195
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by fellowmortal@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

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.

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] thepixelfox@kbin.social 4 points 1 year 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.

[-] fellowmortal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

I hate to break it to you but Billy Talent formed in 1993! ;)

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

"George Floyd" by the Log Bay Ramblers is some nice and direct bluegrass folk music

[-] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Sault's "Foot on Necks" is a great anti police brutality anthem, and a big chunk of all their music has messages like that

[-] TehBamski@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago
[-] frezik@midwest.social 4 points 1 year ago

Garbage - No gods no masters. Whole album is shamelessly political.

The men who rule the world Have made a fucking mess The history of power The worship of success The king is in the counting house He's chairman of the board The women who crowd the courtrooms All accused of being whores

[-] mlg@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

The fast paced Ukrainian version of In The Army Now which protests military marketing and conscription (directed at USA)

Laga Reh (translations required lol) which protests Pakistani government complacency in allowing foreign powers (cough USA cough) to dictate the country at the expense of progress and "disappearing" of any local opposition.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 year ago
[-] Pulptastic@midwest.social 4 points 1 year ago

Is Antiflag still around?

[-] DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Gary Clarke Jr. Has some good protest songs, especially for a blues musician, including a remake of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young's Ohio.

Municipal Waste is great for some hardcore, there's actually a bunch of hardcore bands that have some excellent protest songs.

Then you have Ice-T's Body Count.

Lamb of God's albums post-Randy's time in a Czech prison have been full of social commentary, far more than the earlier albums.

I've seen people highlight Killer Mike's Grammy wins, but his other group Run the Jewels is pretty much the biggest name in protest rap these days.

Then you have Kendrick Lamar, possibly the best rapper of his generation, absolutely one of the greatest story tellers of rap, period.

Overall there's a lot of pop, metal, rock, rap and other genres who have some prominent names and many lesser known names who are putting out good angry music.

Then you have Ice Cube putting out Arrest the President then proceeding to talk about voting for that same president.🤦‍♂️

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Tropical fuck storm is pretty good at ranting against the bullshit and bonus they also sound awesome:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_jxKD7X7pw

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] federatingIsTooHard@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

revolution by Tracy chapman

[-] Persen@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't know if thease two are protest songs, but they are near enough: Plavi orkestar - Fa Fa Fašista, Bijelo dugme - Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo

Edit: They are yugoslavian, so not that relevant now.

[-] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Dégénération

A French Quebec song about how the world is going and how Gen Z has been neglected

[-] Hikermick@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

This thought has occurred to me recently. What is this generation's soundtrack? What is the music everyone will look on and say it defined the time?

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] TheDoctorDonna@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

The Offspring. Americana, Stuff is Messed up, the Kids Aren't Alright...

[-] yokonzo@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Anything by flobots, old stuff or new is pretty political

[-] Shapillon@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Moscow Death Brigade for example

[-] Shurimal@kbin.social 3 points 1 year 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.

[-] Muscle_Meteor@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago

Right Now - Jesse Roper

[-] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago
[-] SVcross@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

La Bala - Juana Fé

[-] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Say She She's "Norma" is all about the end of Roe v Wade

[-] hex_m_hell@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[-] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJufERGv9Sk

Rap Against Dictatorship. Check out their other videos.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›
this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
195 points (91.5% liked)

No Stupid Questions

39996 readers
816 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here. This includes using AI responses and summaries.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS