"This project is an interpretive examination of over 5,000 Vietnam War songs identified, revealing how the war's significance is represented through music"
The Vietnam War Song Project (VWSP) is an archive and interpretive examination of over 5000 Vietnam War songs identified.[1] The project is currently hosted on the online collaborative database Rate Your Music, with components on YouTube, Twitter, and at the University of Maryland.[2][3][4] It was founded in 2007 by its current editor, Dr. Justin Brummer, a historian with a PhD in contemporary Anglo-American relations.[5][6] The project analyses the lyrics, and collects data on the genre, location, ethnicity, nationality, language, and time period of the recordings.[7][8][9]It also involves the preservation of the original physical vinyl records. Additional items collected include cassette tapes, CDs, MP3s, record label scans, and sheet music.
Part of the project includes a discography, Vietnam War Songs: An incomplete discography, which has over 6000 titles, both unique songs and cover songs, a collaboration between Hugo Keesing, Wouter Keesing, C.L. Yarbrough, and Justin Brummer at the University of Maryland Libraries.[10] Dr. Hugo Keesing, adjunct professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, and the producer of the 13 CD box-set compilation Next Stop Is Vietnam is also a major contributor of songs and record scans.[11][12][13]
The project has categorised songs into a variety of themes, from anti-war / protest / peace songs, to patriotic / pro-government / anti-protest songs during the war years, as well an analysis of songs released in the post-war period. Other themes include regional songs, such as Puerto Ricans in the Vietnam War, Australia in the Vietnam War, New Zealand in the Vietnam War, Mexican-Americans, and songs from South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Genres include soul, gospel & funk, the blues, and punk music. The project also looks at songs about key events, which include the Chicago Seven, Kent State shootings, and the My Lai Massacre.[14][15]
The project is a respected academic resource and a significant source of reference in popular culture.[16][17][18]
↑Rubin, Rachel Lee (2018). Merle Haggard's Okie from Muskogee. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
↑Leepson, Marc (2017). Ballad of the Green Beret The Life and Wars of Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler from the Vietnam War and Pop Stardom to Murder and an Unsolved, Violent Death. Guilford, Connecticut: Stackpole Books.