Conflict is no stranger to creative endeavour. The First World War produced great poetry, the Spanish Civil War great literature, and in Iraq a vast number of young soldiers – brought up on videogames, free music downloads, YouTube and dubbed Generation Kill by Rolling Stone magazine – are turning to music as a way of making sense of their war.
Everyone has an iPod or CD player and laptops and video cameras are common. Humvees are routinely jerry-rigged with tinny speakers and even sub-woofers, zip-tied to the ceiling, which pump out rock music as units charge into battle. And because you now don’t need expensive equipment or a professional studio to record music, these soldiers, armed with just a microphone and a copy of home-recording software such as GarageBand, can produce a song in the combat zone and email it home.
When he returned from his own tour of duty in Iraq in January 2006, Sean Gilfillan – who lost seven of his friends and comrades – was shocked at what he calls ‘the disconnect between civilians and returning members of the military.’
‘If you didn’t want to know about the war in Iraq,’ says Gilfillan, who was part of the first occupying force to enter Baghdad after the fall of the city in 2003, ‘you could ignore it. Only 9 per cent of the US population has any experience of serving in the military. The other 91 per cent have no idea.’ In an attempt to bridge this gap and humanise the soldiers, Gilfillan decided to set up a label to put out music made by members of the US armed forces as a tribute to their fallen comrades and to reach out to the general population.To The Fallen Records was founded in January 2007 by Gilfillan and business partner Sidney DeMello and takes its name from the large tattoo Gilfillan had etched across his back to honour his friends who had died. The label offers a conduit of expression for young men and women whose voices are never normally heard in an attempt to expunge the stereotype of the typical American soldier.
This is a long, eloquent story.
Read the tale. If you’ve been sheltered from war and battle and life in the military, you’ll learn something about a tough – but often survivable – part of life.
Why is this posted in, Politics? Isn’t there a Music meta tag?
I’m sure it’s better than the shit Toby Keith came out with after 9/11, just to make a buck.
I think that if any of these “artists” are found to be using copied / downloaded / ripped / anything not bought and properly licensed should be court martialed and / or sued into oblivion. Just because they’ve been in Iraq does NOT allow them the right to manipulate the rights holders properties. If they’re so talented, they should be able to make their own tracks to the sounds in their heads.
I’d be prepared to bet money that most of the stuff on this CD is just rap dross for the intellectually challenged, after all, if you weren’t brain damaged then you’d not have joined up knowing the historical uses the US armed forces has been put to use doing, especially when you have a dumbass frat boy with Big Oil connections as Commander in Chief.
#3
RIAA lawyer? Give it a rest dude.
Whether the music is any good or not is left up to the listener but the comments coming from the fucktards nameless and zybch are some of the most stupid things I have ever read on this blog.
Heard a clip from Sleeping Giant…
meh
Cursor_
PAPER: OBAMA TRIED TO STALL GIS’ IRAQ WITHDRAWAL… see the drudgereport
Why don’t we stories like this more prominently as opposed to Sarah Palin’s hairdo? Hmmmm?
only combat rock I want to hear is from the Clash
I’m on active duty and I’d like to hear some of this music. However, I suspect most of it is the same shitty rap that’s cluttering up the Intertubes over here.
#10, SomeITguy,
“If you expect the freedom that you say is yours, help us to preserve it, prove that you deserve it, or being free will just be words and nothing more.”
If you expect respect for your position you will not attempt to steal respect that is not yours. The freedom we, as Americans have, is NOT because of the military. It is because of the respect we give our country. It is the respect we give our Constitution. It is the deference we, as a nation, have to the idea that people should not be subject to anyone. It is the concept that our system of government is the glue that hold the fabric of our society together. It is the understanding that we are all equal.
If you notice, I wrote that myself and didn’t make an anonymous quote.
A soldier (sailor or airman) is just that. Someone who is employed by “We the People” to defend this country against aggressors. While not diminishing the role the military has or the bravery exhibited, they are no more important in the continuance of our democracy than the file clerk in the County Court office or the Capitol Policeman standing guard inside the doors to Congress.
Each and every American is part of what makes the United States such a great country. Chest thumping about how great we are, wearing American flag shirts or flag lapel pins, shouting your allegiance, claiming special status for the military, etc., do not make you a great American. They diminish it. If you are a great American then join the process, vote, campaign for a candidate, listen to those running for office. Just don’t claim you are better. Respect is earned, not claimed.
The military is truly a different LIFE, not a job.
The same claim may be made for working in a circus or as a scientist at the South Pole.