9 Shocking Times Music Was Used As A Military Weapon

5. Propaganda

Other instances of governments utilising music as a patriotic, nationalistic propaganda device are littered throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Two such examples have occurred in the USA and in Nazi-controlled Germany. Firstly, the Nazis relied heavily on media and art that promoted the notion that Germans were a superior race in every way. Effectively, they banned pretty much anything from other countries and cultures and foregrounded materials that were local, traditional and conventional in structure (because experimentation implied progressive, digressive politics). Hitler and his propaganda expert Goebbels would promote music from the likes of Richard Wagner in particular, knowing that Wagner's operas were evocatively brave tales of warriors and knights. As Goebbels noted, "Music affects the heart and emotions more than the intellect. Where then could the heart of a nation beat stronger than in the huge masses, in which the heart of a nation has found its true home?" In the USA, music is often used in presidential campaigns in order to emphasise a candidate's patriotism. This was completely misjudged by Ronald Reagan, who used Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA as his 1984 campaign song. The song, a critique of the war in Vietnam, is actually a sardonically unpatriotic track. A bit of an own-goal by the would-be president. Banning music is often used as a form of sonic warfare, too. Taliban groups have been known to do this in order to eliminate the "evil actions" that popular music can supposedly promote in an individual.