The U.S. has always had a problem with border-hoppers crossing over, but for awhile leading up to 2014, one of the largest, growing concerns was the use of freight train systems to make the cross, especially one train known as "La Bestia." These freight trains had no windows and no passenger cars, so the migrants would leap up onto the tops of the train in order to cross the border. Unsurprisingly, this led to more than a few fatalities, it was putting the immigrants in considerable danger not just from the human traffickers, but due to the fact that the train roofs had no protection from the rain, debris or sun, and it was giving as many as 500,000 migrants a year a fast-track across the border.
Eventually, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as part of the Dangers Awareness Campaign, decided that they were tired of trying to convince the immigrants to not hop on top of an industrial death machine, so they commissioned a songwriter, Carlo Nicolau, to help compose a propaganda piece for them. Oddly enough it was sung by Eddie Ganz, who's mostly just known for singing at weddings and Bar Mitzvahs.
To no one's great surprise, this revelation completely pissed off loads of news outlets, because there's nothing more important than "protecting migrants" by demanding that they continue leaping on top of dangerous, unprotected box cars for days at a time. The Guardian, The L.A. Times, you name it, they wrote a smear article on it. Whole hosts of radio stations yanked the song off the airwaves, and it's borderline impossible to even find on YouTube, as it's ripped down almost as soon as you upload it.
To everyone's great surprise, though: People kept calling in to radio stations and requesting that the song be put back on the airwaves, and even with the knowledge that it's really nothing more than a propaganda piece commissioned by the U.S. Border Control, South and Central American radio stations continue to play it all the time. I guess Goebbels was onto something after all.
What other examples of strangely effective or catchy propaganda music can you think of?
Eventually, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as part of the Dangers Awareness Campaign, decided that they were tired of trying to convince the immigrants to not hop on top of an industrial death machine, so they commissioned a songwriter, Carlo Nicolau, to help compose a propaganda piece for them. Oddly enough it was sung by Eddie Ganz, who's mostly just known for singing at weddings and Bar Mitzvahs.
To no one's great surprise, this revelation completely pissed off loads of news outlets, because there's nothing more important than "protecting migrants" by demanding that they continue leaping on top of dangerous, unprotected box cars for days at a time. The Guardian, The L.A. Times, you name it, they wrote a smear article on it. Whole hosts of radio stations yanked the song off the airwaves, and it's borderline impossible to even find on YouTube, as it's ripped down almost as soon as you upload it.
To everyone's great surprise, though: People kept calling in to radio stations and requesting that the song be put back on the airwaves, and even with the knowledge that it's really nothing more than a propaganda piece commissioned by the U.S. Border Control, South and Central American radio stations continue to play it all the time. I guess Goebbels was onto something after all.
What other examples of strangely effective or catchy propaganda music can you think of?
might as well get this out the way
