(Intro communicate the racial progress and foreign
(Intro Clip)(Clips of American and Soviet Culture)Khaled: Music.
.. What is it? How can it be used? How did America use it as a form of media to communicate ideas and information during the Cold War?(Clips of American Festivals)Khaled: Music had a significant role during the Cold War.
America believed it can be used as a powerful tool for ideologically resisting the Soviet Union. The CIA and CCF, Congress of Cultural Freedom used conservative efforts outlined by General Secretary, Nicolas Nabokov by concentrating its efforts on presenting older European works banned or condemned by the Soviet Communist Government. (Play banned Soviet Union music)(Show clips of CCF and CIA)Khaled: However, the CIA and CCF weren’t able to offer support to some classical music artists like Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. This resulted in them criticizing the works as an “authoritarian tool” used by Soviet communists and fascist Germany and Italy.(Play speeches of Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini)This in effect, allowed American to filter its music culture, developing a patriotic effect onto their audiences.(Play American National Anthem) Khaled: America’s use of music also impacted the Cold War, because they were able to encourage audiences worldwide to join their modernist culture.
They were able to achieve this by having many U.S. organizations play classical symphonies, Broadway musicals, and jazz performances to show America was a cradle for the growth of music.(Play classical symphonies, Broadway musicals, and jazz performances while talking)Khaled: The CCF was able to also contribute by sponsoring the major festival “Masterpieces of the 20th Century,” which lasted for 30 days, hosting nine separate orchestras, performed by over 70 composers, most of which were entitled as “degenerate” or “sterile” by communist critics. Specific composers who were given the title are Dmitri Shostakovich and Claude Debussy.
(Show Pictures of composers and play their music)Khaled: The event was so crucial to persuading audiences of America’s growing music culture that the opening act of the festival, Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” “won more acclaim for the US in Paris than John Foster Dulles or John D. Eisenhower could have brought with a hundred speeches,” as stated by Thomas Braden, a senior member of the CIA.(Play opening act of the festival)Khaled: As America began displaying its growth and commitment to music, it promoted colored music celebrities to symbolize and communicate the racial progress and foreign policy of the U.S. They would be given the title of a Jazz Ambassador, a position which the colored music celebrities would represent America’s commitment to advancing the liberties of African Americans and social freedom across the world. This was important, as it shaded the Jim Crows Era, a period of which Southern States of the U.S. installed racial segregation laws.
(Display images of racial segregation)(Show and play Louis Armstrong music)Khaled: In conclusion, America’s use of music as a form to media to communicate ideas and information during the Cold War was to resist Soviet communism; encourage audiences worldwide to join their modernist culture; and display the racial progress and foreign policy of their nation. (End with Outro)
