Trump’s Nuclear Summit and America’s Rich History Of Nuclear Music
On the Fetishization of Atomic Bombs in Music during the Early Cold War Period
It is today that possibly one of the most important events in history will take place, The Nuclear Summit with North Korea. Now with my opinions of Trump withheld, this could be a huge milestone in achieving Nuclear peace, that’s if Trump can behave himself.
Nuclear Anxieties have been very common for sometime. Just look at 80s protest music, Godzilla, or my personal favorite, The Host directed by Bong Joon-ho (This film is a South Korean masterpiece in the monster movie genre about nuclear anxiety.) However, these anxieties were not always so common place. The 40s to even the early 60s in America was a very gullible time for the everyday person.
Post World War II America was a strange land. The advent of the Nuclear Bombs on Japan and the rapid advancement of technology due to Quantum Mechanics greatly altered how the everyday person experienced the world. These new technologies dramatically increased political tensions between world superpowers, leading to the cold war, which was a war fought primarily with attainment of knowledge. However, politicians and governments where not the only ones being strained, these rapid advancements in technologies and their use in the military at this time increased the public’s distrust of these new inventions and the governments creating them. To alleviate these stressors on the public, popular media such as music was played on the radio that aimed to portray these technologies in a less malicious manner. By doing this, these songs often fetishiezed or greatly underestemated the power of nuclear arms, sometimes even stating this was a gift from God to extinguish evil.
To start let’s examine first The Buchanan Brothers’ song “Atomic Power” released in august 1946. Written the morning after the bombing of Hiroshima by North Carolina country artist and radio personality Fred Kirby, This song is an upbeat, country tropical song in a standard 4/4 time signature. The song goes on to talk about how “Atomic Power” was given to us by “The Mighty Hand of God.” It problematically talks about how The U.S. was given this power to “cleanse” Japan of two of its more “sinful” cities. It also ends with a warning on how this power, if misused, will be the end of days. It is a well documented fact that many soldiers came back from these pacific islands and brought back many cultural influences from these lands with them. This helps play into the tone of this song greatly, It’s a justification for the soldiers in a tropical island aesthetic that they have come to enjoy since their stay on these tropical islands during the war. It emphasises the positives of an otherwise traumatic experience and attempts to subdue any internal conflicts they may have with the bombing of Japan using this religious allegory. Religious themes in general play a huge part in the cold war and are utilized quite heavily for the justification of stopping the spread of communism.
Religious themes however, are not the only themes explored in this Atomic Music. Sexuality is another them heavily explored by these pop tracks, a perfect example of which is Doris Day’s “Tic, Tic, Tic.” Much about this song is well documented and researched. This song was loosely relating the singer, Doris Day and love in general, to a geiger counter. Geiger counters were everywhere during this time, Sears sold multiple different versions, for example. (Sears Catalog) Bob Dylan is even quoted saying in his memoir Chronicles, Volume One: “[T]he general opinion was, in case of nuclear attack all you really needed was a surplus Geiger counter. It might become your most prized possession, would tell you what’s safe to eat and what’s dangerous. Geiger counters were easy to get. In fact, I even had one in my New York apartment.” The song goes on to tell us how the amazing new invention, the geiger counter, was made because of the atomic bomb, and how it makes her “Tic, Tic, Tic.” The song directly says in a few areas how love makes her and everyone else tic. Just look at the chorus for example:
“So tic, tic, tic, let your heart tic, tic
How can anything go wrong
If you’re listening to that Geiger counter song
You’ll tic, tic all day long”
This eerily speaks quite heavily to the naiveté of Americans on the actual content that this song is referencing to. This song was written by Ralph Blane, who was a closeted gay man at the time. The lyrics compare the beating heart of someone falling in love to the ticking of a Geiger counter. The love interest in the song is described as radioactive (i.e., hot), making the pursuer’s heart tic, or beat, incessantly like the device. This is particularly interesting given that during this time women were just starting to be allowed to pursue men by society and they made up to one third of the labour force, which before the war, was not possible. However, this song still had to be written by a man for the idea of a woman pursuing a man to be acceptable and distributed to the public via radio and film.(Tim and Joanna Smolko)
Elton Britt’s “Uranium Fever” was widely successful and received a lot of airtime on the radio after its production in 1955. The song is an incredibly happy and upbeat goof-fest. It is a fun and funny look into the Uranium Rush that was happening at the time. During the 1950s, The Atomic Energy Commission’s demand for uranium exploded. This was due, in part, to President Eisenhower’s “Atoms For Peace” speech, which encouraged the governments of the world to focus more time, effort, and resources on research for peaceful uses of nuclear energy. (USU Digital Exhibits) The song goes on to tell us about the singer’s exploits looking for Uranium and how he searches high and low only to find is unmarked fortune has already been staked out by fourteen other guys. It’s a goofy narrative about a get rich quick scheme that doesn’t quite work out, but it doesn’t deter our character as he is determined to find his fortune. This track really does a good job of making a light hearted joke out of uranium based research, even though this research was being done in tandem with high grade weapons research that was making nuclear bombs more and more dangerous. Not only six years later, Russia’s infamous 60 megaton Tsar Bomba would be tested. Atomic Heritage says “The extreme damage and devastation wrought by thermonuclear weapons like the Tsar Bomba is unimaginable. If such a weapon exploded in a large American city such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco, or Washington, D.C., their metropolitan areas plus large portions of their surrounding suburbs would be completely destroyed and nearly devoid of all life.” However Russia was not the only one making super bombs, America also was making them, like the the 25 megaton B41 bomb tested only months after this song’s release and by 1967 the US had 31,225 total warheads in its arsenal. (Atomic Heritage Foundation.) On top of this, nuclear powered navy vessels were becoming the normal for the U.S. and the establishment of nuclear power plants throughout the small island nation of Japan by the U.S. companies like General Electric and Westinghouse in huge quantities per capita throughout the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. Perhaps this was a strategy for the U.S. by making excess power near areas of conflict the U.S. could further enforce and stop the spread of Communism in Asia, on top of having a way of easy self detonation. (Japan Atomic Industrial.)
