Oka, the most popular song of the Polish Armed Forces in the East.

Propaganda Against the Enemy
''They played a few American records first. I don't remember everything she said. She said, "Your wives and girlfriends are probably home in a nice warm building, dancing with some other men. You're over here in the cold." It was cold and it was snowing.'' Dent Wheeler on Axis Sally during the battle of the Bulge

"There is no 'Tokyo Rose'; the name is strictly a GI invention. The name has been applied to at least two lilting Japanese voices on the Japanese radio. ... Government monitors listening in 24 hours a day have never heard the words 'Tokyo Rose' over a Japanese-controlled Far Eastern radio."

During World War II often cut off troops or isolated outposts found themselves exposed in the radio range of the enemy, which used popular music as a means to attract listeners and then provide propaganda messages.

This type of propaganda was performed by both sides and is some of the earliest mass psych-ops. Often the propagandist became popular with the other sides, and there is little evidence that these had any impact, except that the Axis participants were often detained and if originally from allied countries prosecuted, while Allied broadcasters were seen as legitimate. Again it shows the way music is understood in the context of World War II is from the winners point of view, whereas Tokyo Rose (Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino) and Axis Sally (Mildred Gillars) faced years of persecution after the war. England executed Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) for treason, in 1946. Again there can really be little in the way of an objective history of music in World War II. The historical context since the war, the revelations of the evils of the Axis regimes, and the ultimate victory of the consumer society foretold in the songs of the allies impose a context upon the events like viewing a star through the lens of a telescope.

Songs, compositions and others written after the war

 * Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, by Krzysztof Penderecki in 1960
 * From Here to Eternity by George Duning and Morris Stoloff was nominated for an Academy Award for best musical score.
 * The Hiroshima Symphony, by Erkki Aaltonen in 1949
 * A Survivor from Warsaw, by Arnold Schönberg describes the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
 * Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 in C Major was nicknamed the Leningrad Symphony.
 * Cabaret (musical) - Musical produced and directed by Hal Prince in 1966, tells the of the rise to power of the Nazi. It contained a song about the rise of Nazis, Tomorrow belongs to Me.
 * Mel Brooks' The Producers is famous for perhaps the strangest song about World War II, "Springtime for Hitler".
 * Last King Tiger by Ignitor is about the Russian invasion to Berlin and the fall of the Reich.
 * When the Tigers Broke Free,Bring the Boys Back Home and other songs by Pink Floyd.