I teach international relations and comparative politics. In most of my classes, I ask students to fill out a “Course Activity” assignment as a way for me to both find out what their interests are and to prompt them to think more broadly about our topics. I always ask questions about how the course topics are portrayed in art.
In my Causes of War class, these questions relate to violence and war. One of them asked students, “What is one song that you appreciate or know of that says something about war or group violence (it can be contemporary or older)?”
Almost all the suggested songs were applicable/appropriate. As you can see, the class had several fans of heavy metal, classic and contemporary. I played a clip of each song either at the start or middle of class, and then asked students for their thoughts on both the song itself and on what they thought it meant, or what they took from it regarding violent conflict and war.
This led to fascinating and often extended discussions about the relationship between art and “real life,” whether we can separate the art from the artist, how genuine the sentiments behind the writing were, and so on. Students disagreed, for example, whether to take Taylor Swift seriously as an anti-war songwriter. Another dispute occurred over whether violence was meant to be part of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” And we had several conversations about anti-war songs being anti-all war, anti-specific wars (the Vietnam War was a popular one here), or anti-unnecessary wars.
This course activity and discussion about art, artists, and war are highlighted in the current moment by this public letter by artists urging a ceasefire in Israel-Palestine.
Here’s the list of songs discussed in class (and here it is on Spotify). Some don’t have an actual video but provide the lyrics and context (for example, the video for “Orange Crush” by R.E.M.) to help students interpret their meaning. Others have fan-created videos that can add to the conversation (for example, the fan video for “Civil War” by Guns N’ Roses).
Two original videos are especially powerful. In their video for “Wrong Side of Heaven,” Five Finger Death Punch highlights the plight of homeless veterans and annotates the images with devastating statistics about veterans’ post-military lives. “Zombie” by the Cranberries shows images from the conflict in Northern Ireland.
The first song is my selection:
▪ The Longest Day – Iron Maiden
▪ Fortunate Son – Creedence Clearwater Revival
▪ Stoned Love – The Supremes
▪ War – Idles
▪ Us and Them – Pink Floyd
▪ Please, Don’t Have Laid Down Your Life – Gumi
▪ Wrong Side of Heaven – Five Finger Death Punch
▪ Zombie – The Cranberries
▪ Epiphany – Taylor Swift
▪ Civil War – Guns N‘ Roses
▪ Army Dreamers – Kate Bush
▪ Savage – Judas Priest
▪ Everybody Wants to Rule the World – Tears for Fears
▪ Gimme Shelter – The Rolling Stones
▪ The Rise of Hannibal – Ex Dio
▪ Tears the Fascists Down – Woody Guthrie
▪ Rust in Peace – Megadeth
▪ Orange Crush – R.E.M.
▪ For What it’s Worth – Buffalo Springfield
▪ Refuse/Resist – Sepultura
▪ British Bombs – Declan McKenna
▪ War – Edwin Starr
▪ Achilles Come Down – Gang of Youths
Brent E. Sasley is a 2024-2025 Good Authority fellow.
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