Bombs and power plants were not the only things during this time that were self detonating. According to The Five Stars 1957 hit “Atom Bomb Baby,” girls where also quite explosive. This track is simply about the man’s “baby” who is “a million times hotter than TNT.” The song goes on to say how she starts a chain reaction in his heart and alludes quite heavily to aggressive sex after an explosive kiss in a wigwam (a dome-shaped hut or tent made by fastening mats, skins, or bark over a framework of poles, used by some Native Americans/First peoples.) This track reduces the female to a explosive and dangerous weapon of mass destruction. Say she is hot and hot headed, crazy and crazy in bed, and then stating that this is exactly how he wants her to be, how she should be. Nothing more than an object of sexual desire who plays hard to get. On top of this, the track is incredibly infectious and catchy. It’s hard not to want to sing and dance along, no matter how disturbing the subject matter may be to our contemporary ears.
Societies view points on this matter wont remain so wide eyed for long however. One particular song that hints at this very shift is the song “Love That Bomb” from 1964. This is the theme song for Stanley Kubrick’s film Dr. Strangelove that directly satirizes The Cold War and the sexual fetishization of atomic warfare. The song starts with a woman counting down from ten, but as she approaches zero she gradually says the numbers in a more “sexy” way. This start, especially given the context, hammers home the idea of phallic nuclear missiles and their ties to the male gaze. The girl at the end of the countdown then says “Whoopie” in a very beach film sort of way that is immediately followed by crazed maniacal laughter. This laughter is crucial to setting the song as a clear critique of the Atomic Bomb. The song then goes to have a very pop rock boy group singing “Love that Bomb.” With a pop girl backing singing “yea, yea.” It talks about how the men have a strange fascination for the bomb from World War II. One particularly interesting part is the bridge in between two choruses. The bridge goes:
“Love that bomb
What a sweet sensationJust push the little button,
For complete annihilation!”
(La la la la la la la la, La la la la la)
This bridge starts with that pop boy group, but at the phrase “Just push the little button,” the voice changes to the man who did the evil laugh at the beginning. This man’s voice is aggressive and crazed and as he speaks, it gets more and more intense until he screams “Annihilation.” Then immediately after comes the girls singing “La la la la la la la la, La la la la la” In a very childlike and clueless manner.
This song, unlike all the others, is a critique of nuclear arms. While some scholars may say a few of the others, (with the exception of “Tic, Tic, Tic” since everyone agrees that song is a bit of a mess,) were meant to be satire. However, if a song misses its mark as satire to the general public and is readily used by radio and government to promote atomic research and development to further feed the military industrial complex, is it really satire? Sure, some of these songs authors may have intended the songs to be satire, but no one at the time thought of it as that. The closest one got to satire was Uranium Fever, but that song feels to be more of a goofy Scooby-Doo chase scene for uranium than any sort of real critique and this song even encouraged many at the time to go out there and hunt for Uranium for the off chance they might get rich. Only “Love That Bomb” called out nuclear weapons by using its direct references to its own insanity with the evil laughter and focus on all of our doom, and not just the bad guy’s. On top of this, it even goes so far to callout the other “satires” that could hardly be called satires and their blatant fetishment and male gaze focused narratives imposed on women.
