Protest song
Encyclopedia
A protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs (or songs connected to current events). It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre. Among social movements that have an associated body of songs are the abolition
movement, women's suffrage
, the labor movement
, civil rights
, the anti-war
movement, the feminist
movement, animal rights
movement, vegetarianism
and veganism
, and environmentalism
.
Protest songs are frequently situational, having been associated with a social movement through context. "Goodnight Irene", for example, acquired the aura of a protest song because it was written by Lead Belly, a black convict and social outcast, although on its face it is a love song. Or they may be abstract, expressing, in more general terms, opposition to injustice and support for peace, or free thought, but audiences usually know what is being referred to. Beethoven's "Ode to Joy
", a song in support of universal brotherhood, is a song of this kind. It is a setting of a poem by Schiller celebrating the continuum of living beings (who are united in their capacity for feeling pain and pleasure and hence for empathy), to which Beethoven himself added the lines that all men are brothers. Songs which support the status quo do not qualify as protest songs.
Protest song texts have significant cognitive content. The labor movement musical Pins and Needles
deftly summed up the definition of a protest song in a number called "Sing Me a Song of Social Significance." Phil Ochs
once explained, "A protest song is a song that's so specific that you cannot mistake it for bullshit".
An 18th-century example of topical song intended as a feminist protest song is "Rights of Woman" (1795), sung to the tune of "God Save the King", written anonymously by "A Lady", and published in the Philadelphia Minerva, October 17, 1795. There is no evidence that it was ever sung as a movement song, however. A more recent song advocating sexual liberation is "Sexo
" (1985) by Los Prisioneros
.
. Denisoff saw the protest song tradition as originating in the "psalms" or songs of grass-roots Protestant religious revival movements, terming these hymns "protest-propaganda", as well.
Denisoff subdivided protest songs as either "magnetic" or "rhetorical". "Magnetic" protest songs were aimed at attracting people to the movement and promoting group solidarity and commitment, as for example, "Eyes on the Prize
" and "We Shall Overcome
". "Rhetorical" protest songs, on the other hand, are often characterized by individual indignation and offer a straightforward political message designed to change political opinion. Denisoff argued that although "rhetorical" songs often are not overtly connected to building a larger movement, they should nevertheless be considered as "protest-propaganda". Examples include Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" (which contains the lines "I hope that you die / And your death'll come soon") and "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye.
Ron Ayerman and Andrew Jamison, in Music and Social Movements: Mobilizing Tradition in the Twentieth Century (1998), take issue with what they consider Denisoff's reductive approach to the history and function of song (and particularly traditional song) in social movements. They point out that Denisoff had paid little attention to the song tunes of protest music, considered them strictly subordinate to the texts, a means to the message. It is true that in the highly text-oriented western European song tradition, tunes can be subordinate, interchangeable, and even limited in number (as in Portuguese fado
, which only has 64 tunes), nevertheless, Ayerman and Jamison point out that some of the most effective protest songs gain power through their appropriation of tunes that are bearers of strong cultural traditions. They also note that:
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
described the freedom songs this way: "They invigorate the movement in a most significant way [...] these freedom songs serve to give unity to a movement."
, which is the Arabic word for "opinion", is a form of folk music
, originated in Oran, Algeria from Bedouin
shepherd
s, mixed with Spanish
, French
, African and Arabic musical forms, which dates back to the 1930s and has been primarily evolved by women in the culture. Raï has been forbidden music in Algeria, to the point of one popular singer being assassinated, although since the 1980s it has enjoyed some considerable success. The song "Parisien Du Nord" by Cheb Mami
is a recent example of how the genre has been used as form of protest, as the song was written as a protest against the racial tensions that sparked the 2005 French riots
. According to Memi:
, and aboriginal deaths in custody
. One of the most prominent Australian bands to confront these issues is Yothu Yindi
. Other Australian bands to have confronted indigenous issues include Tiddas
, Kev Carmody
, Archie Roach
, Christine Anu
, Neil Murray
, Blue King Brown
, the John Butler Trio
, Midnight Oil
, Warumpi Band
, Powderfinger
and Xavier Rudd
.
In addition to Indigenous issues, many Australian protest singers have sung about the futility of war. Notable anti-war songs include "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
" (1972) by Eric Bogle
, and "A Walk in the Light Green" (1983) by Redgum
, most often remembered by its chorus "I was only nineteen".
Other notable themes in politically inspired Australian music include racism (for example, The Herd) and the environment (for example, Midnight Oil
).
claimed that the "The Cutty Wren" song constituted a coded anthem against feudal oppression and actually dated back to the English peasants' revolt of 1381, making it the oldest extant European protest song. He offered no evidence for his assertion, however and no trace of the song has been found before the 18th century. Despite Lloyd's dubious claim about its origins, however, the "Cutty Wren" was revived and used as a protest song in the 1950s folk revival, an example of the importance of context in determining what may be considered a protest song. In contrast, the rhyme, "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?", is attested as authentically originating in the 1381 Peasant Revolt, though no tune associated with it has survived. Ballads celebrating social bandits like Robin Hood
, from the 14th century onwards, can be seen as expressions of a desire for social justice, though although social criticism is implied and there is no overt questioning of the status quo.
The era of civil and religious wars of the 17th century in Britain gave rise to the radical communist millenarian Levellers
and Diggers' movements and their associated ballads and hymns, as, for example, "The Diggers' Song
". with the incendiary verse:
But the Gentry must come down,
and the poor shall wear the crown.
Stand up now, Diggers all!
The Digger movement was violently crushed, and so it is not surprising if few overt protest songs associated with it have survived. From roughly the same period, however, songs protesting wars and the human suffering they inflict abound, though such song do not generally explicitly condemn the wars or the leaders who wage them. For example, "The Maunding Souldier" or "The Fruits of Warre is Beggery", framed as a begging appeal from a crippled soldier of the Thirty Years War. Such songs have been known, strictly speaking, as songs of complaint rather than of protest, since they offered no solution or hint of rebellion against the status quo.
The advent of industrialisation in the eighteenth and early 19th centuries was accompanied by a series of protest movements and a corresponding increase in the number of topical social protest songs and ballads. An important example is ‘The Triumph of General Ludd,’ which built a fictional persona for the alleged leader of the early 19th century anti-technological Luddite
movement in the cloth industry of the north midlands, and which made explicit reference to the Robin Hood tradition. A surprising English folk hero immortalised in song is Napoleon Bonaparte, the military figure most often the subject of popular ballads, many of them treating him as the champion of the common working man in songs such as the "Bonny Bunch of Roses" and "Napoleon's Dream". As labour became more organised songs were used as anthems and propaganda, for miners with songs like "The Black Leg Miner", and for factory workers with songs like "The Factory Bell".
These industrial protest songs were largely ignored during the first English folk revival of the later nineteenth and early 20th century, which had focused on songs that had been collected in rural areas where they were still being sung and on music education. They were revived in the 1960s and performed by figures like A. L. Lloyd
on his album The Iron Muse (1963). In the 1980s the anarchist rock band Chumbawamba
recorded several versions of traditional English protest songs as English Rebel Songs 1381–1914.
, believes the modern British protest movement started in 1958 when the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
(CND) organized a 53-mile march from Trafalgar Square
to Aldermaston
, to protest the Britain's participation in the arms race and recent testing of the H-bomb. The protest "fired up young musicians to write campaigning new songs to argue the case against the bomb and whip up support along the way. Suddenly many of those in skiffle groups playing American songs were changing course and writing fierce topical songs to back direct action." A song composed for the march: "The H-Bomb's Thunder", set the words of a poem by novelist John Brunner
to the tune of "Miner's Lifeguard":
Men and women, stand together
Do not heed the men of war
Make your minds up now or never
Ban the bomb for evermore."
Folk singer Ewan MacColl
was for some time one of the principal musical figures of the British nuclear disarmament movement. A former agitprop
actor and playwright. MacColl, a prolific songwriter and committed leftist, some years earlier had penned "The Ballad of Ho Chi Minh", (1953) issued as single on Topic records and "The Ballad of Stalin" (1954), commemorating the death of that leader. Neither record has ever been reissued.
According to Irwin, MacColl, when interviewed in the Daily Worker in 1958, declared that:
In 1965, folk-rock singer Donovan
's cover of Buffy Sainte-Marie
's "Universal Soldier
" was a hit on the charts. His anti-Vietnam War song, "The War Drags On" appeared that same year.
As their fame and prestige increased in the late 1960s, The Beatles
—and John Lennon
in particular—added their voices to the Anti-war. In the documentary The US Versus John Lennon, Tariq Ali
attributes the Beatles' activism to the fast that, in his opinion, "The whole culture had been radicalized: [Lennon] was engaged with the world, and the world was changing him." Revolution
", 1968, commemorated the world-wide student uprisings. In 1969, when Lennon and Yoko Ono
were married, they staged a week-long "bed-in for peace" in the Amsterdam
Hilton, attracting worldwide media
coverage. At the second "Bed-in" in Montreal, in June 1969, they recorded "Give Peace a Chance
" in their hotel room. The song was sung by over half a million demonstrators
in Washington, D.C. at the second Vietnam Moratorium Day
, on 15 October 1969. In 1972 Lennon's his most controversial protest song LP was Some Time In New York City
, the title of whose lead single "Woman Is the Nigger of the World
", a phrase coined by Ono in the late '60s to protest sexism
, set off a storm of controversy, and in consequence received little airplay and much banning. The Lennons went to great lengths (including a press conference attended by staff from Jet
and Ebony
magazines) to explain that they had used the word "nigger
" in a symbolic sense and not as an affront to African-Americans. The album also included "Attica State", about the Attica Prison riots
of September 9, 1971; "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "The Luck Of The Irish", about the massacre of demonstrators in Northern Ireland
and "Angela", in support of black activist Angela Davis
. Lennon also performed at the "Free John Sinclair
" benefit concert in Ann Arbor, Michigan
, on December 10, 1971. on behalf of the imprisoned antiwar activist and poet who was serving ten years in state prison for selling two joint
s of marijuana
to an undercover cop. On this occasion Lennon and Ono appeared on stage with among others singers Phil Ochs and Stevie Wonder, plus antiwar activists Jerry Rubin and Bobby Seale
of the Black Panthers party. Lennon's song "John Sinclair" (which can be heard on his Some Time In New York City album), calls on the authorities to "Let him be, set him free, let him be like you and me". The benefit was attended by some 20,000 people, and three days later the State of Michigan released Sinclair from prison.
The 1970s saw a number notable songs by British acts that protested against war, including "Peace Train
" by Cat Stevens
(1971), and "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath
(1970). Sabbath also protested environmental destruction, describing people leaving a ruined Earth ("Into the Void
" including, "Iron Man
"). Renaissance
added political repression as a protest theme with "Mother Russia
" being based on One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
and being joined on the second side of their 1974 album Turn of the Cards
by two other protest songs in "Cold Is Being" (about ecological destruction) and "Black Flame" (about the Vietnam War).
As the 1970s progressed, the louder, more aggressive Punk movement became the strongest voice of protest, particularly in the UK, featuring anti-war, anti-state, and anti-capitalist themes. The punk culture, in stark contrast with the 1960s' sense of power through union, concerned itself with individual freedom, often incorporating concepts of individualism
, free thought
and even anarchism
. According to Search and Destroy founder V. Vale
, "Punk was a total cultural revolt. It was a hardcore confrontation with the black side of history and culture, right-wing imagery, sexual taboos, a delving into it that had never been done before by any generation in such a thorough way." The most significant protest songs of the movement included "God Save the Queen
" (1977) by the Sex Pistols
, "If the Kids are United" by Sham 69
, "Career Opportunities" (1977) (protesting the political and economic situation in England at the time, especially the lack of jobs available to the youth), and "White Riot
" (1977) (about class economics and race issues) by The Clash
, and "Right to Work" by Chelsea
. See also Punk ideology
.
War was still the prevalent theme of British protest songs of the 1980s - such as Kate Bush
's "Army Dreamers
" (1980), which deals with the traumas of a mother whose son dies while away at war. However, as the 1980s progressed, it was British prime minister Margaret Thatcher
who came under the greatest degree of criticism from native protest singers, mostly for her strong stance against trade union
s, and especially for her handling of the UK miners' strike (1984–1985)
. The leading voice of protest in Thatcherite
Britain in the 1980s was Billy Bragg
, whose style of protest song and grass-roots political activism was mostly reminiscent of those of Woody Guthrie
, however with themes that were relevant to the contemporary Briton. He summarised his stance in "Between the Wars" (1985) in which he sings "I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage." The main Wikipedia article on Margaret Thatcher includes a section on protest songs about or inspired by her.
Britain's current involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan has also garnered criticism from native singers; including George Michael
's anti-Tony Blair
single "Shoot the Dog
" (2002) - which criticised Blair's overly friendly relationship with George W. Bush
and support for the Iraq War - and the more recent example of Ian Brown
and Sinéad O'Connor
's "Illegal Attacks" (2007) ("So what the fuck is this UK/Gunning with this US of A/ in Iraq and Iran and in Afghanistan?/These are illegal attacks/So bring the soldiers back"). Ex-Smiths
frontman Morrissey
has also attacked both sides of the Atlantic with "America is Not the World" and "Irish Blood, English Heart" from his 2004 You Are the Quarry
album.
is a sub genre of Irish folk music, played on typically Irish instruments (such as the Fiddle
, tin whistle
, Uilleann pipes
, accordion
, bodhrán
etc.) and acoustic guitars. The lyrics deal with the fight for Irish freedom, people who were involved in liberation movements, the persecution and violence during Northern Ireland's Troubles
and the history of Ireland's numerous rebellions.
Among the many examples of the genre, some of the most famous are "A Nation Once Again
", "Come out Ye Black and Tans
", "Erin go Bragh", "The Fields of Athenry
", "The Men Behind the Wire
" and the Republic of Ireland's national Anthem "Amhrán na bhFiann
" ("The Soldier's Song").Music of this genre has often courted controversy, and some of the more outwardly anti-British songs have been effectively banned from the airwaves in both England and the Republic of Ireland.
