Revolutionary song

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 an important part of political propaganda, because if they are good they can spread fast and stay in circulation for a long time. The most important parts of a revolutionary songs are the tune (which has to be easy to remember, simple, and pleasant-sounding) and the lyrics, which are the tool of the political agitation. 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 CNT. The most famous of these, A Las Barricadas, remains a popular song for anarchist militants to this day.

In post-World War II Eastern European revolutionary songs were taught not merely in kindergartens and schools but also sung at celebrations and official functions. They are often still well-known and some of them, especially those written for children, remain popular.

Revolutionary songs were a particularly prominent part of the popular culture of the People's Republic of China during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, and especially so 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 in the same province. 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" (a song 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 Sichuan Province) are among some of the more well-known revolutionary songs from the wartime and Maoist periods in China.

Hidden meaning

Some revolutionary songs targeted at governments have been known to intentionally mimic folk (children's) songs to make them palatable in non-political settings; it being assumed that this will help them spread even more.

One 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.

(The following verses are about the actual revolution.)

Another good example is the song from the movie "Cabaret": "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", which is sung by a young man. It starts off as a sweet folk song about nature. We realise as the song unfolds that the young man is a member of the hitlerjugend. Soon the song changes to a marching song and the lyrics became a fascist propaganda about "rising up."