World War II American Popular Songs (1 Viewer)

PolarBear

PolarBear

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In 2001 I taught a course at Syracuse University on American Popular Culture of World War II. I gave my students a project on songs that were recorded during the war years. Each student had a song they had to research and compare with other songs we discussed in class.We purposely selected some of the lesser know songs to bring them to public attention. I turned the project into a website that shows images of the recordings and the sheet music that went with them, a 30 second clip of the song and comments from the students' papers. The songs are organized by categories. Select one to go to those recordings. To hear a song clip, click on the orange title.

Enjoy!

Randy
 

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PolarBear said:
In 2001 I taught a course at Syracuse University on American Popular Culture of World War II. I gave my students a project on songs that were recorded during the war years. Each student had a song they had to research and compare with other songs we discussed in class.We purposely selected some of the lesser know songs to bring them to public attention. I turned the project into a website that shows images of the recordings and the sheet music that went with them, a 30 second clip of the song and comments from the students' papers. The songs are organized by categories. Select one to go to those recordings. To hear a song clip, click on the orange title.

Enjoy!

Randy
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Here is the link to the site

https://library.syr.edu/belfer/programs/projects/belfer78/
 
What an incredibly interesting project and site. I am embarrassed to admit that I have heard only a few of the songs before. Great idea! -- Al
 
Interesting project Randy although I'd have to say that most of the bands and the songs, other than probably those by Irving Berlin, are, for lack of a better word, forgettable. Obviously, none of the big band leaders here. Also, the songs would also have to be very early in the War because of the strike.

Lawrence Welk was my Grandmother's favorite band leader. She would make me watch his shows on TV with her.
 
jazzeum said:
Interesting project Randy although I'd have to say that most of the bands and the songs, other than probably those by Irving Berlin, are, for lack of a better word, forgettable. Obviously, none of the big band leaders here. Also, the songs would also have to be very early in the War because of the strike.

Lawrence Welk was my Grandmother's favorite band leader. She would make me watch his shows on TV with her.
Click to expand...

All the major songs were covered in class. The SU Audio Archive is 2nd only to the Library of Congress in its holdings. Thus they have many of the recordings of the lesser known WWII songs as well as the more famous. The emphasis on the project was to apply what the student had learned in class to a totally unfamiliar song. By putting these songs on the web it was meant to give researchers ideas for their own projects. I also showed the students material from the magazines of the era and American propaganda posters. Another project was to do an analysis of a wartime advertisement from Life magazine. I had one student who did an independent study project on ads for cosmetics during the war and what their messages said about gender and the homefront.
 
Randy,

I'm sure it must have been a great experience. Heck, I would have loved to take a class like that. Do you remember what the students thought of their experience.

Brad
 
jazzeum said:
Randy,

I'm sure it must have been a great experience. Heck, I would have loved to take a class like that. Do you remember what the students thought of their experience.

Brad
Click to expand...

Yes. They told me that they enjoyed it since now they could talk informatively with their grandparents who had served in or lived through it. I learned this from a number of them after they got back from spring vacation. Somewhere I have the syllabus and if I can find it will scan you a copy. My dad was in the Army in WWII stationed at Camp Croft in Spartunburg, South Carolina and my mom worked at the camp as well until she had to return to New England to give birth to moi. My dad was drafted after D-Day when they needed clerical staff at the bases. Although he had infantry training he did not see combat. As a child he had infantile paralysis that impacted his feet requiring that he wear special shoe supports for the rest of his life. At Camp Croft, he worked for the camp psychiatrist recording the testimony of soldiers seeking Section 8 discharges. I still have his army shirt when he was a Staff Sgt. My parents passed on a lot of the wartime pop culture to me so it was fun for me sharing it with the younger generation. I had also worked extensively with SU's Margaret Bourke-White Collection with a special interest in her work during WWII.

Randy
 
The advertising during wartime in publications such as Life is an artform in itself. I have several cutout ads from Life, part of a larger collection that was broken up. The ones I have involve aircraft and war industry. Great artwork and propaganda. A VERY interesting subject. -- Al
 
lancer said:
The advertising during wartime in publications such as Life is an artform in itself. I have several cutout ads from Life, part of a larger collection that was broken up. The ones I have involve aircraft and war industry. Great artwork and propaganda. A VERY interesting subject. -- Al
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Al you are absolutely right. I love the 1940s color printing too

Randy
 
Here's an interesting little clip I came across tonight of Stan Kenton. He was one of the great bandleaders of his day, mostly known these days to jazz aficionados.

http://youtu.be/4wh4xNb2TyA
 
lancer said:
What an incredibly interesting project and site. I am embarrassed to admit that I have heard only a few of the songs before. Great idea! -- Al
Click to expand...
Try the Andrew Sisters on Utube...lots of clips from WW2 proper gander movies and they can sing too....cheers TomB
 
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