American Patriotic Music

By Author: Rob Thomas
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One cannot deny that music is an influential force which plays an essential role in our lives. Music has a certain way of inducing certain feelings into our hearts and soul which forces us to feel a sense of empowerment, joy, hope and triumph; this is no different for Patriotic music. Patriotic music has been an essential element of the American culture and history since the origins of the country in the 18th century. Patriotic music were made as a way of encouraging feelings of national pride and unity for American natives and to this day it is still very popular and celebrated in the America. It is mostly played during national holidays such as Veterans Day, Memorial Day and Independence Day on the Fourth of July.
Patriotic music has been played and sang in many different styles of music including hymns, military themes, national songs, and music from stage and screen, as well as songs adapted from poems. Most of America’s patriotic music originates from its four central wars †the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the American Civil War, and the Spanish American War. Patriotic music has ...
... a very long history and much of America's patriotic music was connected to the political ambitions of the British on American soil throughout the period prior to the American independence.
Both the north and the south areas produced several songs to stir up patriotic sentiments such as ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’ throughout the times leading up to the American Civil War. After the Civil War, the music being made in patriotic songs were being geared towards reconstruction and pulling the resources of the United States as a united nation.
The first patriotic song is thought to be written in America by John Dickinson in 1768 called "The Liberty Song" to the music of William Boyce's "Heart of Oak". The American Revolution also influenced three popular patriotic songs †"British Grenadiers", "God Save the King" and "Yankee Doodle". In response to what he saw at the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812, Washington lawyer Francis Scott Key wrote the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ In 1814, which later became the America’s national anthem.
Songs such as My Country, 'Tis of Thee, which were created in 1831, have their theme freedom and liberty. Others like America the Beautiful, were used to express an appreciation for the natural beauty of America and the hope for a better country. It was originally a poem created by Katharine Lee Bates after she had seen the landscape from Pikes Peak. Songwriters then started to write more patriotic tunes that honored American soldiers in support of the Spanish-American War in the 1890s. This time produced songs such as "Brave Dewey and His Men" and "The Chare of the Roosevelt Riders" lauded Commodore George Dewey and Theodore Roosevelt and songs such as "The Black KPs", which nowadays is considered as racist and offensive by modern listeners, but at that time, the song was used to rally the public behind the war effort.
In the midst of World War I, a spur of patriotic American songs were starting to be produced such as "Over There" by famous songwriter George M. Cohan. On April 6, 1917, when Cohan read the headlines stating that America had entered World War I, Cohan was inspired to write the song. Other patriotic music that have been celebrated are "God Bless America", which was composed by Berlin in 1918 and is often times considered to as the unofficial national anthem of the United States. In 1940, "This Land Is Your Land" was written by Woody Guthrie wrote, in response to his dislike of "God Bless America", which he thought was too laid back and unrealistic to be a patriotic theme. A large portion of patriotic songs were also produced during the World War II era such as the Big Band and Swing format, "Remember Pearl Harbor" and "God Bless America". Some of the other Patriotic songs during the last half of the 20th century included "Ballad of the Green Berets" which was created during the Vietnam War and Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" which was recorded during the time of the first Gulf War.
About Author:
Rob Thomas is the curator of Patriotic Music and Patriotic Quotes.