If you know anything about me, you know I love to critique and analyze, whether in art, literature, or film. Music is no exception to the rule. I love it when artists use their medium to make a statement, especially with powerful lyrics and gripping instrumentals to fortify their stance on particular issues.
Some of my favorite songs were written with the intent of criticizing anything between the concepts of war or specific conflicts. Here are five of those songs that I have on constant rotation:
- “Army Dreamers” by Kate Bush
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Yeah, this song inspired this article. Well, actually, an All Quiet on the Western Front edit to the song. That’s beside the point. In true Kate Bush fashion, “Army Dreamers” has a whimsical tone and hypnotizing vocals that almost mask the meaning behind the lyrics. Bush and accompanying background vocalists sing about all the career paths a soldier could take instead of being in the military.
The song is written from the perspective of a mother mourning her son who died while serving in the military. She laments that he could’ve lived out his dreams, but “he never even made it to his 20s.” Bush follows up this lyric by singing, “What a waste, army dreamers.”
The repetition of the song title within the chorus leaves the listener with the impact that war wastes the potential of young men who had other aspirations in life than fighting. It’s a beautiful song with a strong message.
- “Violet Hill” by Coldplay
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On Coldplay’s album, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, “Violet Hill” follows the widely popular “Viva La Vida.” I wish I could remember the first time “Violet Hill” came up on my Spotify. It’s genuinely one of my favorite Coldplay songs.
“Violet Hill” follows an arc, beginning slowly and then building until it eventually calms down again. It feels like Coldplay’s lead singer, Chris Martin, begins his argument but has to surrender to the inevitability of the song’s true message: war brings out the worst in the best of us.
The lyrics are filled with contrasts to prove this point. For example, Martin sings, “Priests clutched onto Bibles / Hollowed out to fit their rifles” and “I don’t wanna be a soldier / Who the captain of some sinking ship / would stow far below.”
The final section of the song is the come-down from the rock sound of the rest of the song. In the last 30-ish seconds, listeners get a stripped-down version of “Violet Hill” where Martin simply sings, accompanied by soft piano. It’s a stunning ending that echoes the emotional turmoil of violence.
- “British Bombs” by Declan McKenna
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I love an excuse to talk about my favorite artist, Declan McKenna. This list would truly be incomplete without a mention from the king of protest songs himself. McKenna’s song isn’t simply an anti-war song. He seeks to specifically criticize Britain’s involvement in combat in the Middle East.
At the time, the United Kingdom was supplying explosives to Saudi Arabia to use against the Houthi Movement in Yemen; hence, McKenna sings, “Great British bombs in the Yemen.”
However, “British Bombs” also serves an overall purpose of reminding listeners that war often isn’t chosen by a country’s citizens. McKenna targets politicians, pointing out the hypocrisy between the actions and words of British politicians with lyrics like, “How could it be the money? It’s the vote that matters to me.” “British Bombs” is a song packed with witty yet impactful lyrics like these.
- “Dirty Harry” by Gorillaz (feat. Bootie Brown)
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“Dirty Harry” is one of those songs that just keeps giving. Maybe I’m delusional, but I genuinely feel as though I have a new experience with the song each time I hear it.
The song opens up with groovy instrumentals that transition into the lyrics, “I need a gun to keep myself among / the poor people who are burning in the sun / but they ain’t got a chance.” This chorus is repeated after a quick electronic dance break. Without much thought, listeners can interpret these lyrics as a reference to war in the Middle East, especially considering the song was released in 2005.
“Dirty Harry” switches up entirely when featured rapper Bootie Brown takes over the song. Here, he makes more direct references to conflict in the Middle East, like “‘The war is over’/ So said the speaker / With the flight suit on.”
These lyrics criticize the irony of George W. Bush claiming the conflict in the Middle East was over during his 2003 “Mission Accomplished” speech. In an image from the speech, Bush wears a flight suit among American troops from the USS Abraham Lincoln. The speech has gone down in infamy as it predated thousands of American lives lost from then until 2011.
- “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2
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“Sunday Bloody Sunday” is the first track on U2’s 1983 album titled War. What a fitting album title for this article! For context, U2 is an Irish band that formed right before the height of The Troubles, a period of history where Northern Ireland attempted to leave the United Kingdom and join Ireland. This era is depicted in media like the Netflix show, Derry Girls, and other music by artists like The Cranberries.
It’s important to acknowledge that, within the context of this song, U2 is not specifically critiquing The Troubles but feels compelled to make an anti-war song titled in honor of the Bogside Massacre on Jan. 30, 1972.
More commonly recognized as “Bloody Sunday,” the Bogside Massacre was an incident where British soldiers opened fire on a group of protesters in Derry, Northern Ireland.
U2 uses the name of one of the “darkest days of the Northern Ireland Troubles” to call for the end of useless, cyclical violence, not only in Ireland but everywhere. This idea is echoed in lyrics like, “I can’t close my eyes, make it go away / How long? How long must we sing this song?”
The issue of The Troubles hits close to home for the members of U2, and I think you can hear it in the voice of their lead singer, Bono. Apparently, the song hasn’t been sung live since 1987, since the band doesn’t think another live performance would ever live up to the raw emotion in that one.
This is by no means a complete list of anti-war songs. The genre is vast and continues to produce fan favorites as listeners ingest artist messages as a byproduct of a good beat.
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