Paul McCartney
also made a contribution to the genre with his 1972 single "Give Ireland Back to the Irish
" which he wrote as a reaction to Bloody Sunday
in Northern Ireland on January 30, 1972. The song also faced an all-out ban in the UK, and has never been re-released or appeared on any Paul McCartney or Wings
best-ofs. His former colleague John Lennon
wrote a song called Sunday Bloody Sunday
in 1972 shortly after the massacre of Irish civil rights activists; this song differs from U2's 1983 version of Bloody Sunday in that it directly supports the Irish Republican cause and does not call for peace. The same year John Lennon
also released two protest songs concerning the hardships of war-torn Northern Ireland
in the form of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "The Luck Of The Irish", both from his 1972 album Some Time in New York City.
The Wolfe Tones
have become legendary in Ireland for their contribution to the Irish rebel genre. The band has been recording since 1963 and has attracted worldwide fame and attention through their renditions of traditional Irish songs and originals, dealing with the former conflict in Northern Ireland. In 2002 the Wolfe Tones' version of A Nation Once Again
, a nationalist song from the 19th century, was voted the greatest song in the world in a poll conducted by the BBC World Service
Christy Moore
is another famous figure in Irish rebel music, and together with his original band Planxty
he recorded traditional music during the 1970s. Following his departure from the band in 1975 he embarked on a solo career, lending his support to a wide variety of left-wing causes. Until 1987 the Provisional IRA was among the groups he supported; however this came to an end following the Enniskillen bombing. During his career he has sung about human rights in El Salvador
, republican volunteers from the Spanish Civil War, South African anti-apartheid activist and martyr Steven Biko, the murdered Chilean singer, songwriter, poet, playwright and activist Víctor Jara
, the late Palestinian solidarity activist Rachel Corrie
, not to mention numerous events of Irish history.
An Irish alternative rock/post punk band from Dublin, U2
broke with the rebel musical tradition when they wrote their song, Sunday Bloody Sunday
in 1983. The song makes reference to two separate massacres in Irish history of civilians by British forces (Bloody Sunday (1920)
and Bloody Sunday 1972); however, unlike other songs dealing with those events, the lyrics call for peace as opposed to revenge.
The song Zombie
by the Irish band The Cranberries
- written in 1994 in response to the Warrington Bomb Attacks
of 1993 - protests the cycle of violence and retribution in Northern Ireland and the pain and suffering it has caused to both communities.
's 1986 song Nothing to My Name
was popular with protesters in Tiananmen Square
. After the crackdown, he frequently played in public wearing a symbolic red blindfold when playing A Piece of Red Cloth, a practice which led to censorship officials canceling concerts.
(L'Internationale in French
) is a famous socialist
, anarchist
, communist
, and social-democratic
anthem
and one of the most widely recognized songs in the world.
The Internationale became the anthem of international socialism
. Its original French refrain is C'est la lutte finale/ Groupons-nous et demain/ L'Internationale/ Sera le genre humain. (Freely translated: "This is the final struggle/ Let us join together and tomorrow/ The Internationale/ Will be the human race.") The Internationale has been translated into most of the world's languages. Traditionally it is sung with the hand raised in a clenched fist salute. The Internationale is sung not only by communist
s but also (in many countries) by socialists or social democrats. The Chinese version was also a rallying song of the students and workers at the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
.
There is not so much a protest song trend in France, but rather of a permanent background of criticism and contestation, and individuals who personify it. World War II
and its horrors forced French singers to think more critically about war in general, forcing them to question their governments and the powers who ruled their society.
Jazz trumpeter and singer Boris Vian
's was one of the first to protest against the Algerian war with his anti-war song "Le déserteur" (The deserter), which was banned by the government.
Several French songwriters, such as Georges Brassens
(1921–1981), Jacques Brel
(1929–1978) (actually a Belgian singer, who died in Paris), Léo Ferré
(1916–1993), Maxime Le Forestier
(born 1949) or interpreters (Yves Montand
, Marcel Mouloudji, Serge Reggiani
, Graeme Allwright
...) often wrote or sang songs aligned against majority ideas and political powers. Because racial tensions did not rise to the same levels as those in the United States, criticism was focused more toward bourgeoisie, power, religion, and songs defending liberty of thought, speech and action. After 1945, immigration became a source of inspiration for some singers: Pierre Perret
(born 1934), well known for his humorous songs, started writing several more "serious" and committed songs against racism ("Lily" 1977), which critically pointed out everyday racist behavior n French society.
Brassens wrote several songs protesting war, hate, intolerance ("Les deux oncles", "The two uncles"; "La Guerre de 14-18", "14-18 war"; "Mourir pour des idées", "To die for ideas"; "Les patriotes", "The patriots"), against chauvinism ("La ballade des gens qui sont nés quelque part", "Ballad of People Who Are Born Somewhere"), against bourgeoisie ("La mauvaise réputation" = "The bad reputation", "Les Philistins" = "The Philistines"). He was often called "anarchist" because of his songs on representatives of law and order (and religion) ("Le gorille" = "The gorilla"; "Hécatombe", "Slaughter"; "Le nombril des femmes d'agents", "The navel of cops wives"; "Le mécréant" = "The miscreant"...).
Brel's work is another ode to freedom ("Ces gens-là" = "These people", "Les bourgeois" = "The bourgeois", "Jaurès", "Les bigotes" = "The bigots", "Le colonel" = "The colonel", "Le Caporal Casse-Pompon" = "Corporal Break-Nots"), and Ferré was even classified as "red" singer.
All these songs reveal, more than a party anthem, awareness of human being, of universal human problems, and try to touch intimately (and change) individual souls rather than struggle against social or political movements, a government or another, even if the French government, involved in wars in Indochina and Algeria, has often tried to prohibit some of these songs.
, one of the first and most influential German language
rock
bands of the 1970s and early 1980s, were well known for the highly political lyrics of vocalist Rio Reiser
. The band became a musical mouthpiece of new left movements
, such as the squatting movement
, during that time in Germany and their hometown of West Berlin
in particular. Their lyrics were, at the beginning, anti-capitalist
and anarchist, and the band had connections to the German Red Army Faction
terrorists before they later turned to violent crime and murder. Later songs were about more complex issues such as unemployment
(Mole Hill Rockers) or homosexuality
(Mama war so). They also contributed to two full-length concept album
about homosexuality which were issued under the name Brühwarm (literally: boiling warm) in cooperation with a gay-revue group.
A dissatisfied German youth in the late 1970s and early 80s resulted in a strand of highly politicized German language Punkrock ("Deutschpunk"), which mostly concerned itself with politically radical left-wing lyrics, mostly influenced by the Cold War
. Probably the most important German language punk band was Slime
from Hamburg, who were the first band whose LP was banned because of political topics. Their songs "Deutschland" ("Germany"), "Bullenschweine", "Polizei SA/SS", and the anti-imperialist "Yankees raus" ("Yankees out") were banned, some of them are still banned today, because they propagated the use of violence against the police or compared the police to the SA
and SS of Nazi Germany
. A 1983 protest song from Germany which gained considerable attention worldwide was "99 Luftballons
" by Nena
. The song protested the escalating rhetoric and strategic maneuvering between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War
.
Israel's protest music has often become associated with different political factions.
" sung by Shuli Natan
During the 1967 war, Naomi Shemer wrote Jerusalem of Gold, sung by Shuli Natan
, about the recapturing of Jerusalem after 2000 years. Later on that year A different point of view of this song was introduced by the folk singer Meir Ariel
, who recorded an anti-war version of this song and named it "Jerusalem of Iron".
Gush Emunim
supporters have taken a repertoire of old religious songs and invested them with political meaning. An example is the song "Utsu Etsu VeTufar" (They gave counsel but their counsel was violated). The song signifies the ultimate rightness of those steadfast in their beliefs, suggesting the rightness of Gush Emunim's struggle against anti-settlement policy by the government.
Minutes before Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered
at a political rally in November 1995, Israeli folk singer Miri Aloni sang the Israeli pop song Shir Lashalom
(Song for Peace). This song, originally written in 1969 and performed extensively at the time by an Israeli military performing group, has become one of the anthems of the Israeli peace camp.
During the Arab uprising known as the First Intifada
, Israeli singer Si Heyman sang Yorim VeBokhim (Shoot and Weep), written by Shalom Hanoch, to protest Israeli policy in the territories. This song was banned from the radio for a certain period of time on charges of subversiveness.
Pink Floyd
's Another Brick in the Wall
is used as a protest song by many opponents of Israel's barrier in the West Bank, which is now half finished. The lyrics have been adapted to: "We don't need no occupation. We don't need no racist wall."
Since the onset of the Oslo Process and, more recently, Israel's unilateral disengagement plan
, protest songs became a major avenue for opposition activists to express sentiments. Songs protesting these policies were written and performed by Israeli musicians, such as Ariel Zilber
, Shalom Flisser, Aharon Razel, Eli Bar-Yahalom, Yuri Lipmanovich, Ari Ben-Yam, and many others.
Víctor Jara
, who played a pivotal role in the folkloric renaissance that led to the Nueva Canción Chilena
(New Chilean Song) movement which created a revolution in the popular music of his country, criticised the "commercialized" American ‘protest song phenomenon’ which had been imported into Chile. He criticized it thus:
Nueva canción
(literally "new song" in Spanish) was a type of protest/social song in Latin American music
which took root in South America, especially Chile
and other Andean countries, and gained extreme popularity throughout Latin America. It combined traditional Latin American folk music idioms (played on the quena
, zampoña, charango
or cajón
with guitar accompaniment) with some popular (esp. British) rock music, and was characterised by its progressive and often politicized lyrics. It is sometimes considered a precursor to rock en español
. The lyrics are typically in Spanish, with some indigenous or local words mixed in.
Its lyrics characteristically revolve around about poverty
, empowerment
, the Unidad Popular, imperialism
, democracy
, human rights
, and religion
. There are some hundreds of songs with influences from British and American pop rock that was popular with college youths. The Chilean coup of 1973
impacted the genre's growth, as the musical movement was forced to go underground. During the days of the coup, Víctor Jara himself was kidnapped, jailed, tortured and shot. Other groups, such as Inti-Illimani and Quilapayún found safety outside the country. The military dictatorship went as far as to ban many traditional Andean instruments, but as a testament to how far the country has come since then, the stadium where Víctor Jara was murdered now bears his name.
", started in the mid-1960s when a movement in Cuban music emerged that combined traditional folk music
idioms with progressive and often politicized lyrics. This movement of protest music came to be known as Nueva trova
, and was somewhat similar to that of Nueva canción
, however with the advantage of support from the Cuban government, as it promoted the Cuban Revolution
. Though originally and still largely Cuban, nueva trova has become popular across Latin America, especially in Puerto Rico
and Venezuela
. The movements biggest stars included Cubans Silvio Rodríguez
, Vicente Feliu, Noel Nicola and Pablo Milanés
, as well as Puerto Ricans such as Roy Brown
, Andrés Jiménez, Antonio Cabán Vale
and the group Haciendo Punto en Otro Son
.
deals with the conflict with Israel
, the longing for peace, and the love of the Palestinian's land. A typical example of such a song is "Biladi, Biladi" (My Country, My Country), which has become the unofficial Palestinian national anthem
. Palestinian music rarely focuses on internal divides (unlike most Israeli peace songs), and instead deals almost solely with Israel. Additionally, there are very few Palestinian peace songs that are not inditing of Israel, and outwardly militaristic.
Another example is the song "AlKuds (Jerusalem) our Land", with words by Sharif Sabri. The song, sung by Amar Diab from Port Said
, Egypt
, won first prize in 2003 in a contest in Egypt for video clips produced in the West Bank and Gaza
. DAM
is an Arabic hip-hop group, rapping
in Arabic
and Hebrew
about the problems faced by Palestinians under occupation and calling for change. Kamilya Joubran's song "Ghareeba", a setting of a poem by Khalil Gibran
, deals with a sense of isolation and loneliness felt by the Palestinian woman.
Unlike during the Anti-Apartheid era, international artists have largely avoided the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict as lyrical fodder. Since 2000, this has been changing, with Electronic Intifada
cofounder Nigel Parry's 2001 album, This Side of Paradise This Side of Paradise (Nigel Parry album), an early example. The increasing number of lyrics dealing with the conflict is primarily noted in the hip hop community, particularly from underground artists such as Immortal Technique
and Invincible.
to the songs being sung by the New Peoples Army, Filipino protest music deals with poverty, oppression as well as anti-imperialism and independence. A typical example was during the American era, as Jose Corazon de Jesus
created a well-known protest song entitled "Bayan Ko
", which calls for redeeming the nation against oppression, mainly colonialism, that also became popular as a song dealt against the Marcos regime.
However, during the 1960s, Filipino protest music became aligned with the ideas of Communism
as well as of revolution. "Ang Linyang Masa", a protest song came from Mao Zedong
and his Mass Line and "Papuri sa Pag-aaral" was from Bertolt Brecht
. These songs, although Filipinised, rose to become another part of Filipino protest music known as Revolutionary songs, that became popular during protests and campaign struggles.
Singer-songwriters of protest music include Ramon Ayco, a former rebel, who made a song entitled "Tano", which tackles about a farmer who, due to the prevailing conditions, forced himself to join the struggle, and "Babae" ("Woman"), which also deals with women's empowerment and national liberation, other singer-songwriters like Heber Bartolome
, Jess Santiago, soloist Paul Galang, Inang Laya, and Noel Cabangon are also became popular in creating protest music and making it popular like the song "Tatsulok" ("Triangle"), that originally from Cabangon's album Buklod, and revived by Bamboo Mañalac
.
. The term, (бард in Russian) came to be used in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, and continues to be used in Russia today, to refer to singer-songwriter
s who wrote songs outside the Soviet establishment. Many of the most famous bards wrote numerous songs about war, particularly The Great Patriotic War (World War II). Bards had various reasons for writing and singing songs about war. Bulat Okudzhava
, who actually fought in the war, used his sad and emotional style to illustrate the futility of war in songs such as "The Paper Soldier" ("Бумажный Солдат").
