Woody Guthrie emblazoned 'This machine kills fascists' on his guitar, a phrase he borrowed from war machinery.

Bob Dylan considered Woody Guthrie a foundational influence, a sentiment he immortalized in his 1962 recording 'Song to Woody.'

Listen to Woody Guthrie's 1940 concept album about agricultural and economic destruction, 'Dust Bowl Ballads.'

The FBI tracked Woody Guthrie's politics for years, amassing an enormous file that was only discovered many years after his death.

Woody Guthrie wrote 'This Land Is Your Land' as a sarcastic response to 'God Bless America.'

Dylan's early records were socially conscious folk songs

Dylan's early records were modeled after his heroes Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, meaning they were often acoustic numbers filled with lyrical wordplay and political themes. "Masters of War," from 1963's "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan," is a perfect example of the form, railing against politicians and war profiteers.

Woody Guthrie was briefly a member of the Communist Party USA, but he was kicked out for 'lack of discipline.'

Jimi Hendrix's performance of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at the original Woodstock was considered an artistic protest of the Vietnam War.

In 1998, Billy Bragg and Wilco recorded unreleased songs penned by Woody Guthrie.

Watch Bruce Springsteen's 1985 performance of Woody Guthrie's 'This Land Is Your Land,' which he calls 'the greatest song ever written about America.'

How the Vietnam War changed rock 'n' roll

This short video essay analyzes how rock music responded to US involvement in Vietnam, from the protest folk of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan to the popularity of rock and soul records with soldiers stationed abroad.

Before he was known as a folk singer, Woody Guthrie was a popular radio host in Los Angeles.

Rockwell's 'Rosie the Riveter' alludes to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel

Norman Rockwell's 1943 painting was intended to show the strength of female contributions to the American war effort and used the character of Rosie the Riveter, popularized in a 1942 song, to represent that. Although Rockwell used a model for the portrait, he made the woman larger on the canvas to parallel Michelangelo's painting of the Prophet Isaiah on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Listen to Woody Guthrie's 'Columbia River Songs,' the government-commissioned album about Washington state's Columbia River.

Why Neil Young is sometimes called 'the godfather of grunge'

The legendary singer-songwriter's work with his band Crazy Horse, especially "Rust Never Sleeps" and "Ragged Glory," married infectious melodies with overpowering guitars, a formula that many grunge acts would replicate. Young would go on to perform with Pearl Jam (like in the performance of "Rockin' in the Free World" below) and record the 1995 album "Mirror Ball" with them.

'Blowin' in the Wind' became a rallying cry for the Civil Rights Movement

The song is based on a spiritual titled "Many Thousand Gone," whose melody Dylan reworked. The result was popularized by the folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary and from there became an anthem for the growing Civil Rights Movement, culminating in Dylan's appearance at the March on Washington.

How Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman grappled with the American Civil War

Whitman, whose brother was injured while fighting for the Union, was often overt in his pro-Union poems. Dickinson, whose brother paid to have someone enlist under his name, was more subtle, though equally as affected, as this comparative analysis makes clear.

World War II soldiers received specially-made vinyl records

"V-Discs" were vinyl records featuring popular folk, classical, and jazz songs. This was one of the first widespread uses of vinyl, rather than shellac, records.

Exploring World War I technology on the battlefield

Industrialization brought massive changes to warfare during the Great War. Newly-invented killing machines begat novel defense mechanisms, which, in turn spurred the development of even deadlier technologies. Nearly every aspect of what we would consider modern warfare debuted on World War I battlefields. Starting with soldiers on horseback carrying lances and ending in poison gas, machine guns, and aerial battles, this gallery shows the first tools of modern warfare.

Dylan's political songs were often abstract

Dylan's protest songs weren't always explicit; sometimes, his dense lyrics only suggested political themes. "Hard Rain," for example, features Biblical allusions, charged images, and what would become generational axioms. It's a perfect encapsulation of what his early records could offer and a thrilling preview for what would come later.

Raymond Pettibon designed Black Flag's iconic logo

Pettibon’s brother, Greg Ginn, was the guitarist for a new band in search of a logo. Pettibon delivered an image that would become one of the defining icons of punk: four black bars, meant to symbolize a waving flag.

