Where are the good political songs?
Where are the good political songs?
I feel like there are lots of parallels between the eighties and now (recession/inflation, yuppies/inequality, skin-heads/fascists, hot-cold wars etc.) but there used to be protest music! Where is that stuff now? Music that's intelligent and outraged - like we should be!
I'm out of touch now, so if it exists, educate me! Or have the protest songs been removed from tiktok by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act (UK specific, but suppression of protest seems to be everywhere)? (I've linked to the Levellers - maybe it really was better back in the day?)
edit: Maybe not the right audience, but if the song is old enough to vote then I might already know it! What's happening now? Any songs from the last 10 years!
edit: Thanks for everyone's insights. I've spent the day discovering music that I'd never have found otherwise. Really enjoying a load of these, but thanks to everyone! It seems like protest music is confined to certain genres/places, and lots of older songs - maybe they just last longer... which is maybe a little interesting.
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I listen to a lot of punk music so obviously it's strongly political. Here's just a few off the top of my head:
- White People for Peace by Against Me!
- Unprotected Sex With Multiple Partners by Against Me!
- Survivor Guilt by Rise Against
- State of the Union by Rise Against
- The Eco-Terrorist In Me by Rise Against
- 45 by Sum41
- Empty Walls by Serj Tankian
- Prison Song by System of a Down
- Christian Nationalist by Anti-Flag
- Die for your Government by Anti-Flag
- 72 hookers by NOFX
- Please Play This Song on the Radio by NOFX
- Fuck Euphemism by NOFX
- Take Back the Power by The Interrupters
- Quarantine by Blink 182
I tried to include a bit of variety and not all be anti-war songs from/about the Bush era. A couple are about the music industry specifically, and one is a musical rant about kink culture (and it's not the one you think based on the title!) I'm also a big Rise Against fan so I tried to pull out some non-singles from accross many years since basically any song by them has a good political message. I highly recommend looking up the lyrics to all of these after the first listen or better during the second listen
Nofx is doing their retirement tour right now and it makes me super sad I won't be able to go
If you like punk, Leftover Crack has a bunch.