Popular Music in Response to War

As with all mediums - movies that reflect Cold War anxieties, books that question wars, and films and television that act, in some ways, as propaganda for the government during these times - music often changes to reflect the war.

In and before World War II, isolationists and pro-war musicians clashed over the likelihood of a war and, eventually, the pro-war musicians issued a continued salvo of music supporting soldiers in the form of popular music. Isolationists made songs stating that, for example, "There Ain't Gonna Be No War," while pro-war musicians instructed the populace to "Remember Pearl Harbor" - often directly in the wake of such events.

During the Vietnam war, musicians such as Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan (along with a variety of bands that gained traction in the Summer of Love) advocated against the war, releasing music that presented visions of young-person angst in the wake of the war as some bands embraced hippie beliefs.

This trend continued in the wake of 9/11, when musicians such as Toby Keith released music that attacked the perpetrators of the attack and insisted that they would face revenge for their actions; these gained significant popularity in the country sphere.

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/world-war-ii/essays/forties-and-music-world-war-ii