"Clampdown" ~ The Clash

1. What is the song about?
This song is about Nazi Germany and the Nazis' efforts to indoctrinate the country's youth with their political ideology. 

2. How do you know what the song is about?
The speaker says, "we will teach our twisted speech/to the young believers/we will train our blue-eyed men/to be young believers". "Twisted speech" refers to the corrupt political ideology of the Nazis, the "young believers" stand for the Hitler Youth, and "our blue-eyed men" refers to the ideal race of the Nazis, the Aryans, who were supposed to be blonde-haired, blue-eyed people.

3. What musical elements emphasize this interpretation of the song?
The stanza beginning with "the voices in your head are calling/stop wasting your time, there's nothing coming/only a fool would think someone could save you" is sung in a very hushed yet manic tone, with an edge of panic in the speaker's voice. My interpretation of these lines is that the subject of the song is beginning to have some doubts about his political ideology and the whole Nazi movement he's bought into. This stanza sounds like he's trying to frantically hush his suspicious mind, because the "voices in his head" remind him that going against what's become the accepted ideology would most likely result in his death. The hushed and frantic musical style of this stanza reflects the subject's inner struggle with his thoughts.

4. Example of rhetoric, propaganda, or persuasion in the song.
The line, "they put up a poster saying they earn more than you" demonstrates a use of propaganda. It shows how displaying that you belong to the "winning side" can be an effective way to get someone to agree with you. In this case, the song is referring to how the Nazis might have used "winning team" psychology to take advantage of people.