Many political songs were written by bards under Soviet rule, and the genre varied from acutely political, "anti-Soviet" songs, to witty satire in the best traditions of Aesop
. Some of Bulat Okudzhava
's songs provide examples of political songs written on these themes. Vladimir Vysotsky
was perceived as a political song writer, but later he gradually made his way into the more mainstream culture. It was not so with Alexander Galich, who was forced to emigrate—owning a tape with his songs could mean a prison term in the USSR. Before emigration, he suffered from KGB
persecution, as did another bard, Yuliy Kim
. Others, like Evgeny Kliachkin
and Aleksander Dolsky, maintained a balance between outright anti-Soviet and plain romantic material. Since most of the bards' songs were never permitted by Soviet censorship, most of them, however innocent, were considered to be anti-Soviet.
in which blacks were stripped of their citizenship and rights from 1948 to 1994. As the apartheid regime forced Africans into townships and industrial centers, people sang about leaving their homes, the horror of the coal mines and the degradation of working as domestic servants. Examples of which include Benedict Wallet Vilakazi
's "Meadowlands", the "Toyi-toyi
" chant and "Bring Him Back Home" (1987) by Hugh Masekela
, which became an anthem for the movement to free Nelson Mandela
. Masekela's song "Soweto Blues", sung by his former wife, Miriam Makeba
, is a blues/jazz piece that mourns the carnage of the Soweto riots
in 1976. Basil Coetzee
and Abdullah Ibrahim
's "Mannenberg", became an unofficial soundtrack to the anti-apartheid resistance.
In Afrikaans
, the Voëlvry movement led by Johannes Kerkorrel
, Koos Kombuis
and Bernoldus Niemand in 1989, provided a voice of opposition from within the white Afrikaner
community. These musicians sought to redefine Afrikaner identity, and although met with opposition from the authorities, Voëlvry played to large crowds at Afrikaans university campuses and was quite popular amongst the Afrikaner youth. Voëlvry is discussed in detail by Hopkins (2006) in "Voëlvry. The movement that rocked South Africa" (Cape Town: Zebra Press) and Grundlingh (2004) in ""Rocking the Boat" in South Africa? Voëlvry music and Afrikaans anti-apartheid social protest in the 1980s" (The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 37(3):483–514).
writers and musicians followed public sentiments by embracing the new South Africa, but cracks soon emerged in the dream of the ‘rainbow nation’ and criticism started to emerge, criticism that has grown in frequency and intensity in recent years. With violent crime putting South Africa in the top category of most dangerous country in the world, poverty, government corruption, and the AIDS pandemic, writers and musicians, some of them veterans of anti-apartheid movements, are once again protesting against what they consider to be a government failing to uphold the promise of ‘peace, democracy and freedom for all’ that Nelson Mandela made upon his release from prison. By 2000, Johannes Kerkorrel
claimed in the song "Die stad bloei vanaand" [The city bleeds tonight], "the dream was promised, but just another lie has been sold."
Two Afrikaans
compilation albums of predominantly protest music were released recently: "Genoeg is genoeg" [Enough is enough] (2007) and "Vaderland" [Fatherland] (2008), and Koos Kombuis
also released a CD called "Bloedrivier" [Blood River] (2008), which is primarily a protest album. One track, "Waar is Mandela" [Where is Mandela] asks, "Where is Mandela when the shadows descend [...] Where is the rainbow, where is the glory?" and another, "Die fokkol song" [The fuck all song], tells tourists who visit South Africa for the 2010 Football World Cup that there is nothing in South Africa
, no jobs, no petrol, no electric power, not even jokes. However, these compilations only represent the tip of the iceberg, as many prominent musicians have included protest songs on recent albums, including Bok van Blerk
, Fokofpolisiekar
, KOBUS!
, ddisselblom and Glaskas.
The reality of the New South Africa is decidedly violent, and crime is a well-known theme in post-apartheid Afrikaans protest music. The punk group Fokofpolisiekar
(which translates to ‘fuck off police car’) sings in "Brand Suid-Afrika" [Burn South Africa]: "For you knives lie in wait, in the garden outside you house," and Radio Suid-Afrika sings in "Bid" [Pray]: "Pray that no-one will be waiting in the garden, pray for strength and for mercy in each dark day." Theirs is a country of "murder and child rape" where the only respite is alcohol abuse. In "Blaas hom" [Blow him away] by the industrial band Battery9, the narrator sings how he gleefully unloads his gun on a burglar after being robbed for the third time, and in "Siek bliksems" [Sick bastards] Kristoe Strauss asks God to help against the "sick bastards" responsible for hijackings. The metal band KOBUS!
pleads for a reinstatement of the death penalty in "Doodstraf", because they feel the promise of peace has not realised. In "Reconciliation Day", Koos Kombuis
sings: "Our streets run with blood, every day a funeral procession, they steal all our goods, on Reconciliation Day." Elsewhere he states, "we’re in a state of war." The video of this song features a lawless microcosm of theft, rape and abuse – a lawlessness reflected in Valiant Swart
's "Sodom en Gomorra": "two cities in the north, without laws, without order, too wonderful for words." In "Mitchells Plain", Gian Groen sings about gang violence on the Cape Flats, and Liezl op bladsy 5 sings in "Wie doen wat" [Who does what]: "Everyone's fed up, everyone's sick and tired." Hanru Niemand rewrites the traditional Afrikaans
song Sarie Marais
, turning it into a murder ballad speculating on where Sarie's body will be found. The new protest musicians also parody Voëlvry's music: Johannes Kerkorrel
's "Sit dit af" [Switch it off] – a satire on PW Botha of the apartheid regime – is turned into "Sit dit aan" [Switch it on] by Koos Kombuis
, now a song protesting mismanagement resulting in chronic power failures.
Much of the protest by Afrikaans musicians concerns the legacy of apartheid: In "Blameer dit op apartheid" [Blame it on apartheid] Koos Kombuis
sings how "the whole country is evil," yet the situation is blamed on apartheid. Klopjag, in "Ek sal nie langer" [I will no longer] sings that they will no longer apologise for apartheid, a theme echoed by many others, including Koos Kombuis
in "Hoe lank moet ons nog sorry sê" [For how long do we still have to say sorry]. Piet Paraat sings in "Toema Jacob Zuma" [Never mind Jacob Zuma]: "My whole life I’m punished for the sins of my father." There is also a distinct feeling that the Afrikaner
is being marginalised by the ANC
government: Fokofpolisiekar
sings in "Antibiotika" [Antibiotics], "I’m just a tourist in the country of my birth," Bok van Blerk
sings in "Die kleur van my vel" [The colour of my skin] that the country does not want him despite his willingness to work, because he is white, and in "Bloekomboom" Rian Malan
uses the metaphor of a blue gum tree (an alien species) to plead that Afrikaners should not be regarded as settlers, but as part of the nation. The appeals by these musicians to be included follows a sense of exclusion manifested in the political, linguistic and economic realms, an exclusion depicted particularly vividly by Bok van Blerk
's "Kaplyn" [Cut line], a song that laments that fallen South African soldiers have been omitted in one of the country's show-case memorials, the Freedom Park Memorial, despite official claims of it being a memorial for all who had fought for the country.
The main issues addressed in post-apartheid Afrikaans protest music centre around perceived government incompetence in terms of crime and poverty, and a sense of being excluded and not treated as citizens of their own country.
are known as Min-joong Ga-yo , and the genre of protest songs is called Norae Undong, literally "Song movement". It was raised by people in 1970s~1980s to be against the military governments of President Park Jeong-hee
, Jeon Doo-hwan .
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
movement, women's suffrage
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...
, the labor movement
Labour movement
The term labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour...
, civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
, the anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
movement, the feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
movement, animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
movement, vegetarianism
Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism encompasses the practice of following plant-based diets , with or without the inclusion of dairy products or eggs, and with the exclusion of meat...
and veganism
Veganism
Veganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...
, and environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
.
Protest songs are frequently situational, having been associated with a social movement through context. "Goodnight Irene", for example, acquired the aura of a protest song because it was written by Lead Belly, a black convict and social outcast, although on its face it is a love song. Or they may be abstract, expressing, in more general terms, opposition to injustice and support for peace, or free thought, but audiences usually know what is being referred to. Beethoven's "Ode to Joy
Ode to Joy
"Ode to Joy" is an ode written in 1785 by the German poet, playwright and historian Friedrich Schiller, enthusiastically celebrating the brotherhood and unity of all mankind...
", a song in support of universal brotherhood, is a song of this kind. It is a setting of a poem by Schiller celebrating the continuum of living beings (who are united in their capacity for feeling pain and pleasure and hence for empathy), to which Beethoven himself added the lines that all men are brothers. Songs which support the status quo do not qualify as protest songs.
Protest song texts have significant cognitive content. The labor movement musical Pins and Needles
Pins and Needles
Pins and Needles is a musical revue with a book by Arthur Arent, Marc Blitzstein, Emmanuel Eisenberg, Charles Friedman, David Gregory, Joseph Schrank, Arnold B. Horwitt, John Latouche, and Harold Rome and music and lyrics by Rome...
deftly summed up the definition of a protest song in a number called "Sing Me a Song of Social Significance." Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
once explained, "A protest song is a song that's so specific that you cannot mistake it for bullshit".
An 18th-century example of topical song intended as a feminist protest song is "Rights of Woman" (1795), sung to the tune of "God Save the King", written anonymously by "A Lady", and published in the Philadelphia Minerva, October 17, 1795. There is no evidence that it was ever sung as a movement song, however. A more recent song advocating sexual liberation is "Sexo
Sexo
"Sexo" is a punk rock song by Chilean rock band Los Prisioneros featured as the fifth track on their debut album La voz de los '80. After being released in 1984 "Sexo" became one of better known songs by Los Prisioneros and has been frequently covered by Chilean rock bands...
" (1985) by Los Prisioneros
Los Prisioneros
Los Prisioneros was a chilean rock band formed in San Miguel, Santiago, Chile in 1982. They began as a local band during the early 1980s, playing small shows in their neighborhood and high school...
.
Types of protest song
The sociologist R. Serge Denisoff saw protest songs rather narrowly in terms of their function, as forms of persuasion or propagandaPropaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
. Denisoff saw the protest song tradition as originating in the "psalms" or songs of grass-roots Protestant religious revival movements, terming these hymns "protest-propaganda", as well.
Denisoff subdivided protest songs as either "magnetic" or "rhetorical". "Magnetic" protest songs were aimed at attracting people to the movement and promoting group solidarity and commitment, as for example, "Eyes on the Prize
Eyes on the Prize
Eyes on the Prize is a 14-hour documentary series about the African-American Civil Rights Movement. The series was produced in two-stages: Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954–1964 consists of the first six episodes covering the time period between the Brown v. Board decision and...
" and "We Shall Overcome
We Shall Overcome
"We Shall Overcome" is a protest song that became a key anthem of the African-American Civil Rights Movement . The title and structure of the song are derived from an early gospel song by African-American composer Charles Albert Tindley...
". "Rhetorical" protest songs, on the other hand, are often characterized by individual indignation and offer a straightforward political message designed to change political opinion. Denisoff argued that although "rhetorical" songs often are not overtly connected to building a larger movement, they should nevertheless be considered as "protest-propaganda". Examples include Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" (which contains the lines "I hope that you die / And your death'll come soon") and "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye.
Ron Ayerman and Andrew Jamison, in Music and Social Movements: Mobilizing Tradition in the Twentieth Century (1998), take issue with what they consider Denisoff's reductive approach to the history and function of song (and particularly traditional song) in social movements. They point out that Denisoff had paid little attention to the song tunes of protest music, considered them strictly subordinate to the texts, a means to the message. It is true that in the highly text-oriented western European song tradition, tunes can be subordinate, interchangeable, and even limited in number (as in Portuguese fado
Fado
Fado is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar, Rui Vieira Nery, states that "the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best...
, which only has 64 tunes), nevertheless, Ayerman and Jamison point out that some of the most effective protest songs gain power through their appropriation of tunes that are bearers of strong cultural traditions. They also note that:
There is more to music and movements than can be captured within a functional perspective, such as Denisoff's, which focuses on the use made of music within already-existing movements. Music, and song, we suggest, can maintain a movement even when it no longer has a visible presence in the form of organizations, leaders, and demonstrations, and can be a vital force in preparing the emergence of a new movement. Here the role and place of music needs to be interpreted through a broader framework in which tradition and ritual are understood as processes of identity and identification, as encoded and embodied forms of collective meaning and memory.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
described the freedom songs this way: "They invigorate the movement in a most significant way [...] these freedom songs serve to give unity to a movement."
Algerian Raï protest music
RaïRaï
Raï is a form of folk music that originated in Oran, Algeria from Bedouin shepherds, mixed with Spanish, French, African and Arabic musical forms, which dates back to the 1930s....
, which is the Arabic word for "opinion", is a form of folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, originated in Oran, Algeria from Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
shepherd
Shepherd
A shepherd is a person who tends, feeds or guards flocks of sheep.- Origins :Shepherding is one of the oldest occupations, beginning some 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat and especially their wool...
s, mixed with Spanish
Music of Spain
The Music of Spain has a long history and has played an important part in the development of western music. It has had a particularly strong influence upon Latin American music. The music of Spain is often associated abroad with traditions like flamenco and the classical guitar but Spanish music...
, French
Music of France
France has a wide variety of indigenous folk music, as well as styles played by immigrants from Africa, Latin America and Asia. In the field of classical music, France has produced a number of legendary composers, while modern pop music has seen the rise of popular French hip hop, techno/funk,...
, African and Arabic musical forms, which dates back to the 1930s and has been primarily evolved by women in the culture. Raï has been forbidden music in Algeria, to the point of one popular singer being assassinated, although since the 1980s it has enjoyed some considerable success. The song "Parisien Du Nord" by Cheb Mami
Cheb Mami
Ahmed Khelifati Mohamed better known by his stage name Cheb Mami , is an Algerian-born raï singer...
is a recent example of how the genre has been used as form of protest, as the song was written as a protest against the racial tensions that sparked the 2005 French riots
2005 civil unrest in France
The 2005 civil unrest in France of October and November was a series of riots by mostly Muslim North African youths in Paris and other French cities, involving mainly the burning of cars and public buildings at night starting on 27 October 2005 in Clichy-sous-Bois...
