Most influential songs in the post World War II era.

Protest songs might be one way to go. Consider the collected works of Bob Dylan.

How about Gloria Gaynor's, "I Will Survive", as one of the theme songs of the Women's movement!

Hi jespah. Great to see (well, read) you again!
I suppose Donovan fits that bill as well with a song like universal soldier. Any songs in particular by Dylan? 'Blowing in the wind'?

Ooh, that's a good one! I haven't even considered the whole woman's movement personally. How does Aretha Franklin's 'Think' tie in with it?

Hey, LTNS!

Maybe Blowin' in the Wind, yeah. I'd add Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's Ohio but I suspect that's more US-influential.

There's also the punk movement, e. g. the Sex Pistols' God Save The Queen.

As for the women's movement, I'd put it that Helen Reddy's I Am Woman beats out Gloria Gaynor, and not just in history (it was released years earlier).

"Traain Traain" and "Blue suede shoes" seemed to have started a revolution for singing
Duane Eddy and "Rebel Rouser" was the first really beat driven rock and roll

Of course we have to go back to Hard Bop and Blues and Religious music of Black Churches to see the evolution to Rock.

There would be no Madonnas or Beatles or Pink Floyds or Nirvanas were it not for Louie Prima, ELvis, Bill HAley, Ray Charles, and "The Killer"

If you're doing post war era, you can't leave out Motown. It's sound defined a generation and gave a voice to young black Americans. You can take your pick of musicians or songs and not pick a weak contender.
Reggae, specifically Bob Marley, created not only a whole new genre but a phenomenon. Overnight, people started wearing dreads and living the Rastafari lifestyle.

The The's Sweet Bird Of Truth came out long before the first Iraqi war and is as relevant today as it's ever been.


Flight leader, this is "Combat" your forward end controller
I have three targets for you
Your first target is a blockhouse, target number 11 at the north-east corner of the combat zone, request: Napalm
Rodger, flight leader, the identity of your request is, eh, batch of Napalm on the blockhouse in the north-east corner of the target area
Flight leader, understand, 30 seconds
White flag, this is "Combat", we have you in sight
Roll on to the west, call to confirm you have target area, a'ight

Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia

Six o'clock in the morning and I'm the last person in this plane still awake
Y'know I can almost smell the blood washing against the shores of this land that can't forget it's past
Oh the wind that carries this plane is the wind of change, heaven sent and hell bent
Over the mountain tops we go, just like all the other GI Joe's, adios
This is your captain calling (With an urgent warning), we're above the gulf of Arabia (Our altitude is falling)
And I can't hold her up (There's no time for thinking), all hands on deck (This bird is sinking)
Across the beaches and cranes, rivers and trains, all the money I've made, bodies I've maimed
Time was when I seemed to know, just like any other GI Joe
Should I cry like a baby, or die like a man while all the planet's little wars start joining hands?
Oh what a heaven, what a hell, y'know there's nothing could be done in this whole wide world

Arabia

I don't know what's wrong or right, I'm just a regular guy with bottled up insides
I ain't ever been to church or believed in Jesus Christ but I'm praying that gods with you when you die
This is your captain calling (With an urgent warning), we're above the gulf of Arabia (Our altitude is falling)
And I can't hold her up (There's no time for thinking), all hands on deck (This bird is sinking)
Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia, Arabia

@jespah - So long that I indeed didn't know what you meant with LTNS for a while. I am rusty where forum lingo is concerned

Well, US influential also is important. So did the Crosby Stills Nash & Young song open the eyes of people to what happened? I have to say, I never heard the song before (But then again, I'm not american and I'm also not much of a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young fan tbh

Ah, Helen Reddy with I am woman. Great song!

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@farmerman
Sorry, I can't seem to place 'Traain Traain'? I found out Blackfoot made a song called Train Train, which is quite catchy too, but not really in the same era as Blue Suede Shoes. And it seems obvious from the other songs you've listed you are going more for songs that lay the foundation of the music that followed in their footsteps, I take it?
Rebel Rouser is a great song! It's certainly of a different breed then Jackie Breston's 'Rocket 88'...

