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Sound Targets: Music and the War in Iraq

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 26; Issue: 2-3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01411890701360153

1547-7304

Jonathan Pieslak,

Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture

Abstract This study explores three ways in which music is used by American soldiers involved in the Iraq war: as an inspiration for combat, as a psychological tactic, and as a form of soldiers' expression. My analysis focuses on the popular music genres of metal and rap, because these styles appear to be used prominently in relation to these three areas of study. Like other popular music genres, metal and rap are part of a larger system of cultural beliefs that project certain power relations, and the essay examines how aspects of these ideologies, such as themes of power, of chaos, violence, survival, and others, operate within the context of music and the war in Iraq. Notes 1See Colby Buzzell, My War: Killing Time in Iraq (New York: Putnam Adult, 2005); and John Crawford, The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq (New York: Riverhead, 2005). Blog is short for weblog, an online diary of personal thoughts or reflections, which may be read by anyone. 2During the first Gulf War (1990–91), over 40 percent of Slayer's fan mail came from soldiers located in the Middle East; http://www.slayerized.com/band/didyouknow.html. 3George Washington, The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799, 8 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931), 181–82. The following sources, among others, provide historical surveys of the use of music in war and particularly in American military history: Eric A. Campbell, "Civil War Music and the Common Soldier: The Experiences of Charles Wellington Reed," in Bugle Resounding: Music and Musicians of the Civil War Era, eds. Bruce C. Kelley and Mark A. Snell (Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 2004); Raoul F. Camus, Military Music of the American Revolution (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1976); Friedrich Kapp, The Life of Frederich William von Steuben (New York: Mason Brothers, 1859); Charles D. Page, History of the Fourteenth Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry (Meriden, Conn.: Horton Publishing, 1906); Bell Irvin Wiley, The Life of Billy Yank (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1952). 5Erik Holtan, interview by the author, tape recording, New York, April 15, 2006. 4Erik Holtan, interview by the author, tape recording, New York, April 15, 2006. Complete interviews with selected soldiers can be heard at: www.americansoldiersonmusic.com. 6C. J. Grisham, interview by the author, tape recording, New York, May 1, 2006. 7Colby Buzzell, interview by the author, tape recording, New York, April 27, 2006; Neal Saunders, interview by the author, tape recording, New York, April 18, 2006. 8Buzzell, interview. 9Grisham, interview. 10Jennifer Atkinson, interview by the author, tape recording, New York, May 3, 2006. I learned from Atkinson that women officially are not permitted to serve in direct ground combat, which excludes them from the infantry, armored, and special forces units. This exclusion, she says, is not based on gender discrimination, but on the reasoning that the tasks involved in ground combat, which include the operation of heavy artillery, are too physically demanding for most women. Atkinson explains, "women aren't allowed to have those jobs. Sometimes they are just too physically demanding. Like I can't be a tank crewman, I'm just not physically strong enough. Those shells weigh 100 pounds, I think, and you have to be able to shove them, you know, be able to pick them up, lift them to your chest, and put them in a tube. I can't do that. I'm not a small woman by any means, but I can't do that." As a result, women rarely go on patrols or missions that regularly encounter ground combat, and this is reflected by casualty statistics. As of April 22, 2006, 2.18 percent of American casualties in Iraq were women. Overall, one in seven soldiers (14.28 percent) in Iraq is a woman, and this reflects the general percentage of women in the military (15 percent). 11Michael Tucker, Gunner Palace (Palm Pictures, 2004); Ian Olds and Garrett Scott, Occupation: Dreamland (Greenhouse Pictures, 2005); George Gittoes, Soundtrack to War (Melee Entertainment, 2006). 12Bing West, No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah (New York: Bantam, 2005), 176. 13"American Soldier," personal e-mail, April 26, 2006. 14For a history of psychological weapons, see Leo Braudy, From Chivalry to Terrorism: War and the Changing Nature of Masculinity (New York: Knopf, 2003); John Keegan, A History of Warfare (New York: Vintage, 1993); David Miller, Conflict Iraq: Weapons and Tactics of the U.S. and Iraqi Forces (St. Paul, Minn.: MBI, 2003); Sun Tzu, The Art of War (Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1983). Another excellent source of information on the history of psychological weapons is www.psywarrior.com. This website was created by retired Army Major Ed Rouse, a military specialist in Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) and Psychological Warfare (PSYWAR), and contains numerous articles by Rouse and retired Sergeant Major Herbert A. Friedman, the American representative to the International Psychological Warfare Society. 