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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.

  • Adulated_Aspersion@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 months ago

    Tyler Childers - Long Violent History

    It’s the worst that it’s been since the last time it happened It’s happening again right in front of our eyes There’s updated footage, wild speculation Tall tales and hearsay and absolute lies

    Been passed off as factual, when actually the actual Causes they’re awkwardly blocking the way Keeping us all from enjoyin’ our evening Shoving its roots through the screens in our face

    Now, what would you get if you heard my opinion Conjecturin’ on matters that I ain’t never dreamed In all my born days as a white boy from Hickman Based on the way that the world’s been to me?

    It’s called me belligerent, it’s took me for ignorant But it ain’t never once made me scared just to be Could you imagine just constantly worryin’ Kickin’ and fightin’, beggin’ to breathe?

    How many boys could they haul off this mountain Shoot full of holes, cuffed and layin’ in the streets ‘Til we come into town in a stark ravin’ anger Looking for answers and armed to the teeth?

    Thirty-ought-sixes, Papaw’s old pistol How many, you reckon, would it be, four or five? Or would that be the start of a long, violent history Of tucking our tails as we try to abide?

    Or would that be the start of a long, violent history Of tucking our tails as we try to abide?

  • thepixelfox@kbin.social
    0·
    10 months ago

    Billy talent are great for political, fuck the government/ big corporations type songs. Not protest songs so much. But it feels pretty on theme. Their messages are great.
    Surprise surprise and viking death march are two of my personal favourites songs by them.

    • killeronthecorner@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      That album is absolutely killer and I’ve loved BN since I heard Try Honesty many moons ago.

      That said … They have been singing about how young people need to fight the system while having one of the most clean, corporate images I can think of for bands in their category.

      Watching a 40 year old man dance around an arena in VANs and Atticus hoodies while telling contemporary youth that their generation is a “fucking joke” is peak cringe to me.

      Still love the music though. Wish he’d do more heartbreak songs, they’re his forte.

      • jandar_fett@lemmy.world
        0·
        10 months ago

        Between the Buried and Me, a progressive metal band that is considered legendary, is philosophically political in so much as that most of their albums are about the inevitable decline of humanity and the destruction of everything due to capitalism, greed, regressive ideologies etc. If you’ve never listened to them you should start with the Great Misdirect. Spotify has a live version I think and it is phenomenal.

  • Lauchs@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 months ago

    Well, not sure about “good” but punk is and always has been about politics.

    Personally, I love the folk punk end of things like AJJ’s ‘Normalization Blues’: https://youtu.be/0EDVM73bU-w?si=_mtGGyFhrmeMRlpZ

    In a similar vein, Matt Pless’s “where the frayed wind blows” is 5 minutes of angry goodness.

    There’s also a lot of protest hip hop but I don’t know the newer stuff particularly well.

      • Deceptichum@kbin.social
        0·
        10 months ago

        A lot of rap is political/social, for more mainstream stuff you’ve got songs like ‘This Is America’ by Childish Gambino, ‘Reagan’ by Killer Mike, or even ‘Fuck the Police’ by N.W.A.

        You’ve got even more leftist groups/rappers like ‘The Coup’, RATM/Public Enemy supergroup ‘Prophets of Rage’, hardcore shit like ‘Immortal Techniques’ or ‘Non Phixon’, ‘Dead Prez’, ‘Nas’, ‘The Fugees’, ‘Tupac’, ‘De La Soul’ just to name a few more.

        There’s also more tankie shit but I’m not gonna promote that authoritarian garbage.

        It’s almost harder to find non-political rap than it is political rap when you start breaking down the messages of many songs.

        • fellowmortal@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
          0·
          10 months ago

          Thanks! Childish Gambino - is a great example!

          I didn’t know some of these, so I’ll check them out, but they aren’t exactly new - the rest are from the ninties, right?

          • Deceptichum@kbin.social
            0·
            10 months ago

            I tried mixing it up, it’s probably more early 2000-2010s for the majority. I kinda lost interest in a lot of rap after that whole trap phase started.

            Killer Mikes a bit too centrist for my liking but Reagan from 2012 is an amazing song and one I’d recommend the most from that list.

      • kambusha@feddit.ch
        0·
        10 months ago

        Try Immortal Technique.

        • Dance with the Devil
        • Impeach the President
        • The 4th Branch

        And many more

  • DarkMessiah@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 months ago

    Big difference: we’re too tired to protest, and that’s only the ones who are capable of doing it in the first place. Rich bitches have made us stupider and more complacent as a whole, as well, at least where they haven’t divided us and pit us against each other.

    Another big difference: we don’t have a whole lot of hope for the future anymore. A lot of that whole protesting thing stems from the hope for things to be better, and with climate change, massive polluting corporations very obviously distracting people with manufactured outrage, the rise of authoritarianism, and several massively public wars, there ain’t a whole lot of hope to go around.

    Frankly, I wish there were some people making protest songs. This current crop of people needs a good kick in the ass, myself included. But I don’t have the energy or hope or talent to do it myself.

    • Nightwatch Admin@feddit.nl
      0·
      10 months ago

      Excuse me, GenX chiming in. We had that exact same list, with the sort-of-maybe exception of climate change (pollution was really really bad though). Then again , we had the daily doom of nuclear war on our heads.

    • fellowmortal@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
      0·
      10 months ago

      I guess this what I’m afraid of, but things must have felt pretty scary during the first cold war - Imagine raising children while governments were openly testing fusion weapons!

      I think that music is part of giving people inspiration and hope. Does tiktok just filter out the protest to keep us scrolling?

  • Shurimal@kbin.social
    0·
    10 months ago

    Leslie Fish is still writing music. Plus her old works from 1980-s (eg It’s Sister Jenny’s Turn to Throw the Bomb and Firestorm) are as relevant now as they were 40 years ago.

  • SuperEars@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    I’m a big fan of Rise Against. Try these tracks out:

    • Architects
    • Welcome to the Breakdown
    • A Gentleman’s Coup
    • Megaphone
    • Holding Patterns

    and Bad Religion:

    • American Jesus
    • Meeting of the Minds
    • The Resist Stance
    • TheDubz87@lemmy.world
      0·
      10 months ago

      Bad Religion was one of my high-school favorites that has stayed a favorite since. I have every one of their albums saved on my phone.

  • Ziggurat@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    10 months ago

    Some of the classical ones

    • L’internationale, which is still relevant today

    • La banderra rosa

    • Bella Ciao, which despite becoming a pop hit is a struggle song

    • El pueblo unido

    • La butte rouge

    -The Red army choir have a ton of great ones

    Then on more recent, just look at the punk and rap scene, there is a lot