And yes, music would have developed differently if not for those icons of Rock 'n Roll. among others. But would there not be a Madonna, or a Pink Floyd. or a Nirvana? I reckon there would be, but their music might have been different. They had a drive to make music, and they had the talent to become famous. So they probably would have wound up making music similar to, if not quite the same, as what we know of them now.

I mean, So many artists and bands have popped up throughout the last 70 years, it's hard to imagine that an entire musical movement would stop if some of the more famous and influential artists had not been around... But that's an entirely different topic

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@Ceili
I would not dispute your claim, but I'm looking for influential songs. You basically say that every song produced under the motown label was influential, and while I perhaps agree in the broadest sense of the word, in that it indeed gave young black americans a voice, I'd still ask of you if you could list a few particular songs you feel are most relevant in that regard.

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@Izzy
Wow. Great song! I have never heard of the artists or the song before. Could you recommend other songs by them?
Also, in what way was it influential? I mean, if anything, you saying it came out years before the iraqi wars would seem to indicate it wasn't influential enough to change the way potential warfare in the middle east was received...

The The with Matt Johnson were one of the bands that made up red wedge, an organisation set up to interest young people in left wing politics. Thatcher was eventually kicked out.

The whole of the infected album is very good, the first time pop music dealt with AIDS, and has one of the greatest lines going.

I've got too much energy to switch off my mind, but not enough to get myself organised.

Im a bit confused, are you looking for "roots" in the post WWII music or are you sampling all music from 1945 till now?

Roots of a genre can be traced to pre WWII boogie and black music. NEw Orleans was a good place for music experimentation in the post boogie pre rock era of the late 40s.

An anthem of that tranition period was the Spoo de oodee song that was from about 1948 and you can hear something that could effortlessly become rock.


Perhaps some artists would appear (or not) , Rock was as much a business experiment as an artistic one. At the right time , many single style labels were established and they actively sought ought artists whod fill their mission statement.

LTNS = long time, no see

I think Ohio just sort of showed that there was an effort to not forget what happened at Kent State, that it couldn't just be shoved under a rug. There have been plenty of protest songs before and since, but that one was a hit (#14 on the US charts), so there were a ton of sales.

If you really want influence, you should be looking at rap, such as NWA's 1988 Straight Outta Compton.

Well, that sounds like an album I should definitely listen to then. Thanks for the info!



@farmerman,

I'm not really looking for anything in particular, I'm just searching for songs that were influential in one way or another. Of course, songs that in their time influenced up and coming artists and in doing so helped to establish a new genre of music are quite influential. But so are songs for the woman's movement, and if for instance it turned out there was a song out there that caused a lot of people to buy pink wallpaper, I suppose that would be an influence as well.

Thanks for the link with Spo-dee o-dee song. It's quite excellent, very catchy tune!

@jespah

Yeah, I figured ltns out once I did a search on the acronym and I noticed it mentioned in a post where they were welcoming back another member . Then it 'clicked'.

Well, songs that raise awareness are important in their own right. Certain grim facts from history should never be forgotten, and music is, and probably always will be, a great way to keep certain events firmly established in the front of everybody's mind.

Rap is not really my music, and I know only little of it. But it's undeniably been very influential in all sorts of ways. Not just music, but also culture, political awareness, etc. Thanks for sharing that one with a link to the lyrics. I find rap lyrics decidedly hard to follow, usually.

The first time that I heard "Move Over, Beethoven", I hated it, as I love old Ludwig. In New York, a great classical station was changing to rock and roll, (anybody remember the name of it?) and that was the first song that it played.

Hmmm I'm sure plenty will spring to mind as I ponder this but I'll start with 'Eve Of Destruction' by Barry McGuire which kind of killed the flower power era before it even started. Released in 1965 two years before Scott Mackenzie's 'San Francisco'. It was only the drug haze that made people think things were getting better.

I'm hard pressed to find a more literal castigation of the modern world in pop that pre-dates it. Sure Dylan was hinting at it, but through allusion and word play for the most part. It really is an anti-pop song, using an escapist art form to crush your optimism.

Armageddon Days rocked to, complete with Ballroom Blitz intro pastiche "Are you ready Buddah? Jesus? Mohammed? Alright fellers LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!