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The history of American protest<\/a> music<\/a> and how it has intersected with politics is the subject of a\u00a0fascinating new book<\/a>,\u00a0On the Record:\u00a0Music that Changed America<\/em>,\u00a0by Anna Harwell Celenza.<\/p>\n Each chapter examines a historical period in which music intersected with politics, sometimes even inspiring legislation. It includes the histories of both \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d and \u201cLift Every Voice and Sing,\u201d an exploration of copyright laws that protected everyone from George Gershwin to Sonny Bono, and fascinating chapters on Duke Ellington, Charles Ives, and how the United States government used jazz to fight communism<\/a> in the 1950s. There are profiles of Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, and Aaron Copland, who was accused of being a communist, as well as descriptions of how\u00a0West Side Story<\/em>\u00a0was used by politicians to address juvenile delinquency problems. There\u2019s a great analysis of Marvin Gaye\u2019s classic album\u00a0What\u2019s Going On<\/em>\u00a0and how Washington politicians in the 1980s tried to shut down what they saw as offensive forms of popular music.<\/p>\n On the Record<\/em> is the best kind of popular history. Celenza, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, writes with erudition, a command of the subject matter, and a sense of fun.<\/p>\n Probably the most well-known example of a song that affected society is \u201cStrange Fruit.\u201d When President Joe Biden<\/a> announced to a group of civil rights advocates and politicians assembled in the Rose Garden that he had just signed into law House Bill 55, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, many of the commentators brought up \u201cStrange Fruit.\u201d It is a protest song written in the 1930s by a high school English teacher named Abel Meeropol, under the pen name Lewis Allan.<\/p>\n \u201cStrange Fruit\u201d was made famous by jazz icon Billie Holiday. The singer Lena Horne once recalled the first time she heard Holiday perform the song: \u201c[She] was putting into words what so many people had seen and lived through. She seemed to be performing in melody and words the same thing I was feeling in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n There was also \u201cWe Shall Overcome,\u201d the great gospel anthem that became a part of the civil rights movement and was quoted by President Lyndon B. Johnson. \u201cFor well over a century,\u201d Celenza writes, \u201cvarious versions of this affirmative phrase had been sung, first by black Americans, and then around the globe, as a call for freedom: freedom from racial oppression, freedom from unfair labor practices, freedom from political injustices. The folk singer and activist Pete Seeger once said: \u2018The right song at the right time can change history.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Such a song was Marvin Gaye\u2019s 1971 anthem \u201cWhat\u2019s Going On,\u201d which expressed concern about social issues facing America: \u201cMotown\u2019s smooth, soulful hitmaker, released a song that momentarily changed the landscape of popular music. \u2018What\u2019s Going On\u2019 was more than just a hit single; it was a bold departure from the love songs and dance tunes that had defined Gaye\u2019s career up to that point. This introspective, socially conscious anthem spoke directly to the spirit of the times and marked Gaye\u2019s transformation from a pop star into a voice for social change.\u201d<\/p>\n Also explored in\u00a0On the Record<\/em>\u00a0is how music was used to combat communism. In 1958, jazz musician Dave Brubeck, supported by the U.S. government, played a series of concerts in Poland<\/a>, a country under communist rule.<\/span> Jazz had been banned in 1949, but the ban was lifted in 1955. One Polish journalist called Brubeck\u2019s concert \u201ca breath of fresh air to local music lovers and jazz aficionados, hungry for live performances of original American jazz.\u201d Crowds followed Brubeck and his band around.<\/p>\n There is also a chapter on the Parents Music Resource Center, the 1980s government committee that sought to restrict access to what had become abrasive and vulgar pop music.<\/p>\n