The time Bob Dylan was accused of plagiarizing ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’

“Blowin’ in the Wind” is a defining song of the Civil Rights Movement, one that Dylan openly acknowledged was based on a traditional African spiritual. But when Newsweek accused Dylan of stealing the song in 1963, they weren’t talking about influence. They suggested he’d jacked the tune from a helpless high school student. This article breaks down the falsehood and why it was given so much attention while Dylan was becoming a household name.

An American Beatles album featured a bizarre, gruesome image of the band as butchers, which was swiftly recalled.

Jazz provided a soundtrack for the Civil Rights Movement

Songs like Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," which portrayed the grim brutality of lynching, and John Coltrane's "Alabama," which was modeled on the rhythm of a speech by Martin Luther King Jr., were the backbeat of the movement.

'The Star-Spangled Banner' became associated with sports at the 1918 World Series thanks to an impromptu rendition during the 7th inning stretch.

Kurt Vonnegut's satire embraced dark humor

Books like "Cat’s Cradle" and "Slaughterhouse Five" satirized the international appetite for war, which the 20th-century writer found both horrifying and hilarious. It’s a combination that some called “gallows humor,” a classification Vonnegut himself remembered Sigmund Freud describing. “One of the examples Freud gives is a man about to be hanged,” Vonnegut once recalled, “and the hangman says, ‘Do you have anything to say?’ The condemned man replies, ‘Not at this time.’”

Dylan influenced many of his contemporaries

Dylan's groundbreaking approach to songwriting didn't just change his career; it changed the trajectory of American popular music. This podcast from the National Association of Music Merchants' oral history project features interviews with several Dylan compatriots and fans–including Pete Seeger, Emmylou Harris, and Robbie Robertson–who detail how Dylan changed their careers and how they viewed songwriting.

Dylan opened for Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington

The apex of Dylan’s era as a “protest singer” was his appearance, alongside collaborator and sometimes-lover Joan Baez, at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was the same demonstration where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Dylan performed four songs, including a scathing version of “Only a Pawn in Their Game,” a ballad about Medgar Evers, an activist who was murdered at his home in Mississippi by a white supremacist.

Experimental duo Suicide used the word 'punk' to describe their music in 1970

The New York act was inspired by free jazz, electronic music, and performance art, playing loud, frenetic, and often abrasive music that reckoned with the horrors of the Vietnam War. On the hand-drawn poster for their first gig, they described the sound with four words: “Punk Music by Suicide.”

The Dylan/Whitman connection

Even before his 2016 Nobel Prize, critics often wrote about Bob Dylan with a seriousness typically reserved for literary figures. In this critical analysis, Jones Hogsed continues the tradition, analyzing Dylan's vision of America alongside Walt Whitman's.

Ginsberg's 'Howl' portrayed people outside the American mainstream

The poem’s portraits of people on society's fringes—including vivid descriptions of drug use, psychiatric wards, and homosexuality—led to its seizure by US Customs agents and the arrest of its publisher Ferlinghetti. The American Civil Liberties Union defended both in a landmark trial that ruled the book was not obscene.

Kurt Vonnegut's 'Cat's Cradle' was inspired by the bombing of Hiroshima

The writer fought in World War II and witnessed the firebombing of Dresden, which he recounted in 1969's satirical "Slaughterhouse Five." Six years earlier, though, he wrote about the bombing of Hiroshima in "Cat's Cradle," channeling some of the horror he witnessed in Dresden to write about the dropping of the atomic bomb. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Free speech has often been restricted in wartime, potentially unconstitutionally

From the Sedition Act of 1798 to the prosecution of anti-war activists during World War I, the US government repeatedly curtailed speech and dissent during wartime—actions widely criticized and, in some cases, later deemed unconstitutional.

The Victor Talking Machine Company's logo, an iconic image used on early record players, was based on a painting portraying a dog mourning its dead owner.

Francis Scott Key initially opposed the War of 1812, the war that eventually inspired him to write the national anthem.

A comprehensive list of the best Bob Dylan covers

Bob Dylan’s songwriting quickly became part of the great American songbook, thanks in large part to many major artists of the '60s popularizing their own versions of his songs. As this list proves, though, that tradition continued all the way to today. Learn about essential covers of Dylan songs by Adele, Guns N’ Roses, The White Stripes, and others.

