I'm too old to say what anything this generation is, but look up "fucked up" by Macklemore. Came out at the start of the year and it's the most rage against the machine esque thing I've heard in years. Got me riled up.
Edit: I see you literally called him out in the post, so this is old news to you I'm sure. I'll leave it for others to find!
I missed this one, spot on.
Haven't heard it yet,but will definitely check it out.
They don't exist, at least not in Western mainstream music. Record labels have learned from those artists and will now drop anyone who doesn't toe the capitalist/imperialist line. Like the singers being cancelled for supporting BLM or Palestine.
And it's very specifically just for leftist messages. Kanye straight up calls himself a Nazi and sold shirts with swastikas on it and didn't get canceled for antisemitism, but tons of pro-Palestine artists did. If an artist straight up calls themselves a socialist like Tupac did it would be career suicide.
As someone in Gen Z, I have never heard a mainstream song released in my lifetime that actually attacks capitalism beyond useless lip service or calls for any kind of anticapitalist action by the general public. They definitely exist but only by indie artists who will either never get signed onto a label or will be forced to capitulate to the capitalist propaganda machine if they do.
Childish Gambino? Yasiin Bey? Kendrick? Killer Mike? Hip hop alone has never stopped being critical of the machine... You must be living with your head under a rock or in headphones that only play top 40 or something. There is an absolute wealth of music that takes on the various hierarchies that dominate our world...
Expand your tastes, cousin. There's a lot of anti-war and angry music getting made right now.
Kneecap
Kneecap have been getting massive publicity because of their pro-palestine/anti-genocide stance. I haven't listened to much to their latest stuff, but I should re-explore them.
mackelmore dropped like a couple of bangers when the palestine stuff was gaining traction in the mainstream.
With the rapid rise in accessible media tuned to everyone's personal preference there's not really a single artist that is capturing attention across the board, but that doesn't mean there's not protest bangers from several artists:
Architechts, motionless in white, rise against
Just because the music you listed isn't new, doesn't mean it can't serve the same purpose as it did for previous generations.
My personal listening doesn't effect public views. Art usually makes statements, protest, or fight the "man".
Well then you can call me 'Art', 'cause I do all of that stuff
ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪
Edit: Arthur works fine, if you're not into the whole "brevity" thing
Kendrick Lamar.
He lost a few points for the Super bowl. He could have made a statement to a president but didn't. His first couple of albums made statements about life in the hood.
I would say childish Gambino made more of a major statement with one song compared to Kendrick.
Elder Millennial and gen x. Rage and nirvana are my jams.
I took my daughter to a concert some years ago, when she was in middle school, and before any bands went on, "Killing in the Name Of" started up. I told her "at the end of the intro when the song starts up, everyone in the audience over 30 will start bobbing their head" and sure enough, thousands of adult chaperones all at once just start grooving
Dropkick Murphys are killing it right now. Their last 3 albums are all great.
I also really dig Jeff Rosenstock.
Well recession pop is back, check out the new Lady Gaga or Kesha albums. So there is that sort of dissonance and syncopated funkier rhythms in pop music which can usually be connected to economic and social downturn.
I know that shit is worlds away from what you're referring to, I think you're looking for something more aggressive.
I think the 2022 Every Time I Die record Renegade goes pretty fucking hard, I listen to Planet Shit about once a month and just rage.
Planet B by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard goes pretty hard.
You can always check out whatever Napalm Death is doing, much of their stuff is political and social commentary, in fact I love ND lyrics.
No one has the " popular understanding of 'transgender' didn't really exist for gen x but whatever it's going to be, these songs are mostly about needing to transition but feeling unable to" that Kurt Cobain had, but Kurt did once say that early Nirvana was an attempt at copping Gang of Four, and Go4 is very political, critical and high energy. esp their first album "Entertainment!" and "Solid Gold". After that they become kinda disco.
Also consider diving into the incredible wealth of protest music produced before the 60s. The 60s is kind of understood as a high water mark for protest music, but IMO a lot of Dylan and stuff was promoted more because he was actually less political than like Phil Ochs. Woody Guthrie, Victor Jara, The Almanac Singers, Odetta, etc., had much sharper politics than most well known artists who came after.
Finally, last but best, not new but largely undiscovered and forgotten, the Swedish RATM: the 1998 album The Shape of Punk to Come by the Refused. By far, one of my absolute favorite left wing records
Grandson’s new album seems to be shaping up to have those tones. First released tracks hit them pretty pointedly. He’s not as refined as some of the artists you mentioned, though.
Regarding Palestine, a number of groups have done stuff on stage or donated money and so on, but there don't seem to be a ton that have written music specifically about the war. I'm guessing this is partly due to a lot of record labels supporting Israel on top of just so much other horrible shit going on in recent years. You could probably find more stuff if you looked for music by people from the countries directly involved.
Pretty much the same situation for Ukraine I think. Bands like Jinjer are vocally pro-Ukraine.
It's much easier to find one-off songs about a specific issue than like entire albums right now AFAICT (again probably partially because of how much crap is going on). A lot of groups also seem afraid to really hammer on specific points to avoid alienating fans I think, so it's sort of just the state of music as well IMO.
It's this super unknown band. Very underground. Nobody seems to know who they are. They're called Apostrophe.
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