Rock ’n’ roll music was an important part of the American troops’ lives in Vietnam. It was a reminder of home in an otherwise foreign and dangerous place. The major broadcast source for music was the Armed Forces Radio, which taped Top 40 songs in recording studios in Los Angeles and had them airlifted to Vietnam. The military had a number of restrictions about the type of music that could be played. Protest songs, and any music that could be interpreted as a protest, were prohibited. One of the most notable top hits in 1966 on the approved playlist was “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” a patriotic song written and performed by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler.
Enlisted men became bored with the approved playlists for the Armed Forces Radio stations because they were dominated by classical music or light pop tunes. As a result soldiers began bringing their own music to play on their stereos. One of the most popular songs among the enlisted men was “We Gotta Get Outta This Place” by the Animals.
Professional musicians had a big impact on the antiwar movement. Folk singers Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Pete Seeger composed songs and performed in antiwar concerts. The most famous rock concert during the Vietnam War period was Woodstock, held in upstate New York in 1968. The theme song of the concert, “Woodstock,” performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, had an antiwar theme. Jimi Hendrix, who had served in Vietnam in the 101st Airborne, was the dominant performer of a new style of psychedelic music called “acid rock” that utilized the electric guitar in ways never before imagined. One of his most popular songs was “Purple Haze,” which had references to the purple smoke used to mark landing zones for helicopters. Though his music and the hard-edged rebellious music of Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and similar groups did not break the Top-10 charts, they had widespread air time both in the United States and in South Vietnam. In 1970 the antiwar movement had as an anthem a powerful antiwar song by Edwin Starr that was simply titled, “War.”
It was this element of protest that separated the music of the Vietnam War from music in all earlier American wars. Previously, the music was patriotic or supportive: An antiwar song was an exception. In the Vietnam War, an antiwar song was more the rule.