. According to Memi:
It is a song against racism, so I wanted to sing it with a North African who was born in France [...] Because of that and because of his talent, I chose K-Mel. In the song, we say, ‘In your eyes, I feel like foreigner.’ It's like the kids who were born in France but they have Arab faces. They are French, and they should be considered French."
Australia
Indigenous issues feature prominently in politically inspired Australian music and include the topics of land rightsLand rights
Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these species of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use agreements, including renting, are an important...
, and aboriginal deaths in custody
Deaths in custody
Death in custody is when a person dies when in the custody of the police, prison service or other authorities. Death in custody remains a controversial subject, with the authorities often being accused of abuse, neglect, racism and cover-ups of the causes of these deaths...
. One of the most prominent Australian bands to confront these issues is Yothu Yindi
Yothu Yindi
Yothu Yindi are an Australian band with Aboriginal and balanda members formed in 1986. Aboriginal members come from Yolngu homelands near Yirrkala on the Gove Peninsula in Northern Territory's Arnhem Land...
. Other Australian bands to have confronted indigenous issues include Tiddas
Tiddas
Tiddas are a three piece all-girl folk band from Victoria, Australia.-Biography:Originally the three women, Amy Saunders , Lou Bennett and Sally Dastey combined their vocal talents as backing singers for Aboriginal band Djaambi, led by Saunder's brother Richard Frankland in 1990...
, Kev Carmody
Kev Carmody
Kevin Daniel "Kev" Carmody is an Indigenous Australian singer-songwriter. His song "From Little Things Big Things Grow" was recorded with co-writer Paul Kelly for their 1993 single; it was covered by the Get Up Mob in 2008 and peaked at #4 on the Australian Recording Industry Association singles...
, Archie Roach
Archie Roach
Archie Roach is an Australian musician. A singer, songwriter and guitarist, he survived a turbulent upbringing to develop into a powerful voice for Indigenous Australians, a storyteller in the tradition of his ancestors, and a nationally popular and respected artist.- Biography :In his own words,...
, Christine Anu
Christine Anu
-Early life:Anu was born in Cairns, Queensland to a Torres Strait Islander mother from Saibai and Mabuiag Islands.-Career:Anu began performing as a dancer and later went on to sing back-up vocals for The Rainmakers, which included Neil Murray of the Warumpi Band. Her first recording was in 1993...
, Neil Murray
Neil Murray (Australian musician)
Neil Murray is an Australian musician and writer. He was a founding member of the Warumpi Band that formed in the early 1980s, the first major Aboriginal rock group and influential Aboriginal rock band.-Biography:...
, Blue King Brown
Blue King Brown
Blue King Brown are a Melbourne-based, Australian urban roots band. They have released a self-titled EP and a full length album, Stand Up . They released their follow-up Worldwize Part 1 - North & South on 20 August 2010...
, the John Butler Trio
John Butler Trio
The John Butler Trio are an eclectic roots and jam band from Australia led by guitarist and vocalist John Butler. They formed in Fremantle in 1998 with Jason McGann on drums and Gavin Shoesmith on bass guitar...
, Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil , were an Australian rock band from Sydney originally performing as Farm from 1972 with drummer Rob Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie...
, Warumpi Band
Warumpi Band
The Warumpi Band is an Australian band from the bush, coming from Papunya, Northern Territory, Australia.The band was formed in 1980 by Neil Murray, a Victorian "whitefella" working in the region as a schoolteacher and labourer, George Burarrwanga, from Elcho Island, and local boys Gordon and...
, Powderfinger
Powderfinger
Powderfinger was an Australian rock band that formed in Brisbane in 1989. From 1992 until their breakup the band lineup consisted of vocalist Bernard Fanning, guitarists Darren Middleton and Ian Haug, bassist John Collins, and drummer Jon Coghill....
and Xavier Rudd
Xavier Rudd
Xavier Rudd is an Australian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He was born in 1978 and grew up in Torquay, Victoria. He attended St. Joseph's College, Geelong....
.
In addition to Indigenous issues, many Australian protest singers have sung about the futility of war. Notable anti-war songs include "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
"And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is a song written by Scottish-born Australian singer-songwriter Eric Bogle in 1971. The song describes war as futile and gruesome, while criticising those who seek to glorify it...
" (1972) by Eric Bogle
Eric Bogle
Eric Bogle is a folk singer-songwriter. He emigrated to Australia in 1969 and currently resides near Adelaide, South Australia.-Career:...
, and "A Walk in the Light Green" (1983) by Redgum
Redgum
Redgum were an Australian folk and political music group formed in Adelaide in 1975 by singer-songwriter John Schumann, Michael Atkinson on guitars/vocals and Verity Truman on flute/vocals; they were soon joined by Chris Timms on violin. All four had been students at Flinders University and...
, most often remembered by its chorus "I was only nineteen".
Other notable themes in politically inspired Australian music include racism (for example, The Herd) and the environment (for example, Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil , were an Australian rock band from Sydney originally performing as Farm from 1972 with drummer Rob Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie...
).
Early British protest songs
English folk songs from the late medieval and early modern period reflect the social upheavals of their day. In 1944 the Marxist scholar A. L. LloydA. L. Lloyd
Albert Lancaster Lloyd , usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English folk singer and collector of folk songs, and as such was a key figure in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s....
claimed that the "The Cutty Wren" song constituted a coded anthem against feudal oppression and actually dated back to the English peasants' revolt of 1381, making it the oldest extant European protest song. He offered no evidence for his assertion, however and no trace of the song has been found before the 18th century. Despite Lloyd's dubious claim about its origins, however, the "Cutty Wren" was revived and used as a protest song in the 1950s folk revival, an example of the importance of context in determining what may be considered a protest song. In contrast, the rhyme, "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?", is attested as authentically originating in the 1381 Peasant Revolt, though no tune associated with it has survived. Ballads celebrating social bandits like Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
, from the 14th century onwards, can be seen as expressions of a desire for social justice, though although social criticism is implied and there is no overt questioning of the status quo.
The era of civil and religious wars of the 17th century in Britain gave rise to the radical communist millenarian Levellers
Levellers
The Levellers were a political movement during the English Civil Wars which emphasised popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance, all of which were expressed in the manifesto "Agreement of the People". They came to prominence at the end of the First...
and Diggers' movements and their associated ballads and hymns, as, for example, "The Diggers' Song
Diggers' Song
The "Diggers' Song" is a 17th century ballad, in terms of content a protest song concerned with land rights, inspired by the Diggers movement, composed by Gerrard Winstanley. The lyrics were published in 1894 by the Camden Society...
". with the incendiary verse:
But the Gentry must come down,
and the poor shall wear the crown.
Stand up now, Diggers all!
The Digger movement was violently crushed, and so it is not surprising if few overt protest songs associated with it have survived. From roughly the same period, however, songs protesting wars and the human suffering they inflict abound, though such song do not generally explicitly condemn the wars or the leaders who wage them. For example, "The Maunding Souldier" or "The Fruits of Warre is Beggery", framed as a begging appeal from a crippled soldier of the Thirty Years War. Such songs have been known, strictly speaking, as songs of complaint rather than of protest, since they offered no solution or hint of rebellion against the status quo.
The advent of industrialisation in the eighteenth and early 19th centuries was accompanied by a series of protest movements and a corresponding increase in the number of topical social protest songs and ballads. An important example is ‘The Triumph of General Ludd,’ which built a fictional persona for the alleged leader of the early 19th century anti-technological Luddite
Luddite
The Luddites were a social movement of 19th-century English textile artisans who protested – often by destroying mechanised looms – against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt were leaving them without work and changing their way of life...
movement in the cloth industry of the north midlands, and which made explicit reference to the Robin Hood tradition. A surprising English folk hero immortalised in song is Napoleon Bonaparte, the military figure most often the subject of popular ballads, many of them treating him as the champion of the common working man in songs such as the "Bonny Bunch of Roses" and "Napoleon's Dream". As labour became more organised songs were used as anthems and propaganda, for miners with songs like "The Black Leg Miner", and for factory workers with songs like "The Factory Bell".
These industrial protest songs were largely ignored during the first English folk revival of the later nineteenth and early 20th century, which had focused on songs that had been collected in rural areas where they were still being sung and on music education. They were revived in the 1960s and performed by figures like A. L. Lloyd
A. L. Lloyd
Albert Lancaster Lloyd , usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English folk singer and collector of folk songs, and as such was a key figure in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s....
on his album The Iron Muse (1963). In the 1980s the anarchist rock band Chumbawamba
Chumbawamba
Chumbawamba is a British musical group who have, over a career spanning nearly three decades, played punk rock, pop-influenced music, world music, and folk music...
recorded several versions of traditional English protest songs as English Rebel Songs 1381–1914.
20th Century
Colin Irwin, a journalist for The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, believes the modern British protest movement started in 1958 when the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
(CND) organized a 53-mile march from Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...
to Aldermaston
Aldermaston
Aldermaston is a rural village, civil parish and electoral ward in Berkshire, South-East England. In the 2001 United Kingdom Census, the parish had a population of 927. The village is on the southern edge of the River Kennet flood plain, near the Hampshire county boundary...
, to protest the Britain's participation in the arms race and recent testing of the H-bomb. The protest "fired up young musicians to write campaigning new songs to argue the case against the bomb and whip up support along the way. Suddenly many of those in skiffle groups playing American songs were changing course and writing fierce topical songs to back direct action." A song composed for the march: "The H-Bomb's Thunder", set the words of a poem by novelist John Brunner
John Brunner (novelist)
John Kilian Houston Brunner was a prolific British author of science fiction novels and stories. His 1968 novel Stand on Zanzibar, about an overpopulated world, won the 1968 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel. It also won the BSFA award the same year...
to the tune of "Miner's Lifeguard":
Men and women, stand together
Do not heed the men of war
Make your minds up now or never
Ban the bomb for evermore."
Folk singer Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...
was for some time one of the principal musical figures of the British nuclear disarmament movement. A former agitprop
Agitprop
Agitprop is derived from agitation and propaganda, and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message....
actor and playwright. MacColl, a prolific songwriter and committed leftist, some years earlier had penned "The Ballad of Ho Chi Minh", (1953) issued as single on Topic records and "The Ballad of Stalin" (1954), commemorating the death of that leader. Neither record has ever been reissued.
According to Irwin, MacColl, when interviewed in the Daily Worker in 1958, declared that:
There are now more new songs being written than at any other time in the past eighty years—young people are finding out for themselves that folk songs are tailor-made for expressing their thoughts and comments on contemporary topics, dreams, and worries,
In 1965, folk-rock singer Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
's cover of Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC is a Canadian Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire includes...
's "Universal Soldier
Universal Soldier (song)
"Universal Soldier" is a song written and recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. The song was originally released on Sainte-Marie's debut album It's My Way! in 1964. "Universal Soldier" was not a popular hit at the time of its release, but it did garner attention within the...
" was a hit on the charts. His anti-Vietnam War song, "The War Drags On" appeared that same year.
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
—and John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
in particular—added their voices to the Anti-war. In the documentary The US Versus John Lennon, Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali , , is a British Pakistani military historian, novelist, journalist, filmmaker, public intellectual, political campaigner, activist, and commentator...
attributes the Beatles' activism to the fast that, in his opinion, "The whole culture had been radicalized: [Lennon] was engaged with the world, and the world was changing him." Revolution
Revolution (song)
"Revolution" is a song by The Beatles written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The Beatles released two distinct arrangements of the song in 1968: a hard rock version as the B-side of the single "Hey Jude", and a slower version titled "Revolution 1" on the eponymous album The Beatles...
", 1968, commemorated the world-wide student uprisings. In 1969, when Lennon and Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
were married, they staged a week-long "bed-in for peace" in the Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
Hilton, attracting worldwide media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
coverage. At the second "Bed-in" in Montreal, in June 1969, they recorded "Give Peace a Chance
Give Peace a Chance
"Give Peace a Chance" is a song written by John Lennon, originally under the moniker Lennon–McCartney, released as a single in 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band on Apple Records, catalogue Apple 13 in the United Kingdom, Apple 1809 in the United States. It is the first solo single issued by Lennon, and...
" in their hotel room. The song was sung by over half a million demonstrators
Demonstration (people)
A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...
in Washington, D.C. at the second Vietnam Moratorium Day
Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam
The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam was a large demonstration against the United States involvement in the Vietnam War that took place across the United States on October 15, 1969. The Moratorium developed from Jerome Grossman's April 20, 1969, call for a general strike if the war had not...
, on 15 October 1969. In 1972 Lennon's his most controversial protest song LP was Some Time In New York City
Some Time in New York City
Some Time in New York City was released in 1972 and is John Lennon's third post-Beatles album, fifth with Yoko Ono, and third with producer Phil Spector...
, the title of whose lead single "Woman Is the Nigger of the World
Woman Is the Nigger of the World
"Woman Is the Nigger of the World" is a song written by John Lennon & Yoko Ono and recorded by John Lennon. It was released as a single on Apple Records in the United States and in New Zealand and Japan, but was withdrawn from release in Britain. It peaked at #57 on the Billboard Hot 100, making...
", a phrase coined by Ono in the late '60s to protest sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
, set off a storm of controversy, and in consequence received little airplay and much banning. The Lennons went to great lengths (including a press conference attended by staff from Jet
Jet (magazine)
Jet is an American weekly marketed toward African-American readers, founded in 1951 by John H. Johnson of Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, Illinois...
and Ebony
Ebony (magazine)
Ebony, a monthly magazine for the African-American market, was founded by John H. Johnson and has published continuously since the autumn of 1945...
magazines) to explain that they had used the word "nigger
Nigger
Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
" in a symbolic sense and not as an affront to African-Americans. The album also included "Attica State", about the Attica Prison riots
Attica Prison riots
The Attica Prison riot occurred at the Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York, United States in 1971. The riot was based in part upon prisoners' demands for better living conditions...
of September 9, 1971; "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "The Luck Of The Irish", about the massacre of demonstrators in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
and "Angela", in support of black activist Angela Davis
Angela Davis
Angela Davis is an American political activist, scholar, and author. Davis was most politically active during the late 1960s through the 1970s and was associated with the Communist Party USA, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party...
