What are some songs from 1945-1960 that highlight the major events faced by the nation (US)? thanks?

Question

this is for a history project and i've searched everyhwhere...i guess these songs are post WWII...Of these 5 songs we are to also write a critque of how these songs are reflective of the time period...help plz

Answer 1

"Strange Fruit", 1944, is a song most famously performed by Billie Holiday that condemns American racism, particularly the practice of lynching and burning African Americans that was prevalent in the South at the time when it was written.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Fruit

"I'm an Indian Too" is a song from the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun, by Irving Berlin. Although typical of mid 20th century views of Native Americans, it is often considered racist and demeaning from a contemporary perspective.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_an_Indian_Too

"Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)" is a protest song with lyrics by Woody Guthrie detailing the crash of a plane near Los Gatos Canyon in Fresno County, California on 1948-01-29 and what Guthrie considered the racist mistreatment of the passengers before and after the accident. The crash resulted in the deaths of four americans and 28 illegal immigrant farm workers who were being deported from California back to Mexico.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportee_%28Plane_Wreck_at_Los_Gatos%29

"Rollin' Stone", a 1948 Muddy Waters blues song that was the inspiration for the name of the band and the magazine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollin%27_Stone

"The Third Man Theme", an instrumental written and performed by Anton Karas for the soundtrack to the film The Third Man (1949) about the post-war Austrian city of Vienna, just after the Second World War, when it was divided between the Allied powers of Britain, France, the USA and the USSR.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Man_Theme

"Sixteen Tons" is a song about the misery of coal mining, written in 1947 by U.S. country singer Merle Travis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixteen_Tons

"White Christmas" was re-recorded on 1947-03-18, and became the most famous version, the biggest selling single of all time with an estimated 50 million copies sold. "[Irving] Berlin wrote the song in early 1940. The original verse pokes fun at a well-off Los Angeleno who, amid orange and palm trees, longs for traditional Christmas "up north." Berlin later dropped the verse but kept the now-famous chorus."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Christmas_%28song%29

"Dirty Old Town" is a song written by Ewan MacColl in 1949, and made popular by The Dubliners. "The song paints an evocative yet ultimately bitter picture of industrial Northern England, and presages to some extent the Angry Young Man school of the 1950s."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Old_Town

"Rock Around the Clock" is a blues-based song from 1952, one of the first rock-and-roll songs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Around_the_Clock

"Work With Me, Annie", January 14, 1954, one of the first hitsongs the FCC tried to ban due to its "overtly sexual lyrics". It's part of the "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_With_Me%2C_Anniehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_With_Me%2C_Annie

"Non, je ne regrette rien", 1956, made famous by French singer Édith Piaf, who dedicated her recording of the song to the French Foreign Legion. At the time of the recording, France was engaged in a military conflict, the Algerian War of Independence (1956–1962), and the Legion—who had backed a temporary putsch by the French military against the civilian leadership of Algeria—adopted the song when their resistance was broken in April 1961, singing it as they were ordered at gunpoint aboard evacuation vehicles. The song remains popular with the Legion and is sung when they are on parade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non%2C_je_ne_regrette_rien

"Tom Dooley" is an old North Carolina folk song. It is best known today because of a hit version recorded in 1958 by The Kingston Trio. It tells the story of impoverished Confederate veteran Tom Dula, convicted of of the murder his girlfriend and hanged in 1868.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Dooley_%28song%29

"Never On Sunday" ("Pote tin Kyriaki"), 1960, the theme song of the Greek/French movie of the same name. It won the Academy Award for Best Song. It tells the story of Ilya, a prostitute-with-golden-heart who lives in the port of Piraeus in Greece, and refuses to work on Sundays.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_on_Sunday_%28song%29

Answer 2

Hm... I'm gonna include at least one song from the 50's, if that's alright. Led Zeppelin - Communication Breakdown The Police - Roxanne Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop R.E.M. - Losing My Religion Rage Against the Machine - Take the Power Back The Clash - London Calling The Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along the Watchtower Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode Radiohead - Bodysnatchers Free - All Right Now Judas Priest - A Touch of Evil Sly & The Family Stone - Thank You Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell Led Zeppelin - Custard Pie The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Purple Haze Led Zeppelin - The Rover Beach Boys - California Girls Judas Priest - Electric Eye Led Zeppelin - Ten Years Gone John Lennon - Imagine I can live without them of course, but I listen to these songs a bit more than I do other songs. Especially the first five.

Answer 3

1945 Songs

Answer 4

Try looking at the work of Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan.