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.
Toxicity - System of a Down was an incredible album about American exceptionalism and war hungriness. The towers were hit a week after the album was released.
Sheesh, some time in June of 2023, Toxicity’s debut date became closer to 1/1/1980 than present day
Every single one of their records is more relevant now than ever.
System’s whole catalogue really, they’re basically Rage Against the Machine, but with an Armenian twist and flair, love them, but can’t believe the drummer is a MAGAtard.