Protest song
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A protest song is a song intended to protest perceived problems in society such as injustice, racial discrimination, war, globalization, inflation, social inequalities. Protest songs are generally associated with folk music, but in recent times they have come from all genres of music. Such songs become popular during times of social disruption and among social groups.
[edit] History
Folk protest songs occur throughout recent history, the oldest protest song on record is The Cutty Wren from the peasants revolt of 1381 against feudal oppression. In the American Revolutionary War and in the abolitionist movement of the 19th century many songs came about. During the American Civil War, traditional songs served as protest songs. "We Shall Overcome" was a song popular in the labor movement and later the civil rights movement.
In the 20th century, the union movement, the Great Depression, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War (see Vietnam War protests), and recently, the war in Iraq and the 9/11 Truth Movement spawned protest songs, such as Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" (1964), Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" (1940), System of a Down's "Toxicity" (2001), and more recently Bright Eyes' When the President Talks to God (2005) a scathing song about the current U.S. leader, President George W. Bush. Another protest song that reached number one in Germany is "99 Luftballons" by Nena, in 1983 which sparked furious debate. The common form during that time, often with acoustic guitar and harmonica, was popularized by the work of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger early in the 20th Century and continued into the later part of the century by Phil Ochs, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. (The movie Bob Roberts is an example of protest music parody, where the title character - played by American actor Tim Robbins - is a guitar-playing U.S. Senatorial candidate who writes and performs songs with a heavily reactionary tone.)
Neil Young continues the theme in the twenty-first Century in his song, "Let's Impeach the President" - a stinging rebuke against President George W. Bush and the War in Iraq, as did Pink with her appeal to Bush in "Dear Mr. President". Pearl Jam also included two anti-Bush songs ("World Wide Suicide", "Marker In The Sand") in their 2006 album Pearl Jam. Radiohead are known for being strongly anti-Bush, and against the war in Iraq, and many of their songs show signs of this (although few would consider many, if any, Radiohead songs as protest songs).
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Antiwar Songs - a collection of pacifist and antimilitarist songs lyrics from all over the world and of any time, based on free contributions by readers and collaborators.
- [1] Malvina Reynolds: Song Lyrics and Poems
- Vietnam: The music of protest, Steve Schifferes, BBC News, Sunday, 1 May, 2005
- Integrity is Not a Chore Interview with Welsh singer/songwriter Martyn Joseph
- [2] - Wobbly songs
- [3] Peoples Music Network, an organization for protest musicians
- [4]Peoples Voice Cafe, a New York City-based venue specializing in left-wing protest music.
- [5]"Autocantantes" Spanish Song Protest from Madrid.de:Protestlied
fr:Chanson de révolte hu:Protest song nl:Protestlied pl:Protest song sv:Protestsång