. Lennon also performed at the "Free John Sinclair
John Sinclair (poet)
John Sinclair is a Detroit poet, one-time manager of the band MC5, and leader of the White Panther Party — a militantly anti-racist countercultural group of white socialists seeking to assist the Black Panthers in the Civil Rights movement — from November 1968 to July 1969...
" benefit concert in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, on December 10, 1971. on behalf of the imprisoned antiwar activist and poet who was serving ten years in state prison for selling two joint
Joint (cannabis)
Joint is a slang term for a cigarette rolled using cannabis. Rolling papers are the most common rolling medium among industrialized countries, however brown paper, cigarettes with the tobacco removed, and newspaper are commonly used in developing countries. Modern papers are now made from a wide...
s of marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
to an undercover cop. On this occasion Lennon and Ono appeared on stage with among others singers Phil Ochs and Stevie Wonder, plus antiwar activists Jerry Rubin and Bobby Seale
Bobby Seale
Robert George "Bobby" Seale , is an activist. He is known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with Huey Newton.-Early life:...
of the Black Panthers party. Lennon's song "John Sinclair" (which can be heard on his Some Time In New York City album), calls on the authorities to "Let him be, set him free, let him be like you and me". The benefit was attended by some 20,000 people, and three days later the State of Michigan released Sinclair from prison.
The 1970s saw a number notable songs by British acts that protested against war, including "Peace Train
Peace Train
"Peace Train" is the title of a 1971 hit song by Cat Stevens, taken from his album Teaser and the Firecat. The song climbed to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the week of October 9, 1971, becoming Stevens' first US Top 10 hit. The song also spent three weeks at #1 on the adult contemporary...
" by Cat Stevens
Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....
(1971), and "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
(1970). Sabbath also protested environmental destruction, describing people leaving a ruined Earth ("Into the Void
Into the Void (Black Sabbath song)
"Into the Void" is a song by Black Sabbath, released in 1971 on their album, Master of Reality. An early version of "Into the Void" called "Spanish Sid" was released on the deluxe edition of Master of Reality...
" including, "Iron Man
Iron Man
Iron Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #39 .A billionaire playboy, industrialist and ingenious engineer,...
"). Renaissance
Renaissance (band)
Renaissance are an English progressive rock band, most notable for their 1978 UK top 10 hit "Northern Lights" and progressive rock classics like "Carpet of the Sun", "Mother Russia" and "Ashes Are Burning".-Original incarnation :...
added political repression as a protest theme with "Mother Russia
Mother Russia (Renaissance song)
Mother Russia is the closing song on Renaissance's 1974 album Turn of the Cards. It also appears on the 1976 live album Live at Carnegie Hall, the compilation Tales of 1001 Nights, Vol...
" being based on One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a novel written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, first published in November 1962 in the Soviet literary magazine Novy Mir . The story is set in a Soviet labor camp in the 1950s, and describes a single day of an ordinary prisoner, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov...
and being joined on the second side of their 1974 album Turn of the Cards
Turn of the Cards
Turn of the Cards is a 1974 album by progressive rock band Renaissance.-Information about the album:* "Things I Don't Understand" was founder member Jim McCarty's last contribution to the band; it had already been performed live for several years when it was finally recorded.* "Running Hard" quotes...
by two other protest songs in "Cold Is Being" (about ecological destruction) and "Black Flame" (about the Vietnam War).
Individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own...
, free thought
Freethought
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...
and even anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
. According to Search and Destroy founder V. Vale
V. Vale
V. "Valhalla" Vale is a writer, keyboard player and, as Vale Hamanaka, was a member of the initial configuration of Blue Cheer, prior to that band becoming famous as a power trio. He is the publisher and primary contributor to books and magazines published by his company, RE/Search Publications...
, "Punk was a total cultural revolt. It was a hardcore confrontation with the black side of history and culture, right-wing imagery, sexual taboos, a delving into it that had never been done before by any generation in such a thorough way." The most significant protest songs of the movement included "God Save the Queen
God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols song)
"God Save the Queen" is a song by the English punk rock band The Sex Pistols. It was released as the band's second single and was featured on their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The song was released during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977...
" (1977) by the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
, "If the Kids are United" by Sham 69
Sham 69
Sham 69 is an English punk band that formed in Hersham in 1976.Although not as commercially successful as many of their contemporaries, albeit with a greater number of chart entries, Sham 69 has been a huge musical and lyrical influence on the Oi! and streetpunk genres. The band allegedly derived...
, "Career Opportunities" (1977) (protesting the political and economic situation in England at the time, especially the lack of jobs available to the youth), and "White Riot
White Riot
"White Riot" is a song by English punk rock band The Clash, released as the band's first single in 1977 and also featured on their debut album. There are two versions: the single version , and a different version on the UK album...
" (1977) (about class economics and race issues) by The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
, and "Right to Work" by Chelsea
Chelsea (band)
Chelsea are an English punk rock band, formed in London in 1976.Three of the four original band members went on to help found Generation X. More than two decades after its release, "Right to Work", Chelsea's debut single, was included in Mojo magazine's list of the best punk rock singles of all...
. See also Punk ideology
Punk ideology
Punk ideologies are a group of varied social and political beliefs associated with the punk subculture. In its original incarnation, the punk subculture was primarily concerned with concepts such as rebellion, anti-authoritarianism, individualism, free thought and discontent...
.
War was still the prevalent theme of British protest songs of the 1980s - such as Kate Bush
Kate Bush
Kate Bush is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.In 1978, at the age of 19, Bush topped the UK Singles Chart...
's "Army Dreamers
Army Dreamers
"Army Dreamers" was the third and final song to be released from Never For Ever by Kate Bush. It was a UK top 20 hit in October 1980.- Background :...
" (1980), which deals with the traumas of a mother whose son dies while away at war. However, as the 1980s progressed, it was British prime minister Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
who came under the greatest degree of criticism from native protest singers, mostly for her strong stance against trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s, and especially for her handling of the UK miners' strike (1984–1985)
UK miners' strike (1984–1985)
The UK miners' strike was a major industrial action affecting the British coal industry. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, and its defeat significantly weakened the British trades union movement...
. The leading voice of protest in Thatcherite
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
Britain in the 1980s was Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
, whose style of protest song and grass-roots political activism was mostly reminiscent of those of Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
, however with themes that were relevant to the contemporary Briton. He summarised his stance in "Between the Wars" (1985) in which he sings "I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage." The main Wikipedia article on Margaret Thatcher includes a section on protest songs about or inspired by her.
Britain's current involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan has also garnered criticism from native singers; including George Michael
George Michael
George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...
's anti-Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
single "Shoot the Dog
Shoot the Dog
"Shoot the Dog" is a single by the singer-songwriter George Michael, released as the second single from his album, Patience, though released a year and a half prior to the album. The song is an anti-George W. Bush song. Released on 29 July 2002, it peaked at number one in Denmark and number twelve...
" (2002) - which criticised Blair's overly friendly relationship with George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and support for the Iraq War - and the more recent example of Ian Brown
Ian Brown
Ian George Brown is an English musician, best known as the lead singer of the alternative rock band The Stone Roses, which broke up in 1996 but are confirmed to reunite in 2012. Since the break-up of the Stone Roses he has pursued a solo career...
and Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....
's "Illegal Attacks" (2007) ("So what the fuck is this UK/Gunning with this US of A/ in Iraq and Iran and in Afghanistan?/These are illegal attacks/So bring the soldiers back"). Ex-Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
frontman Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
has also attacked both sides of the Atlantic with "America is Not the World" and "Irish Blood, English Heart" from his 2004 You Are the Quarry
You Are the Quarry
-CD:-DVD:# "Irish Blood, English Heart" # "First of the Gang to Die" # "First of the Gang to Die" # "I Have Forgiven Jesus"...
album.
Irish rebel songs
Irish rebel musicIrish rebel music
Irish rebel music is a subgenre of Irish folk music, with much the same instrumentation, but with lyrics predominantly concerned with Irish republicanism.-History:...
is a sub genre of Irish folk music, played on typically Irish instruments (such as the Fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
, tin whistle
Tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, English Flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, Tin Flageolet, Irish whistle and Clarke London Flageolet is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the recorder, American Indian flute, and...
, Uilleann pipes
Uilleann pipes
The uilleann pipes or //; ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland, their current name, earlier known in English as "union pipes", is a part translation of the Irish-language term píobaí uilleann , from their method of inflation.The bag of the uilleann pipes is inflated by means of a...
, accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, bodhrán
Bodhrán
The bodhrán is an Irish frame drum ranging from 25 to 65 cm in diameter, with most drums measuring 35 to 45 cm . The sides of the drum are 9 to 20 cm deep. A goatskin head is tacked to one side...
etc.) and acoustic guitars. The lyrics deal with the fight for Irish freedom, people who were involved in liberation movements, the persecution and violence during Northern Ireland's Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
and the history of Ireland's numerous rebellions.
Among the many examples of the genre, some of the most famous are "A Nation Once Again
A Nation Once Again
"A Nation Once Again" is a song, written in the early to mid-1840s by Thomas Osborne Davis . Davis was a founder of an Irish movement whose aim was the independence of Ireland....
", "Come out Ye Black and Tans
Come out Ye Black and Tans
"Come Out, Ye Black and Tans" is an Irish rebel song referring to the Black and Tans, the British paramilitary police auxiliary force in Ireland during the 1920s. The song was written by Dominic Behan as a tribute to his father Stephen; often authorship of the song is attributed to Stephen...
", "Erin go Bragh", "The Fields of Athenry
The Fields of Athenry
"The Fields of Athenry" is an Irish folk ballad set during the Great Irish Famine about a fictional man named Michael from near Athenry in County Galway who has been sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay, Australia, for stealing food for his starving family...
", "The Men Behind the Wire
The Men Behind the Wire
"The Men Behind The Wire" is a song written and composed by Paddy McGuigan of the Barleycorn folk group in the aftermath of internment.The song was recorded by the Barleycorn in Belfast and pressed in Dublin by Release Records in December 1971...
" and the Republic of Ireland's national Anthem "Amhrán na bhFiann
Amhrán na bhFiann
is the national anthem of Ireland. The music was composed by Peadar Kearney and Patrick Heeney, and the original English lyrics were authored by Kearney. It is sung in the Irish language translation made by Liam Ó Rinn. The song has three verses, but the national anthem consists of the chorus only...
" ("The Soldier's Song").Music of this genre has often courted controversy, and some of the more outwardly anti-British songs have been effectively banned from the airwaves in both England and the Republic of Ireland.
Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
also made a contribution to the genre with his 1972 single "Give Ireland Back to the Irish
Give Ireland Back to the Irish
"Give Ireland Back to the Irish" is a Paul and Linda McCartney song written in response to the events of Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland on 30 January 1972...
" which he wrote as a reaction to Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday (1972)
Bloody Sunday —sometimes called the Bogside Massacre—was an incident on 30 January 1972 in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, in which twenty-six unarmed civil rights protesters and bystanders were shot by soldiers of the British Army...
in Northern Ireland on January 30, 1972. The song also faced an all-out ban in the UK, and has never been re-released or appeared on any Paul McCartney or Wings
Wings (band)
Wings were a British-American rock group formed in 1971 by Paul McCartney, Denny Laine and Linda McCartney that remained active until 1981....
best-ofs. His former colleague John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
wrote a song called Sunday Bloody Sunday
Some Time in New York City
Some Time in New York City was released in 1972 and is John Lennon's third post-Beatles album, fifth with Yoko Ono, and third with producer Phil Spector...
in 1972 shortly after the massacre of Irish civil rights activists; this song differs from U2's 1983 version of Bloody Sunday in that it directly supports the Irish Republican cause and does not call for peace. The same year John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
also released two protest songs concerning the hardships of war-torn Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
in the form of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "The Luck Of The Irish", both from his 1972 album Some Time in New York City.
The Wolfe Tones
Wolfe Tones
The Wolfe Tones are an Irish rebel music band who incorporate elements of Irish traditional music in their songs. They are named after the Irish rebel and patriot Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of the leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, with the double entendre that a wolf tone is a spurious sound...
have become legendary in Ireland for their contribution to the Irish rebel genre. The band has been recording since 1963 and has attracted worldwide fame and attention through their renditions of traditional Irish songs and originals, dealing with the former conflict in Northern Ireland. In 2002 the Wolfe Tones' version of A Nation Once Again
A Nation Once Again
"A Nation Once Again" is a song, written in the early to mid-1840s by Thomas Osborne Davis . Davis was a founder of an Irish movement whose aim was the independence of Ireland....
, a nationalist song from the 19th century, was voted the greatest song in the world in a poll conducted by the BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
Christy Moore
Christy Moore
Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore is a popular Irish folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is well known as one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts...
is another famous figure in Irish rebel music, and together with his original band Planxty
Planxty
Planxty is an Irish folk music band formed in the 1970s, consisting initially of Christy Moore , Dónal Lunny , Andy Irvine , and Liam O'Flynn...
he recorded traditional music during the 1970s. Following his departure from the band in 1975 he embarked on a solo career, lending his support to a wide variety of left-wing causes. Until 1987 the Provisional IRA was among the groups he supported; however this came to an end following the Enniskillen bombing. During his career he has sung about human rights in El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, republican volunteers from the Spanish Civil War, South African anti-apartheid activist and martyr Steven Biko, the murdered Chilean singer, songwriter, poet, playwright and activist Víctor Jara
Víctor Jara
Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez was a Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter, political activist and member of the Communist Party of Chile...
, the late Palestinian solidarity activist Rachel Corrie
Rachel Corrie
Rachel Aliene Corrie was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement . She was killed in the Gaza Strip by an Israel Defence Forces bulldozer when she was standing or kneeling in front of a local Palestinian's home, thus acting as a human shield, attempting to prevent the IDF from...
, not to mention numerous events of Irish history.
