Sound Targets: American Soldiers and Music in the Iraq War Review

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(More customer reviews)Sound Targets: American Soldiers and Music in the Iraq War, Jonathan Pieslak, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 2009.
This 225-page lightly illustrated book tells the story of American soldiers in Iraq and their use of music to build their own morale, to destroy the willingness of the enemy to continue the fight, and to weaken the resistance of prisoners during interrogation. I was aware of the author since he had written to me earlier requesting permission to quote some text from my article "The Use of Music in Psychological Operations" in his book.
Pieslak starts off by mentioning some historical uses of music; the trumpets used by Joshua at the battle of Jericho, General Santa Anna playing El Deguello at the Alamo, and of course the hard rock broadcast at General Noriega in Panama hiding in the Vatican Embassy in Panama. He goes on to discuss Iraq but since he admits that he only interviewed 18 soldiers and several of them were hesitant to talk, he doesn't really get into the subject in great depth. He discusses music in recruiting, in combat, as used by the enemy in Iraq, as a psychological tactic, as a form of soldier expression and then attempts to explain "metal" and "rap" ideologies. Pieslak gives the lyrics of some of the songs and explains that often soldiers about to go into battle will steel themselves with music. In my day we didn't have Ipods, but I do recall that when I was training troops in infantry tactics I would sometimes play "The Ballad of the Green Berets" on the car radio as I drove to the student barracks to get myself fired up. And of course, when I had the soldiers march themselves to class or to chow as part of "drill and ceremonies" I demanded that they do loud "Jody" calls all the way there and back. The more militant and blood-thirsty Jody calls definitely motivated the troops.
I would have liked a bit more combat operations from the book. More tales of advancing troops playing music and more stories of the music played to captured insurgents to break their will to resist. Unfortunately, most of the soldiers interviewed who admitted taking part in interrogations had been ordered not to discuss such things in order not to give aid to the enemy. We are given some examples, and some of the songs are mentioned, but I must say that I wanted more than just a single chapter on music used in psychological operations. To the author's credit, he does add some intesting data on tunes played by some units about to enter combat in his chapter: "Music as an inspiration for Combat." For those who know little about the use of music by the military, the book is a good starter study.


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Though a part of American soldiers' lives since the Revolutionary War, by World War II music could be broadcast to the front. Today it accompanies soldiers from the recruiting office to the battlefield. For this book, Jonathan Pieslak interviewed returning veterans to learn about the place of music in the Iraq War and in contemporary American military culture in general. Pieslak describes how American soldiers hear, share, use, and produce music both on and off duty. He studies the role of music from recruitment campaigns and basic training to its use "in country" before and during missions. Pieslak explores themes of power, chaos, violence, and survival in the metal and hip-hop music so popular among the troops, and offers insight into the daily lives of American soldiers in the Middle East.

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