Hands down the favorite song of the troops during the Spanish-American War was the ragtime hit, written in 1896 by Theodore August Metz, There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight. This presented something of a generational music gap as most of the older officers were used to the more sedate melodies of the earlier Nineteenth Century, but most of the men in the ranks and the younger officers were more attuned to ragtime and its syncopated style.
No doubt some of the older officers thought of this music as sheer noise compared to what they were used to. I find it amusing that musical generation gaps are nothing new in American military history!
“Bodies” by Drowning Pool has always been a favorite of mine.
Don, Later example of “syncopated” or “ragged” rhythm. I’m not sure what the Army would have thought of this in 1896. 🙂
https://youtu.be/MLC3aNOVuxQ
At least half of Sabaton’s Last Stand and a third of the Great War albums, 82nd All The Way if I have to pick just one.
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1968
The second Republican ad in this lineup made use of Hot Time as background music. The ad infuriated the TV critic for The New York Times.