An Irish alternative rock/post punk band from Dublin, U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
broke with the rebel musical tradition when they wrote their song, Sunday Bloody Sunday
Sunday Bloody Sunday (song)
"Sunday Bloody Sunday" is the opening track from U2's 1983 album, War. The song was released as the album's third single on 11 March 1983 in Germany and the Netherlands. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is noted for its militaristic drumbeat, harsh guitar, and melodic harmonies...
in 1983. The song makes reference to two separate massacres in Irish history of civilians by British forces (Bloody Sunday (1920)
Bloody Sunday (1920)
Bloody Sunday was a day of violence in Dublin on 21 November 1920, during the Irish War of Independence. In total, 31 people were killed – fourteen British, fourteen Irish civilians and three republican prisoners....
and Bloody Sunday 1972); however, unlike other songs dealing with those events, the lyrics call for peace as opposed to revenge.
The song Zombie
Zombie (song)
"Zombie" is a protest song by the Irish band The Cranberries from the 1994 album No Need to Argue. The song, which laments The Troubles in Northern Ireland and in particular the killing of two children in an IRA bombing in Warrington, England, was written by Dolores O'Riordan, singer of the band...
by the Irish band The Cranberries
The Cranberries
The Cranberries are an Irish rock band formed in Limerick in 1989 under the name The Cranberry Saw Us, later changed by vocalist Dolores O'Riordan. The band currently consists of O'Riordan, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler...
- written in 1994 in response to the Warrington Bomb Attacks
Warrington bomb attacks
The Warrington bombings were two separate bombing attacks that happened during early 1993 in Warrington, England. The first attack happened in February when a bomb exploded at a district pressure gas storage facility. It caused extensive damage but no injuries; however, a police officer was shot...
of 1993 - protests the cycle of violence and retribution in Northern Ireland and the pain and suffering it has caused to both communities.
China
Chinese-Korean Cui JianCui Jian
Cui Jian is a Beijing-based Chinese singer-songwriter, trumpeter and guitarist. Affectionately called "Old Cui" , he is considered to be a pioneer in Chinese rock music and one of the first Chinese artists to write rock songs...
's 1986 song Nothing to My Name
Nothing To My Name
"Nothing to My Name" is the English title of a 1986 Mandarin-language rock song by Cui Jian. It is widely considered Cui's most famous and most important work, and one of the most influential songs in the history of the People's Republic of China, both as a seminal point in the development of...
was popular with protesters in Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
. After the crackdown, he frequently played in public wearing a symbolic red blindfold when playing A Piece of Red Cloth, a practice which led to censorship officials canceling concerts.
France
The InternationaleThe Internationale
The Internationale is a famous socialist, communist, social-democratic and anarchist anthem.The Internationale became the anthem of international socialism, and gained particular fame under the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1944, when it was that communist state's de facto central anthem...
(L'Internationale in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
) is a famous socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
, communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, and social-democratic
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
anthem
Anthem
The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem".-Etymology:The word is derived from the Greek via Old English , a word...
and one of the most widely recognized songs in the world.
The Internationale became the anthem of international socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
. Its original French refrain is C'est la lutte finale/ Groupons-nous et demain/ L'Internationale/ Sera le genre humain. (Freely translated: "This is the final struggle/ Let us join together and tomorrow/ The Internationale/ Will be the human race.") The Internationale has been translated into most of the world's languages. Traditionally it is sung with the hand raised in a clenched fist salute. The Internationale is sung not only by communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
s but also (in many countries) by socialists or social democrats. The Chinese version was also a rallying song of the students and workers at the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
.
There is not so much a protest song trend in France, but rather of a permanent background of criticism and contestation, and individuals who personify it. World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and its horrors forced French singers to think more critically about war in general, forcing them to question their governments and the powers who ruled their society.
Jazz trumpeter and singer Boris Vian
Boris Vian
Boris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their...
's was one of the first to protest against the Algerian war with his anti-war song "Le déserteur" (The deserter), which was banned by the government.
Several French songwriters, such as Georges Brassens
Georges Brassens
Georges Brassens , 22 October 1921 – 29 October 1981), was a French singer-songwriter and poet.Brassens was born in Sète, a town in southern France near Montpellier...
(1921–1981), Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter who composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following in France initially, and later throughout the world. He was widely considered a master of the modern chanson...
(1929–1978) (actually a Belgian singer, who died in Paris), Léo Ferré
Léo Ferré
Léo Ferré was a Franco-Monegasque poet, composer, singer and musician.Born in Monaco, Ferré mixed love and melancholy with moral anarchy, lyricism with slang, rhyming verse with prose monologues...
(1916–1993), Maxime Le Forestier
Maxime Le Forestier
Maxime Le Forestier is a French singer.He was born in Paris to an English father and a French mother who had lived in England. He had two older sisters, Anne and Catherine....
(born 1949) or interpreters (Yves Montand
Yves Montand
-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...
, Marcel Mouloudji, Serge Reggiani
Serge Reggiani
Serge Reggiani was an Italian-born French singer and actor. He was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy and moved to France with his parents at the age of eight...
, Graeme Allwright
Graeme Allwright
Graeme Allwright is a singer-songwriter. Born in Wellington, New Zealand, he moved to France in 1948. He began to perform and write folk songs a few years later and was eventually signed by Sonogram. In the 1960s, he translated into French a number of songs written by Leonard Cohen, Tom...
...) often wrote or sang songs aligned against majority ideas and political powers. Because racial tensions did not rise to the same levels as those in the United States, criticism was focused more toward bourgeoisie, power, religion, and songs defending liberty of thought, speech and action. After 1945, immigration became a source of inspiration for some singers: Pierre Perret
Pierre Perret
Pierre Perret , is a French singer and composer. Pierre Perret resides in the city of Nangis.- Biography :...
(born 1934), well known for his humorous songs, started writing several more "serious" and committed songs against racism ("Lily" 1977), which critically pointed out everyday racist behavior n French society.
Brassens wrote several songs protesting war, hate, intolerance ("Les deux oncles", "The two uncles"; "La Guerre de 14-18", "14-18 war"; "Mourir pour des idées", "To die for ideas"; "Les patriotes", "The patriots"), against chauvinism ("La ballade des gens qui sont nés quelque part", "Ballad of People Who Are Born Somewhere"), against bourgeoisie ("La mauvaise réputation" = "The bad reputation", "Les Philistins" = "The Philistines"). He was often called "anarchist" because of his songs on representatives of law and order (and religion) ("Le gorille" = "The gorilla"; "Hécatombe", "Slaughter"; "Le nombril des femmes d'agents", "The navel of cops wives"; "Le mécréant" = "The miscreant"...).
Brel's work is another ode to freedom ("Ces gens-là" = "These people", "Les bourgeois" = "The bourgeois", "Jaurès", "Les bigotes" = "The bigots", "Le colonel" = "The colonel", "Le Caporal Casse-Pompon" = "Corporal Break-Nots"), and Ferré was even classified as "red" singer.
All these songs reveal, more than a party anthem, awareness of human being, of universal human problems, and try to touch intimately (and change) individual souls rather than struggle against social or political movements, a government or another, even if the French government, involved in wars in Indochina and Algeria, has often tried to prohibit some of these songs.
Germany
Ton Steine ScherbenTon Steine Scherben
Ton Steine Scherben was one of the first and most influential German language rock bands of the 1970s and early 1980s. Well-known for the highly political and emotional lyrics of vocalist Rio Reiser, they became a musical mouthpiece of new left movements, such as the squatting movement, during...
, one of the first and most influential German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
bands of the 1970s and early 1980s, were well known for the highly political lyrics of vocalist Rio Reiser
Rio Reiser
Rio Reiser , was a German rock musician and singer of the famous rock group Ton Steine Scherben. He was born Ralph Christian Möbius in Berlin and died at the age of 46 in the little German town of Fresenhagen. Rio Reiser was politically active during his whole life...
. The band became a musical mouthpiece of new left movements
New social movements
The term new social movements is a theory of social movements that attempts to explain the plethora of new movements that have come up in various western societies roughly since the mid-1960s which are claimed to depart significantly from the conventional social movement paradigm.There are two...
, such as the squatting movement
Squatting
Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
, during that time in Germany and their hometown of West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
in particular. Their lyrics were, at the beginning, anti-capitalist
Anti-capitalism
Anti-capitalism describes a wide variety of movements, ideas, and attitudes which oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists, in the strict sense of the word, are those who wish to completely replace capitalism with another system....
and anarchist, and the band had connections to the German Red Army Faction
Red Army Faction
The radicalized were, like many in the New Left, influenced by:* Sociological developments, pressure within the educational system in and outside Europe and the U.S...
terrorists before they later turned to violent crime and murder. Later songs were about more complex issues such as unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
(Mole Hill Rockers) or homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
(Mama war so). They also contributed to two full-length concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
about homosexuality which were issued under the name Brühwarm (literally: boiling warm) in cooperation with a gay-revue group.
A dissatisfied German youth in the late 1970s and early 80s resulted in a strand of highly politicized German language Punkrock ("Deutschpunk"), which mostly concerned itself with politically radical left-wing lyrics, mostly influenced by the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. Probably the most important German language punk band was Slime
Slime (band)
Slime is a German punk rock band, founded in 1979 and disbanded in 1994. The pre-Slime band was called Screamer, and the post-Slime band is – contrary to the occasional rumors – not Emils , but Rubberslime, with the member Elf...
from Hamburg, who were the first band whose LP was banned because of political topics. Their songs "Deutschland" ("Germany"), "Bullenschweine", "Polizei SA/SS", and the anti-imperialist "Yankees raus" ("Yankees out") were banned, some of them are still banned today, because they propagated the use of violence against the police or compared the police to the SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
and SS of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. A 1983 protest song from Germany which gained considerable attention worldwide was "99 Luftballons
99 Luftballons
"99 Luftballons" is a protest song by the German pop-rock band Nena from their 1983 self-titled album. Originally sung in German, it was later re-recorded in English as "99 Red Balloons" for their album 99 Luftballons in 1984...
" by Nena
Nena
Gabriele Susanne Kerner , better known by her stage name Nena, is a German singer and actress. She rose to international fame in 1983 with the New German Wave song "99 Luftballons". In 1984, she re-recorded this song in English as "99 Red Balloons". Nena was also the name of the band with whom she...
. The song protested the escalating rhetoric and strategic maneuvering between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
.
Israel
" sung by Shuli Natan
Shuli Natan
Shuli Natan is an Israeli singer best known for singing Jerusalem of Gold , written by Naomi Shemer. It was immensely popular right after the Six-Day War, and made her world-famous. It is still very popular in Israel and in Jewish communities worldwide.-Music career:Her recent albums feature...
During the 1967 war, Naomi Shemer wrote Jerusalem of Gold, sung by Shuli Natan
Shuli Natan
Shuli Natan is an Israeli singer best known for singing Jerusalem of Gold , written by Naomi Shemer. It was immensely popular right after the Six-Day War, and made her world-famous. It is still very popular in Israel and in Jewish communities worldwide.-Music career:Her recent albums feature...
, about the recapturing of Jerusalem after 2000 years. Later on that year A different point of view of this song was introduced by the folk singer Meir Ariel
Meir Ariel
Meir Ariel was an Israeli singer-songwriter.He was known as a "man of words" for his poetic use of the Hebrew language in his lyrics. His influences included Hebrew poets such as Natan Alterman, S. Y...
, who recorded an anti-war version of this song and named it "Jerusalem of Iron".
Gush Emunim
Gush Emunim
Gush Emunim was an Israeli messianic and political movement committed to establishing Jewish settlements in the West Bank. While not formally established as an organization until 1974 in the wake of the Yom Kippur War, Gush Emunim sprang out of the conquests of the Six-Day War in 1967, encouraging...
supporters have taken a repertoire of old religious songs and invested them with political meaning. An example is the song "Utsu Etsu VeTufar" (They gave counsel but their counsel was violated). The song signifies the ultimate rightness of those steadfast in their beliefs, suggesting the rightness of Gush Emunim's struggle against anti-settlement policy by the government.
Minutes before Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered
Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin took place on November 4, 1995 at 21:30, at the end of a rally in support of the Oslo Accords at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv...
at a political rally in November 1995, Israeli folk singer Miri Aloni sang the Israeli pop song Shir Lashalom
Shir LaShalom
right|thumb|The blood-stained sheet of Shir LaShalom lyrics that Yitzhak Rabin was reading from at the time of his assassination.Shir LaShalom is a popular Israeli song that has come to be an anthem of the Israeli peace camp. The song was first written in 1969. The lyrics were by Yaakov Rotblit...
(Song for Peace). This song, originally written in 1969 and performed extensively at the time by an Israeli military performing group, has become one of the anthems of the Israeli peace camp.
During the Arab uprising known as the First Intifada
First Intifada
The First Intifada was a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The uprising began in the Jabalia refugee camp and quickly spread throughout Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem....
, Israeli singer Si Heyman sang Yorim VeBokhim (Shoot and Weep), written by Shalom Hanoch, to protest Israeli policy in the territories. This song was banned from the radio for a certain period of time on charges of subversiveness.
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
's Another Brick in the Wall
Another Brick in the Wall
"Another Brick in the Wall" is the title of three songs set to variations of the same basic theme, on Pink Floyd's 1979 rock opera, The Wall, subtitled Part 1 , Part 2 , and Part 3...
is used as a protest song by many opponents of Israel's barrier in the West Bank, which is now half finished. The lyrics have been adapted to: "We don't need no occupation. We don't need no racist wall."
Since the onset of the Oslo Process and, more recently, Israel's unilateral disengagement plan
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan , also known as the "Disengagement plan", "Gaza expulsion plan", and "Hitnatkut", was a proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, adopted by the government on June 6, 2004 and enacted in August 2005, to evict all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and from...
, protest songs became a major avenue for opposition activists to express sentiments. Songs protesting these policies were written and performed by Israeli musicians, such as Ariel Zilber
Ariel Zilber
Ariel Zilber is an Israeli singer-songwriter and composer. He is considered one of the most prominent musicians and singer-songwriters in Israeli music, known for his highly literate lyrics and for his simple yet profound style.Zilber became a Baal Tshuva following the 2005 disengagement from...
