Atomic Tunes

The Cold War in American and British Popular Music

By: Tim Smolko, Joanna Smolko

Narrated by: Tanya Eby

What is the soundtrack for a nuclear arms race?

During the Cold War, over 500 songs were written about nuclear weapons, fear of the Soviet Union, civil defense, bomb shelters, uranium mining, the space race, espionage, the Berlin Wall, and glasnost. This music uncovers aspects of the world-changing events that documentaries and history books cannot. In Atomic Tunes, Tim and Joanna Smolko explore everything from the serious to the comical, the morbid to the crude, showing the widespread concern among musicians who were trying to cope with the effect of communism on American society and the consequences of a potential nuclear conflict of global proportions.

Atomic Tunes presents a musical history of the Cold War, offering insight into the songs that capture the fear of those who lived under the shadow of Stalin, Sputnik, mushroom clouds, and missiles.

©2021 Tim and Joanna Smolko (P)2021 Tantor