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As recently as the 1991 Persian Gulf War, troops serving overseas had at least some kind of consensus of music. With the widespread adoption of digital music and smaller portable players, service members today more than ever listen to the wide range of tunes they did at home.
Since 2001, very few of the highest-charting popular music tracks recorded have had anything at all to do with war, much less in support or protest.
"One enormous difference between the '60s and now is how the market is split into a million pieces," Johnny Wendell, former punk musician and weekend radio host, told USA Today. "I don't think a single piece of protest music can galvanize the public the way Like a Rolling Stone did."
Country artist Clint Black released a pro-soldier song, Iraq and Roll, in 2003. And Toby Keith wrote The Taliban Songright after Sept. 11, 2011, which became popular with some soldiers but received little air play in the U.S. Darryl Worley had a hit in 2003 with Have You Forgotten?, but by 2007 was singing about PTSD in IJust Came Back From a War.
Green Day's American Idiot (2004) and 21st Century Breakdown (2009) sold well and were expressly anti-war, but these are still in the minority. While the single Holiday about the invasion of Iraq reached No. 1 on some hit charts, Wal-Mart would not sell the album because of its sentiments.
Radio 4 singer and bass player Anthony Roman agrees that these political albums are unusual: "When I look around at the musicians who are at the level where Green Day is," Roman told The Progressive, "there is no band saying and doing anything political and exciting like them."
'ANYTHING WEIRD OR KIND OF STRANGE'
So what are the troops listening to overseas today? Anything and everything. "The music they listened to was as diverse as the individual Marines and soldiers themselves," said Dan Parker, who served in Iraq in 2003 and 2004. "Of course there were a lot of guys who listened to rock, rap or R&B- lots of Metallica, Eminem, Godsmack, Green Day and such- but there were also a lot of guys who listened to country music."
A 2004 article about music and service members listed...