, Shalom Flisser, Aharon Razel, Eli Bar-Yahalom, Yuri Lipmanovich, Ari Ben-Yam, and many others.
Chilean and Latin American protest music
While the protest song was enjoying its Golden Age in America in the 1960s, it also saw many detractors overseas who saw it as having been commercialized. Chilean singer-songwriterSinger-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Víctor Jara
Víctor Jara
Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez was a Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter, political activist and member of the Communist Party of Chile...
, who played a pivotal role in the folkloric renaissance that led to the Nueva Canción Chilena
Nueva canción
Nueva canción is a movement and genre within Latin American and Iberian music of folk music, folk-inspired music and socially committed music...
(New Chilean Song) movement which created a revolution in the popular music of his country, criticised the "commercialized" American ‘protest song phenomenon’ which had been imported into Chile. He criticized it thus:
The cultural invasion is like a leafy tree which prevents us from seeing our own sun, sky and stars. Therefore in order to be able to see the sky above our heads, our task is to cut this tree off at the roots. US imperialism understands very well the magic of communication through music and persists in filling our young people with all sorts of commercial tripe. With professional expertise they have taken certain measures: first, the commercialization of the so-called ‘protest music’; second, the creation of ‘idols’ of protest music who obey the same rules and suffer from the same constraints as the other idols of the consumer music industry – they last a little while and then disappear. Meanwhile they are useful in neutralizing the innate spirit of rebellion of young people. The term ‘protest song’ is no longer valid because it is ambiguous and has been misused. I prefer the term ‘revolutionary song’
Nueva canción
Nueva canción
Nueva canción is a movement and genre within Latin American and Iberian music of folk music, folk-inspired music and socially committed music...
(literally "new song" in Spanish) was a type of protest/social song in Latin American music
Latin American music
Latin American music, found within Central and South America, is a series of musical styles and genres that mixes influences from Spanish, African and indigenous sources, that has recently become very famous in the US.-Argentina:...
which took root in South America, especially Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and other Andean countries, and gained extreme popularity throughout Latin America. It combined traditional Latin American folk music idioms (played on the quena
Quena
The quena is the traditional flute of the Andes. Usually made of bamboo or wood, it has 6 finger holes and one thumb hole and is open on both ends. To produce sound, the player closes the top end of the pipe with the flesh between his chin and lower lip, and blows a stream of air downward, along...
, zampoña, charango
Charango
The charango is a small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family, 66 cm long, traditionally made with the shell of the back of an armadillo. Primarily played in traditional Andean music, and is sometimes used by other Latin American musicians. Many contemporary charangos are now made with...
or cajón
Cajón
A cajón is a box-shaped percussion instrument originally from Peru, played by slapping the front face with the hands.-Origins and evolution:...
with guitar accompaniment) with some popular (esp. British) rock music, and was characterised by its progressive and often politicized lyrics. It is sometimes considered a precursor to rock en español
Rock en Español
Rock en español is the Spanish-language rock music. While the term is used widely in English, it is used in Spanish mainly to distinguish such music from "Anglo rock." It is a style of rock music that developed in Latin American countries and Latino communities, along with other genres like...
. The lyrics are typically in Spanish, with some indigenous or local words mixed in.
Its lyrics characteristically revolve around about poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, empowerment
Empowerment
Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social, racial, educational, gender or economic strength of individuals and communities...
, the Unidad Popular, imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
, democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
, human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
, and religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
. There are some hundreds of songs with influences from British and American pop rock that was popular with college youths. The Chilean coup of 1973
Chilean coup of 1973
The 1973 Chilean coup d'état was a watershed event of the Cold War and the history of Chile. Following an extended period of political unrest between the conservative-dominated Congress of Chile and the socialist-leaning President Salvador Allende, discontent culminated in the latter's downfall in...
impacted the genre's growth, as the musical movement was forced to go underground. During the days of the coup, Víctor Jara himself was kidnapped, jailed, tortured and shot. Other groups, such as Inti-Illimani and Quilapayún found safety outside the country. The military dictatorship went as far as to ban many traditional Andean instruments, but as a testament to how far the country has come since then, the stadium where Víctor Jara was murdered now bears his name.
Cuban and Puerto Rican protest music
A type of Cuban and Puerto Rican protest music, "Nueva trovaNueva trova
Nueva trova is a movement in Cuban music that emerged around 1967/68 after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, and the consequent political and social changes....
", started in the mid-1960s when a movement in Cuban music emerged that combined traditional folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
idioms with progressive and often politicized lyrics. This movement of protest music came to be known as Nueva trova
Nueva trova
Nueva trova is a movement in Cuban music that emerged around 1967/68 after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, and the consequent political and social changes....
, and was somewhat similar to that of Nueva canción
Nueva canción
Nueva canción is a movement and genre within Latin American and Iberian music of folk music, folk-inspired music and socially committed music...
, however with the advantage of support from the Cuban government, as it promoted the Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
. Though originally and still largely Cuban, nueva trova has become popular across Latin America, especially in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
and Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. The movements biggest stars included Cubans Silvio Rodríguez
Silvio Rodríguez
Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez is a Cuban musician, and a leader of the nueva trova movement.He is considered Cuba's best known folk singer and known for his highly eloquent and symbolic lyrics. Many of his songs have become classics in Latin American music, such as Ojalá, Playa Girón, Unicornio and...
, Vicente Feliu, Noel Nicola and Pablo Milanés
Pablo Milanés
Pablo Milanés Arias is a Cuban singer-songwriter and guitar player. He studied at a conservatory in Havana. He is considered one of the founders of the Cuban nueva trova, along with Silvio Rodríguez and Noel Nicola...
, as well as Puerto Ricans such as Roy Brown
Roy Brown (Puerto Rican musician)
Roy Brown Ramírez is a composer, singer and a fervent believer in the cause for the independence of Puerto Rico. Some of his songs have been performed by several renowned international artists.- Early years :...
, Andrés Jiménez, Antonio Cabán Vale
Antonio Cabán Vale
Antonio Cabán Vale a.k.a. "El Topo" , is a guitarist, singer and composer of Puerto Rican folklore themes. He is one of the founders of the "new song" movement of the early 1970s...
and the group Haciendo Punto en Otro Son
Haciendo Punto en Otro Son
Haciendo Punto en Otro Son is a Nueva Trova band from Puerto Rico, founded in 1975. They recorded fourteen albums and performed in Latin America, the Caribbean and USA....
.
Palestinian Territories
Palestinian musicPalestinian music
The music of Palestine is one of many regional sub-genres of Arabic music. While it shares much in common with Arabic music, both structurally and instrumentally, there are musical forms and subject matter that are distinctively Palestinian.-Pre-1948:...
deals with the conflict with Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, the longing for peace, and the love of the Palestinian's land. A typical example of such a song is "Biladi, Biladi" (My Country, My Country), which has become the unofficial Palestinian national anthem
Palestinian National Anthem
The Palestinian national anthem , is the national anthem of the Palestinian National Authority. It was adopted by the Palestinian National Council in 1996, in accordance with Article 31 of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence from 1988...
. Palestinian music rarely focuses on internal divides (unlike most Israeli peace songs), and instead deals almost solely with Israel. Additionally, there are very few Palestinian peace songs that are not inditing of Israel, and outwardly militaristic.
Another example is the song "AlKuds (Jerusalem) our Land", with words by Sharif Sabri. The song, sung by Amar Diab from Port Said
Port Said
Port Said is a city that lies in north east Egypt extending about 30 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal, with an approximate population of 603,787...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, won first prize in 2003 in a contest in Egypt for video clips produced in the West Bank and Gaza
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...
. DAM
DAM (band)
DAM is a Palestinian hip-hop group. Based in Lod, Israel, DAM was founded in 1999 by brothers Tamar and Suhell Nafar and their friend Mahmoud Jreri, and their songs are largely about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and poverty...
is an Arabic hip-hop group, rapping
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
in Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
and Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
about the problems faced by Palestinians under occupation and calling for change. Kamilya Joubran's song "Ghareeba", a setting of a poem by Khalil Gibran
Khalil Gibran
Khalil Gibran Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān,Jibrān Khalīl Jibrān, or Jibrān Xalīl Jibrān; Arabic , January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) also known as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese American artist, poet, and writer...
, deals with a sense of isolation and loneliness felt by the Palestinian woman.
Unlike during the Anti-Apartheid era, international artists have largely avoided the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict as lyrical fodder. Since 2000, this has been changing, with Electronic Intifada
Electronic Intifada
The Electronic Intifada is a not-for-profit, independent online publication which covers the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a Palestinian perspective, "aimed at combating the pro-Israeli, pro-American spin" its editors believe exists in mainstream media accounts.-History:EI was founded by Ali...
cofounder Nigel Parry's 2001 album, This Side of Paradise This Side of Paradise (Nigel Parry album), an early example. The increasing number of lyrics dealing with the conflict is primarily noted in the hip hop community, particularly from underground artists such as Immortal Technique
Immortal Technique
Felipe Andres Coronel , better known by the stage name Immortal Technique, is an American rapper of Afro-Peruvian descent as well as an urban activist. He was born in Lima, Peru and raised in Harlem, New York. Most of his lyrics focus on controversial issues in global politics...
and Invincible.
Philippines
From the revolutionary songs of the KatipunanKatipunan
The Katipunan was a Philippine revolutionary society founded by anti-Spanish Filipinos in Manila in 1892, whose primary aim was to gain independence from Spain through revolution. The society was initiated by Filipino patriots Andrés Bonifacio, Teodoro Plata, Ladislao Diwa, and others on the night...
to the songs being sung by the New Peoples Army, Filipino protest music deals with poverty, oppression as well as anti-imperialism and independence. A typical example was during the American era, as Jose Corazon de Jesus
José Corazón de Jesús
José Corazón de Jesús , also known by his pen name Huseng Batute, was a Filipino poet who used Tagalog poetry to express the Filipinos' desire for independence during the American occupation of the Philippines, a period that lasted from 1901 to 1946...
created a well-known protest song entitled "Bayan Ko
Bayan Ko
"Bayan Ko" is one of the most recognizable patriotic songs in the Philippines that, because of its popularity, is sometimes assumed to be a folk song and the unofficial national anthem of the Philippines...
", which calls for redeeming the nation against oppression, mainly colonialism, that also became popular as a song dealt against the Marcos regime.
However, during the 1960s, Filipino protest music became aligned with the ideas of Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
as well as of revolution. "Ang Linyang Masa", a protest song came from Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
and his Mass Line and "Papuri sa Pag-aaral" was from Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
. These songs, although Filipinised, rose to become another part of Filipino protest music known as Revolutionary songs, that became popular during protests and campaign struggles.
Singer-songwriters of protest music include Ramon Ayco, a former rebel, who made a song entitled "Tano", which tackles about a farmer who, due to the prevailing conditions, forced himself to join the struggle, and "Babae" ("Woman"), which also deals with women's empowerment and national liberation, other singer-songwriters like Heber Bartolome
Heber Bartolome
Heber Gonzalez Bartolome is a Filipino folk and folk rock singer, songwriter, composer, poet, guitarist, bandurria player, bluesman, and painter. His music was influenced by the “stylistic tradition” of Philippine folk and religious melodies...
, Jess Santiago, soloist Paul Galang, Inang Laya, and Noel Cabangon are also became popular in creating protest music and making it popular like the song "Tatsulok" ("Triangle"), that originally from Cabangon's album Buklod, and revived by Bamboo Mañalac
Bamboo Mañalac
Francisco Gaudencio Lupe Belardo Mañalac, popularly known as Bamboo Mañalac, is a Filipino musician and singer, who was known as the former vocalist of Filipino rock bands, Rivermaya and Bamboo, now performing as a solo artist....
.
Russia
The most famous source of Russian protest music in the 20th century has come those known locally as bardsBard (Soviet Union)
The term bard came to be used in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, and continues to be used in Russia today, to refer to singer-songwriters who wrote songs outside the Soviet establishment, similarly to beatnik folk singers of the United States...
. The term, (бард in Russian) came to be used in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, and continues to be used in Russia today, to refer to singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
s who wrote songs outside the Soviet establishment. Many of the most famous bards wrote numerous songs about war, particularly The Great Patriotic War (World War II). Bards had various reasons for writing and singing songs about war. Bulat Okudzhava
Bulat Okudzhava
Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, musician, novelist, and singer-songwriter. He was one of the founders of the Russian genre called "author song"...
, who actually fought in the war, used his sad and emotional style to illustrate the futility of war in songs such as "The Paper Soldier" ("Бумажный Солдат").
Many political songs were written by bards under Soviet rule, and the genre varied from acutely political, "anti-Soviet" songs, to witty satire in the best traditions of Aesop
Aesop
Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...
. Some of Bulat Okudzhava
Bulat Okudzhava
Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, musician, novelist, and singer-songwriter. He was one of the founders of the Russian genre called "author song"...
's songs provide examples of political songs written on these themes. Vladimir Vysotsky
Vladimir Vysotsky
Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky was a Soviet singer, songwriter, poet, and actor whose career had an immense and enduring effect on Russian culture. He became widely known for his unique singing style and for his lyrics, which featured social and political commentary in often humorous street...
was perceived as a political song writer, but later he gradually made his way into the more mainstream culture. It was not so with Alexander Galich, who was forced to emigrate—owning a tape with his songs could mean a prison term in the USSR. Before emigration, he suffered from KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
persecution, as did another bard, Yuliy Kim
Yuliy Kim
Yuliy Chersanovich Kim is one of Russia's foremost bards and playwrights. His most famous works, encompassing everything from mild humor to biting political satire, include songs for movies such as Bumbarash, The Twelve Chairs, and An Ordinary Miracle, as well as the songs "The Brave Captain,"...
. Others, like Evgeny Kliachkin
Evgeny Kliachkin
Evgeny Isaakovich Kliachkin was a Soviet and Russian bard, singer, and composer.-Biography:...
and Aleksander Dolsky, maintained a balance between outright anti-Soviet and plain romantic material. Since most of the bards' songs were never permitted by Soviet censorship, most of them, however innocent, were considered to be anti-Soviet.
