Spreading peace through songs

2. Songs that envisage the brutality of war

The Sound of Silence by American duo Simon & Garfunkel

[Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

The Sound of Silence was written by Paul Simon over a period of several months between 1963-1964. The song is written in the 60s, a decade that plagued Americans - domestically the civil rights movement was on the upswing and overseas American troops were fighting the Vietnam War. After it was released in September 1965, it immediately climbed the charts. Garfunkel once summed up the song's meaning as "the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly internationally but especially emotionally."