Revolutionary song  

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Revolutionary songs are political songs that advocate or praise revolutions. They are used to boost morale, as well as for political propaganda or agitation. Amongst the most well-known revolutionary songs are "La Marseillaise" and "The Internationale". Many protest songs can be considered revolutionary. Revolutionary songs are a notable part of propaganda. The singing of the such songs is often considered as a demonstrative or revolutionary action. Such songs have been known to lend solidarity to disjointed political communities. Some revolutionary songs have appeared spontaneously; others have been written by notable authors, such as Bertolt Brecht. Revolutionary songs are often frequently targeted at certain governments; such songs are often geared to children that they may be taught in schools and kindergartens.

Many revolutionary songs appeared during the Spanish Civil War and subsequent social revolution, especially amongst members of the anarcho-syndicalist trade union, the ConfederaciĆ³n Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). The most famous of these, "A Las Barricadas", remains popular for anarchist militants to this day. In post-World War II Eastern Europe, revolutionary songs were taught in schools and sung at celebrations and official functions. Revolutionary songs were a prominent part of the popular culture of the People's Republic of China during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, and especially during the Cultural Revolution. One of the more popular Chinese revolutionary songs was "Nanniwan", a 1943 song lauding the exploits of the Chinese Red Army in a gorge in Shaanxi province near the revolutionary base of Yan'an. Revolutionary songs of Communist China often served to glorify the 1949 revolution and to present an image of unity amongst China's 56 ethnic groups and its various regions. Songs such as "Sky Over the Liberated Zone" (praising the Communist Party of China and romanticizing life in the CCP-held "liberated zones" during the wars against Japan and the Kuomintang) and "Osmanthus Flowers Blooming Everywhere in August" (a Red Army folk song from the Sichuan province) are among the best-known revolutionary songs from the wartime and Maoist periods in China.

Some revolutionary songs intentionally mimic folk (children's) songs to make them palatable in non-political settings. An example of this type of song is a lullaby from Hungary (tentative translation follows), which starts off as a lullaby but shifts into more direct propaganda toward the end:

The bunch of little bears happily sleeping
And the pool sleeps on a soft pillow
The swing sleeps too, and the night will be their good blanket
Dream, my little one, soft dream flies
It flies to your eyes
Be silent, little baby
Our dreams were hushed away by the grim despotism
And only our hunger sung our song.

Another example is "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", which is performed by a young man in the movie Cabaret. It starts off as a sweet folk song about nature, and then it becomes apparent that the young man is a member of the Hitlerjugend. Soon the song changes into to a marching song, and the lyrics became a fascist propaganda about "rising up."

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Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Revolutionary song" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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