“You will not be able to stay home, brotherYou will not be able to plug in, turn on and drop outYou will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skipSkip out for beer during commercialsBecause the revolution will not be televised” This proto-rap classic was influential in the development of socially conscious hip-hop. Jazz poet Scott-Heron originally recorded […]
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Early morning on May 18, 2017, Chris Cornell was declared dead. Cornell played an important part of my teen years and young adulthood. The first concert I ever attended was a Pearl Jam & Neil Young double bill and Soundgarden was one of the opening acts. This was in support of their 1991 album Badmotorfinger and just before the release […]
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This powerful tune is off the recently released album Tonky by the 75-year-old experimental musician. Like previous albums, it taps into Holley’s experience with dealing with hardships associated with systemic racism. This tune shares a title with the Sam Cooke classic, but it is a different tune. But it does cover similar themes of optimism despite hardships.
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Here is your monthly round up of notable protest music. Songs/Videos: Killing Punk – The Bloody Beetroots x Bob Vylan This tune is a collaboration between Italian EDM artists The Bloody Beetroots and the UK grime punk duo Bob Vylan. The lyrics tackle the racist mindset of punk rock gatekeepers that try to keep Bob Vylan out for being black […]
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“My skin is blackMy arms are longMy hair is woollyMy back is strongStrong enough to take the paininflicted again and again” “Four Women” was written by Simone and appears on her classic 1966 album, Wild Is The Wind. It is one of several tunes that helped establish Simone as an important figure in the civil rights movement. The catalyst of the […]
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“Picket linesSchool boycottsThey try to say it’s a communist plotAll I want is equalityFor my sister, my brother, my people, and me” “Mississippi Goddam” was Nina Simone’s response to the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers in Mississippi and a bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963 (which also helped inspire Simone’s “Four […]
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This is the 3rd song released by the veteran socially conscious indie band from their upcoming album Noble and Godlike in Ruin, out April 25. The lyrics explore the immigrant experience, partly rooted in the personal background of band member Satomi Matsuzaki. The tune also exclusively premiered on Craigslist to protest against the hegemony of big-tech streaming platforms that, according […]
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I previously posted a list of 100 heavy metal songs and followed it up with a video discussing 10 of those tunes. To further highlight metal’s contribution to the canon of protest music, here is a list of 50 albums. The list is presented in chronological order, and for the sake of variety, the list is limited to one album […]
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When people think of metal, they may tend to associate it with Satan, death, and the occult. Or they might think of the debauchery promoted by the hair and glam metal bands of the 1980s. Often overlooked are heavy metal’s considerable contributions to the canon of protest tunes. But it shouldn’t be a surprise that several bands have delved into […]
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Joni Mitchell was born on November 7, 1943. Her 80th birthday is an appropriate time to reflect on the considerable legacy of the Canadian singer-songwriter. She had a gift for writing introspective songs that tap into the human experience. Her music also reflected a social consciousness, especially during the later part of her career. Right now we will look at […]
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