Musical resistance to war

AS the drumbeat for war gets louder, will the general public meekly accept conscription (euphemistically described as 'national service') or will a mass protest movement emerge?

- NIALL MCCRAE

In the 1960s, the newly emancipated black people of Chicago and other industrial cities of northern USA found their voice against a new tyranny the Vietnam War. Motown, the famous record label based in the motor city of Detroit, released several songs of anti-war sentiment.

Motown, in the mid-Sixties, was as apolitical as it could be. Sugary pop by Diana Ross and the Supremes, The Temptations, Four Tops and the Jackson Five was laced with the strings of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, producing a sound that hooked transistor radio listeners. But by the end of the decade, the mood had shifted, and 1970 became the vintage year of musical resistance to the Vietnam War.