Now all that being said, I genuinely love all the songs mentioned in this paper. They are great, fun, and goofy trips through classic Americana that are catchy and absurd. But that doesn’t mean they did not help fuel the cold war and military efforts on nuclear expansion. In 1968, Jeff Nuttall in Bomb Culture survey of postwar youth culture: “No longer could teacher, magistrate, politician, don or even loving parent guide the young. Their membership of the H-bomb society automatically cancelled anything they might have to say on questions of right or wrong.” In his view, “the so-called ‘generation gap’ started then” and had been widening ever since: “The people who had passed puberty at the time of the bomb found that they were incapable of conceiving of life without a future,” he wrote. “The people who had not yet reached puberty at the time of the bomb were incapable of conceiving of life with a future.”
With this thought of no future, it only makes sense that the government tried to hide the truth away from the masses and bury the atomic bomb in a shroud of sexy-goofy-catchy-fun mystery. To keep the public wanting more and participating in the efforts of gathering the resources to produce more. Thus creating the atomic family, a pleasant, “Everything is ok and all our power needs are met thanks to the Nuclear Power Plant Nearby” type of family. Though, thanks to events like Five Mile Island, Chernobyl, and most recently Fukushima, We know this to be just a fabricated facade meant to keep My Fellow Americans naive. So the clock just Tics, Tics, Tics, closer to midnight.
Now jump back to today, Many would agree that this ignorance of nuclear arms is not as present as it was back then. However, gun violence is something we still seem to be having a hard time grappling with. Parallels between these early songs on nuclear arms and firearms could easily be made. Everything from Country music to Hip Hop and Rap talks about getting and using guns. School shootings remain a common threat to our youth. Many are scared for their very lives, and rightfully so. Much like how those kids in the 40s, 50s, and 60s grew up to write anti war/anti nuclear songs in the late 60s, 70s and 80s, So too will the next generation make songs against the rising gun crisis in our schools. I am hopeful that these kids will make great advancements in gun legislation, Much like I hope that our current administration makes greats advancements in nuclear arms legislation with North Korea.
Citations:
Savage, Jon. “Pop in the Age of the Atomic Bomb.” The Guardian. October 31, 2010.
Accessed April 20, 2018.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/oct/31/pop-music-atomic-bomb-jon-savage.
BuchananBrothers. Digital File, Seventh Day Adventist Pillars, 1977.
http://sdapillars.org/media/BuchananBrothers.pdf
Atomic Tunes: The Cold War in American and British Popular Music by Tim and Joanna
Smolko. Copyright © 2018, Tim and Joanna Smolko. Reprinted with permission of Indiana University Press. http://www.theavidlistener.com/2016/04/youll-tic-tic-all-day-long-the-cold-war-geiger-counters-and-doris-day.html
Sears Catalog Number 201 date 1950, 202–203 date 1951, 204 date 1952, 206–207 date
1953, 209 date 1954, 210–211 date 1955, 212–213 date 1956, 214–215 date 1957, 216–217 date 1958 http://national-radiation-instrument-catalog.com/new_page_34.htm
“Women in the 1950s.” Khan Academy. Accessed April 20, 2018.
“Uranium Fever.” USU Digital Exhibits. Accessed April 20, 2018.
http://exhibits.usu.edu/exhibits/show/nuclearwest/uraniumfever.
“Tsar Bomba.” Atomic Heritage Foundation. August 08, 2014. Accessed April 20,
2018. https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/tsar-bomba.
Forum, Japan Atomic Industrial. “Map Reveals Status of Japan’s 54 Nuclear
Reactors.” Scientific American. Accessed April 20, 2018. https://www.scientificamerican.com/gallery/map-reveals-status-of-japans-54-nuclear-reactors/.
Dr. Strangelove, Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Film, Music,
Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Produced by Victor Lyndon, Peter Murton, Bridget Sellers, Stewart Freeborn, Barbara Ritchie, Pablo Ferro, and Ken Adam. By Terry Southern, Peter George, Wally Veevers, Vic Margutti, John Cox, Leslie Hodgson, Laurie Johnson, Gilbert Taylor, and Anthony Harvey. Performed by Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens, Peter Bull, Tracy Reed, James Earl Jones, and Shane Rimmer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3gJ2XUZQ4o
The Buchanan Brothers (Fred Kirby). “Atomic Power.” Music. Youtube. August
1964. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sP01ylAkfo.
Doris Day (Ralph Blane). “Tic, Tic, Tic.” Music. Youtube. 1949.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caBRGOoJrWM.
Elton Britt. “Uranium Fever.” Music. Youtube. 1955.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ANI6oj8p2M.
Five Stars. “Atom Bomb Baby.” Music. Youtube. 1957.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXSUEU7ISfQ.
Dylan, Bob. Bob Dylan Chronicles: Volume One. London: Simon & Schuster, 2004.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/bob-dylan-chronicle-excerpts-of-chapter-5-river-of-ice/575/