Hughes' poems brought blues and jazz to poetry

Poets like Walt Whitman and Claude McKay inspired Hughes, but he was also enamored with blues and jazz music. The styles informed the way he structured his verses, with Hughes employing repetition and rhythm in ways similar to the standard 12-bar blues form and playing with meter in a way that recalled the improvisation of jazz.

Dylan's raucous 1976 tour was one piece of an ongoing reinvention

In the mid-70s, Dylan assembled a ragtag group of musicians and poets—including Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and Allen Ginsberg—he called the Rolling Thunder Revue. Rather than playing stadiums in major markets, they played smaller venues in smaller cities for a more intimate experience. The tour yielded some of the most exuberant versions of Dylan songs, captured in this 1976 performance in Fort Collins, which originally aired on NBC as “Hard Rain.”

Rock expanded to Africa, where it was used as a political artform

The Nigerian rock scene began after Bill Haley’s "Rock Around the Clock" film premiered in the country, inspiring young people to take up electric guitars. The music was also an integral part of the country’s civil war, with conscripted bands entertaining soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

Beat Generation iconoclast William S. Burroughs once appeared in a Nike ad, singing the praises of 'new technology.'

A bootleg video of a 1966 conversation between Bob Dylan and John Lennon has long been a cryptic text for the artists' superfans.

Allen Ginsberg on how Walt Whitman changed poetry

In this 1992 appearance on "Charlie Rose," Beat Generation icon Ginsberg articulates why Whitman mattered not only to the Beats but to all of poetry, arguing that he forever changed the possibilities of the form.

Tolkien's grandson says 'Lord of the Rings' was influenced by WWI

JRR Tolkien fought in World War I, an experience his grandson, Simon Tolkien, says informed the fantasy legend’s famous trilogy. The companionship between Frodo and Sam and Sauron’s pervasive evil, according to the younger Tolkien, were directly influenced by time on the battlefield.

Listen to the Pink Floyd album inspired by 'Animal Farm'

The 1977 album "Animals" was loosely inspired by Orwell's 1945 novella, though it was not a strict allegory for the Russian Revolution. Instead, Roger Waters' and David Gilmour's songs criticize what they see as the inhumanity of modern capitalism.

Ragtime was criticized as dangerous, 'unmusical rot'

The genre—short for "ragged time," a reference to the music's syncopation—was wildly popular at the turn of the 20th century, leading some to deem it morally corrupting and an inferior form. In 1901, the American Federation of Musicians, then the most prominent musicians' union in the country, adopted a resolution designating ragtime as "unmusical rot."

Warren Zevon's sardonic takes landed him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Warren Zevon was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025. Political writer Andrew Walworth highlights Zevon's keen interest in international politics, which often found their way into his memorably wry lyrics.

Bebop's freedom inspired the Beat Generation

The jazz style took off in the 1940s, mesmerizing listeners with its wild, improvised solos. It had a particular impact on the writers of the Beat Generation, including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who saw in bebop's freedom a model for what they could achieve through the written word. Beat writers like Lawrence Ferlighetti and Kenneth Rexroth even incorporated live jazz in their poetry readings.

Some allege that Dylan plagiarized his Nobel Prize lecture

The speech bore striking similarities to entries on SparkNotes, a summary site that's often used by students looking to skip assigned reading. Neither Dylan nor his management commented on the matter, though some critics suggested it was just another part of Dylan's career-long performance.

Langston Hughes' 'I, Too' replies to Walt Whitman

Hughes was a fan of Whitman and used one of the Good Gray Poet's most famous poems, "I Hear America Singing," as the basis for his 1926 poem "I, Too." Hughes' work is both a response and a pointed commentary about the unequal treatment of Black Americans.

Gutai was performance art’s Japanese predecessor

Works by the post-WWII Japanese artist collective Gutai are widely considered a precursor to Western performance art of the 1960s and 1970s. The word “Gutai” means “concrete” in Japanese, referring to the concrete ways the artists’ bodies were used to create their works. Gutai members like Kazuo Shiraga, who painted with his feet to express the movement of his process, are thought to have influenced later artists like Jackson Pollock.

Punk band Devo formed after witnessing the Kent State shootings

Band members Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh were students at the Ohio university when the National Guard shot and killed student protestors. Casale said that the experience led them to pursue the project, which was a satirical critique of mindless consumerism and conformity.