De Chicago a Kent State: un retrato musical de las protestas contra la Guerra de Vietnam

A Musical Portrait of the Protests against the Vietnam War

Abstract

American participation in the Vietnam War provoked several reactions of support and rejection among American society. The mobilization against this war reached its peak through several rallies such as the 1968 National Democratic Convention in Chicago or the Kent State University protests and shootings in 1970. The following repression added new arguments to protests that not only denounced the military escalation but the limitation of liberties. All these actions inspired an enormous musical production by singer-songwriters who wrote protest songs. Through the analysis of the lyrical contents of these compositions, this paper studies the musical portrait of these protests and the following repression. This will allow us to determine the thematic preferences and classify the songs according to this categorization, as well as establish the matters that these singer-songwriters denounced. Finally, we will be able to identify the positioning of these composers and their description of the conditions of the country.