15Philip Taylor, personal e-mail, May 3, 2006. Philip Taylor is a Professor at the Institute of Communication Studies at the University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. His website is a useful resource for information concerning psychological warfare, international communications and "strategic" communications, and information operations. See http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/index.cfm?outfit=pmt. 16Ben Abel, as quoted in Lane DeGregory, "Soldiers take on insurgents with a musical vengeance, cranking up the volume to distress the enemy," St. Petersburg Times, November 21, 2004. 17Grisham, interview. 18Grisham, interview. 20Abel in DeBregory, footnote 20. 19DeGregory. 22West, 176. West's spelling of "Lallapalooza" is incorrect. The name of the summer festival is spelled "Lollipalooza." The chant, Alluha Akbar, translates as "Allah is the greatest" and is a common phrase in Muslim societies—it is printed twenty-two times on the flag of Iran and appeared on the 2004 draft constitution of Afghanistan. This recitation is used in a variety of situations and to express a number of emotions, from joy and approval, to invoking the strength of Allah during battle. 21West. 23Grisham, interview. 24Grisham, interview. 26Piore, 13. 25Adam Piore, "Psyop: The Love's Not Mutual," Newsweek, May 26, 2003, 13. 28Grisham, interview. Other popular bands and songs include, Mudvayne, Slipknot, and Nirvana's "Territorial Pissings." 27Grisham, interview. 29Dan Kuehl, Ph.D., interview by the author, tape recording, New York, May 2, 2006. 30Ben Arnold, Music and War: A Research and Information Guide (New York: Garland, 1993). Also see http://www.loc.gov/folklife/guides/WorldWarII.html. For a more detailed study of text adaptation, see Les Cleveland, "Soldiers' Songs: The Folklore of the Powerless," New York Folklore 11/1 (1985), 79–98. Examples of parody songs from the World Wars include, "The Shell Hole Rag," "I Wore a Tunic," and "The D-Day Dodgers." 31Lydia Fish, "Songs of Americans in the Vietnam War," http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/fishlm/folksongs/americansongs.htm. 32 www.wativ.com 36Saunders, interview. 33Saunders, interview. 34Images of the studio can be seen on the 4th25 website, www.4th25.com 35 www.4th25.com 37Saunders, interview. 38George Gittoes in "Music in War: Soldiers in Iraq Rap Out Their Experiences," Steve Cannane, reporter, The World Today, ABC Local Radio, Australia, April 26, 2004. 39Marxist traditions and scholars like Louis Althusser have defined ideology in a variety of different ways. For my purposes, I will assume a relatively flexible definition by conceiving of ideology in terms of a group of power relations and belief systems. 41Atkinson, interview. 40Buzzell, interview; Miner, interview. 42Buzzell, interview. 43Grisham, interview. As mentioned above, West also reports that Marines in Fallujah would gather and listen to Drowning Pool's "Bodies" before missions. See West, 176. 44Deena Weinstein, Heavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology (New York: Macmillan, 1991), 23. 45Robert L. Gross, "Heavy Metal Music: A New Subculture in American Society," Journal of Popular Culture 24/1 (1990), 124. Also see, Robert Walser, Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music (Hanover, N.H.: Wesleyan University Press, 1993), 2: "'Heavy metal' now denotes a variety of musical discourses, social practices, and cultural meanings, all of which revolve around concepts, images, and experiences of power." 46Walser, 2. 47Robert Pielke, You Say You Want a Revolution: Rock Music in American Culture (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1986), 202. 48Grisham, interview. 49Saunders, interview. 50Weinstein, 122. 51Certainly, not every soldier will engage the music in the same way, so there may be degrees to which the music has the transformative impact I suggest. Further research could approach this topic in more detail and it might prove useful to conceive of the different ways in which soldiers engage the music in terms of the levels of listening described in Judith Becker's Deep Listeners: Music, Emotion, and Trancing (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2004). 52Adam Krims, Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 70. 53Cornel West, Race Matters (New York: Vintage Press), 23. 54Grisham, interview. 56Grisham, interview. 55Cheryl L. Keyes, Rap Music and Street Consciousness (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002), 4. 57Saunders, interview. 58Buzzell, interview. 59Grisham, interview. 60Gittoes. 61Grisham, interview. 64Sheila Whiteley, "Progressive Rock and Psychedelic Coding in the Work of Jimi Hendrix," in Reading Pop: Approaches to Textual Analysis in Popular Music, ed. Richard Middleton (New York: Oxford University Press), 260. 62Walser, 44–51. 63It should be mentioned that the impact of guitar distortion and vocal articulation is not culturally specific to Iraqis or persons from the Middle East. Many Western listeners who dislike metal music find these features to be frustrating and irritating. 65James Hetfield, National Public Radio, "Fresh Air," November 29, 2004. 66The song "Lace Your Boots," for example, is about being in combat, and to help convey the confusion, Saunders used an effects technique of reversing the sound wave on selected keyboard parts, so that the sound, literally, goes forward and backward. Also, he sonically portrays the slowing down of time when fighting occurs by altering the pitch of the vocals so that it sounds as if the voice is moving at an unnaturally slow tempo. 68Saunders, interview. 67Keyes, 4. 69Saunders, interview. 70Saunders, interview. 71Saunders, interview. 72Saunders, interview. 73Saunders, interview. 4th25 is not currently affiliated with a record label, but Saunders claims that, in many cases, they were first offered the record deals that were then offered to other soldier rap groups. 74Grisham, interview. 75Holtan, interview.