The Vietnam War was during a time of the rise of the counterculture. Being in the U.S, the ideals of the counterculture quickly spread to Europe, namely Great Britain, and ignited a desire to combat social norms and war. With this, the rise of rock music in Great Britain commenced with bands such as, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, who created anthems for anti-war, pro-peace protests, despite having no direct involvement in The Vietnam War in their home country. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones are on two opposite spectrums of the rock genre, with The Beatles being more “soft” rock and The Rolling Stone being more “hard” rock; however, both spectrums were able to connect with a common cause of protest against the war. Noting that both are in different domains of rock, Beatles band member, John Lennon, exudes a more passive stance against war.…show more content… On the other end, the Rolling Stones exudes a far more aggressive stance against war. The Rolling Stones mention the heavily controversial topics of rape and murder in “Gimme Shelter”, in that they are occurrences that are associated with the horrors of wartime. However, to balance out the image of the dismay of the Vietnam War, they express a visual of peace by proclaiming that “love is a kiss away”. Both hope for peace, however, Lennon seems to want to achieve peace through peaceful protest, while The Rolling Stone would rather there be reform and revolution. Both “Give Peace a Chance” and “Gimme Shelter” are relatively lyrically simplistic, with heavy repetition of phrases and structure, but the intent and intended response of the songs can be interpreted through the annotation of musical qualities that are performed. Though they have similar musical qualities, the tone of the song is also a prominent aspect of