Anti-apartheid protest music
The majority of South African protest music of the 20th century concerned itself with apartheid, a system of legalized racial segregationRacial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
in which blacks were stripped of their citizenship and rights from 1948 to 1994. As the apartheid regime forced Africans into townships and industrial centers, people sang about leaving their homes, the horror of the coal mines and the degradation of working as domestic servants. Examples of which include Benedict Wallet Vilakazi
Benedict Wallet Vilakazi
Benedict Wallet Vilakazi was a South African Zulu poet, novelist, and educator. In 1946, he became the first black South African to receive a Ph.D...
's "Meadowlands", the "Toyi-toyi
Toyi-toyi
Toyi-toyi is a Southern African dance originally from Zimbabwe that has long been used in political protests in South Africa.Toyi-toyi could begin as the stomping of feet and spontaneous chanting during protests that could include political slogans or songs, either improvised or previously created...
" chant and "Bring Him Back Home" (1987) by Hugh Masekela
Hugh Masekela
Hugh Ramopolo Masekela is a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer.-Early life:Masekela was born in Kwa-Guqa Township, Witbank, South Africa. He began singing and playing piano as a child...
, which became an anthem for the movement to free Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
. Masekela's song "Soweto Blues", sung by his former wife, Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba , nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist....
, is a blues/jazz piece that mourns the carnage of the Soweto riots
Soweto riots
The Soweto Uprising, also known as June 16, was a series of high school student-led protests in South Africa that began on the morning of June 16, 1976. Students from numerous Sowetan schools began to protest in the streets of Soweto, in response to the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of...
in 1976. Basil Coetzee
Basil Coetzee
Basil "Manenberg" Coetzee was a South African musician, perhaps best known as a saxophonist.Mountain Records describes Basil thus: 'His distinctive raunchy tenor sound and the untiring commitment to his cultural roots made him one of the best known jazzmen to come out of South Africa...
and Abdullah Ibrahim
Abdullah Ibrahim
Abdullah Ibrahim , born Adolph Johannes Brand, 9 October 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa, and formerly known as Dollar Brand, is a South African pianist and composer...
's "Mannenberg", became an unofficial soundtrack to the anti-apartheid resistance.
In Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
, the Voëlvry movement led by Johannes Kerkorrel
Johannes Kerkorrel
Johannes Kerkorrel was an Afrikaner singer-songwriter, journalist and playwright from South Africa....
, Koos Kombuis
Koos Kombuis
Koos Kombuis is a South African musician, singer, songwriter and writer who became famous as part of a group of anti-establishment maverick Afrikaans musicians, who, under the collective name of Voëlvry , toured campuses...
and Bernoldus Niemand in 1989, provided a voice of opposition from within the white Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
community. These musicians sought to redefine Afrikaner identity, and although met with opposition from the authorities, Voëlvry played to large crowds at Afrikaans university campuses and was quite popular amongst the Afrikaner youth. Voëlvry is discussed in detail by Hopkins (2006) in "Voëlvry. The movement that rocked South Africa" (Cape Town: Zebra Press) and Grundlingh (2004) in ""Rocking the Boat" in South Africa? Voëlvry music and Afrikaans anti-apartheid social protest in the 1980s" (The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 37(3):483–514).
Post-apartheid
Following apartheid's demise, most AfrikaansAfrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
writers and musicians followed public sentiments by embracing the new South Africa, but cracks soon emerged in the dream of the ‘rainbow nation’ and criticism started to emerge, criticism that has grown in frequency and intensity in recent years. With violent crime putting South Africa in the top category of most dangerous country in the world, poverty, government corruption, and the AIDS pandemic, writers and musicians, some of them veterans of anti-apartheid movements, are once again protesting against what they consider to be a government failing to uphold the promise of ‘peace, democracy and freedom for all’ that Nelson Mandela made upon his release from prison. By 2000, Johannes Kerkorrel
Johannes Kerkorrel
Johannes Kerkorrel was an Afrikaner singer-songwriter, journalist and playwright from South Africa....
claimed in the song "Die stad bloei vanaand" [The city bleeds tonight], "the dream was promised, but just another lie has been sold."
Two Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
compilation albums of predominantly protest music were released recently: "Genoeg is genoeg" [Enough is enough] (2007) and "Vaderland" [Fatherland] (2008), and Koos Kombuis
Koos Kombuis
Koos Kombuis is a South African musician, singer, songwriter and writer who became famous as part of a group of anti-establishment maverick Afrikaans musicians, who, under the collective name of Voëlvry , toured campuses...
also released a CD called "Bloedrivier" [Blood River] (2008), which is primarily a protest album. One track, "Waar is Mandela" [Where is Mandela] asks, "Where is Mandela when the shadows descend [...] Where is the rainbow, where is the glory?" and another, "Die fokkol song" [The fuck all song], tells tourists who visit South Africa for the 2010 Football World Cup that there is nothing in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, no jobs, no petrol, no electric power, not even jokes. However, these compilations only represent the tip of the iceberg, as many prominent musicians have included protest songs on recent albums, including Bok van Blerk
Bok van Blerk
Bok van Blerk, born Louis Pepler March 30, 1978, is a South African musician who sings in Afrikaans. He became famous in 2006 for his rendition of "De la Rey" by Sean Else and Johan Vorster.- Early life and career :...
, Fokofpolisiekar
Fokofpolisiekar
Fokofpolisiekar is an Afrikaans punk rock band from Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. Due to the obscenity in the name, they are also commonly known simply as Polisiekar or FPK.-Band history:...
, KOBUS!
KOBUS!
Kobus! is an Afrikaans extreme metal band formed in 2000 by ex-Springbok Nude Girls guitarist Theo Crous and ex-Voice of Destruction vocalist Francois Breytenbach Blom...
, ddisselblom and Glaskas.
The reality of the New South Africa is decidedly violent, and crime is a well-known theme in post-apartheid Afrikaans protest music. The punk group Fokofpolisiekar
Fokofpolisiekar
Fokofpolisiekar is an Afrikaans punk rock band from Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. Due to the obscenity in the name, they are also commonly known simply as Polisiekar or FPK.-Band history:...
(which translates to ‘fuck off police car’) sings in "Brand Suid-Afrika" [Burn South Africa]: "For you knives lie in wait, in the garden outside you house," and Radio Suid-Afrika sings in "Bid" [Pray]: "Pray that no-one will be waiting in the garden, pray for strength and for mercy in each dark day." Theirs is a country of "murder and child rape" where the only respite is alcohol abuse. In "Blaas hom" [Blow him away] by the industrial band Battery9, the narrator sings how he gleefully unloads his gun on a burglar after being robbed for the third time, and in "Siek bliksems" [Sick bastards] Kristoe Strauss asks God to help against the "sick bastards" responsible for hijackings. The metal band KOBUS!
KOBUS!
Kobus! is an Afrikaans extreme metal band formed in 2000 by ex-Springbok Nude Girls guitarist Theo Crous and ex-Voice of Destruction vocalist Francois Breytenbach Blom...
pleads for a reinstatement of the death penalty in "Doodstraf", because they feel the promise of peace has not realised. In "Reconciliation Day", Koos Kombuis
Koos Kombuis
Koos Kombuis is a South African musician, singer, songwriter and writer who became famous as part of a group of anti-establishment maverick Afrikaans musicians, who, under the collective name of Voëlvry , toured campuses...
sings: "Our streets run with blood, every day a funeral procession, they steal all our goods, on Reconciliation Day." Elsewhere he states, "we’re in a state of war." The video of this song features a lawless microcosm of theft, rape and abuse – a lawlessness reflected in Valiant Swart
Valiant Swart
Valiant swart is an Afrikaans folk/rock singer from Stellenbosch, South Africa.-Albums:*Die Mystic Boer *Dorpstraat Revisited *Kopskoot *Roekeloos *Deur die Donker Vallei *Boland Punk *Maanhare...
's "Sodom en Gomorra": "two cities in the north, without laws, without order, too wonderful for words." In "Mitchells Plain", Gian Groen sings about gang violence on the Cape Flats, and Liezl op bladsy 5 sings in "Wie doen wat" [Who does what]: "Everyone's fed up, everyone's sick and tired." Hanru Niemand rewrites the traditional Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
song Sarie Marais
Sarie Marais
Sarie Marais is a traditional Afrikaans folk song, created during either the First Anglo-Boer War or the Second Anglo-Boer War . The tune was taken from a song called Ellie Rhee dating from the American Civil War, and the words translated into Afrikaans...
, turning it into a murder ballad speculating on where Sarie's body will be found. The new protest musicians also parody Voëlvry's music: Johannes Kerkorrel
Johannes Kerkorrel
Johannes Kerkorrel was an Afrikaner singer-songwriter, journalist and playwright from South Africa....
's "Sit dit af" [Switch it off] – a satire on PW Botha of the apartheid regime – is turned into "Sit dit aan" [Switch it on] by Koos Kombuis
Koos Kombuis
Koos Kombuis is a South African musician, singer, songwriter and writer who became famous as part of a group of anti-establishment maverick Afrikaans musicians, who, under the collective name of Voëlvry , toured campuses...
, now a song protesting mismanagement resulting in chronic power failures.
Much of the protest by Afrikaans musicians concerns the legacy of apartheid: In "Blameer dit op apartheid" [Blame it on apartheid] Koos Kombuis
Koos Kombuis
Koos Kombuis is a South African musician, singer, songwriter and writer who became famous as part of a group of anti-establishment maverick Afrikaans musicians, who, under the collective name of Voëlvry , toured campuses...
sings how "the whole country is evil," yet the situation is blamed on apartheid. Klopjag, in "Ek sal nie langer" [I will no longer] sings that they will no longer apologise for apartheid, a theme echoed by many others, including Koos Kombuis
Koos Kombuis
Koos Kombuis is a South African musician, singer, songwriter and writer who became famous as part of a group of anti-establishment maverick Afrikaans musicians, who, under the collective name of Voëlvry , toured campuses...
in "Hoe lank moet ons nog sorry sê" [For how long do we still have to say sorry]. Piet Paraat sings in "Toema Jacob Zuma" [Never mind Jacob Zuma]: "My whole life I’m punished for the sins of my father." There is also a distinct feeling that the Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
is being marginalised by the ANC
ANC
ANC commonly refers to the African National Congress, a revolutionary movement which became the ruling political party in South Africa in the 1994 election.ANC may also refer to:-Organizations:...
government: Fokofpolisiekar
Fokofpolisiekar
Fokofpolisiekar is an Afrikaans punk rock band from Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. Due to the obscenity in the name, they are also commonly known simply as Polisiekar or FPK.-Band history:...
sings in "Antibiotika" [Antibiotics], "I’m just a tourist in the country of my birth," Bok van Blerk
Bok van Blerk
Bok van Blerk, born Louis Pepler March 30, 1978, is a South African musician who sings in Afrikaans. He became famous in 2006 for his rendition of "De la Rey" by Sean Else and Johan Vorster.- Early life and career :...
sings in "Die kleur van my vel" [The colour of my skin] that the country does not want him despite his willingness to work, because he is white, and in "Bloekomboom" Rian Malan
Rian Malan
Rian Malan is a South African author, journalist, documentarist and songwriter of Afrikaner descent. He first rose to prominence as the author of the memoir My Traitor's Heart, which, like the bulk of his work, deals with South African society in a historical and contemporary perspective and...
uses the metaphor of a blue gum tree (an alien species) to plead that Afrikaners should not be regarded as settlers, but as part of the nation. The appeals by these musicians to be included follows a sense of exclusion manifested in the political, linguistic and economic realms, an exclusion depicted particularly vividly by Bok van Blerk
Bok van Blerk
Bok van Blerk, born Louis Pepler March 30, 1978, is a South African musician who sings in Afrikaans. He became famous in 2006 for his rendition of "De la Rey" by Sean Else and Johan Vorster.- Early life and career :...
's "Kaplyn" [Cut line], a song that laments that fallen South African soldiers have been omitted in one of the country's show-case memorials, the Freedom Park Memorial, despite official claims of it being a memorial for all who had fought for the country.
The main issues addressed in post-apartheid Afrikaans protest music centre around perceived government incompetence in terms of crime and poverty, and a sense of being excluded and not treated as citizens of their own country.
South Korea
Commonly, protest songs in South KoreaSouth Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
are known as Min-joong Ga-yo , and the genre of protest songs is called Norae Undong, literally "Song movement". It was raised by people in 1970s~1980s to be against the military governments of President Park Jeong-hee
Park Chung-hee
Park Chung-hee was a Republic of Korea Army general and the leader of South Korea from 1961 to 1979. He seized power in a military coup and ruled until his assassination in 1979. He has been credited with the industrialization of the Republic of Korea through export-led growth...
, Jeon Doo-hwan .
See also
- Civil Rights anthemCivil Rights anthemCivil Rights anthems is a relational concept to protest song, but one that is specifically linked to the African-American Civil Rights Movement. The songs were often sung during protests or marches related to the movement...
- List of anti-war songs
- Nonviolent resistanceNonviolent resistanceNonviolent resistance is the practice of achieving goals through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, and other methods, without using violence. It is largely synonymous with civil resistance...
- Music and politicsMusic and politicsThe connection between music and politics, particularly political expression in music, has been seen in many cultures. Although music influences political movements and rituals, it is not clear how or even if, general audiences relate music on a political level...
- Topical songTopical songA topical song is a song that comments on political and/or social events. These types of songs are usually written about current events, but some of these songs remain popular long after the events discussed in them have occurred...
- Wobblies
- Folk musicFolk musicFolk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
- Folk punkFolk punkFolk punk , is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered in the late 1970s and early 1980s by The Pogues in Britain and Violent Femmes in America. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade...
- PoliticalPolitical hip hopPolitical hip hop is a sub-genre of hip hop music that developed in the 1980s. Inspired by 1970s political preachers such as The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, Public Enemy were the first political hip hop group...
/Conscious hip hop
Further reading
- Fowke, Edith and Joe Glazer. Songs of Work and Protest. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1973.
- Denisoff, R. Serge. Sing a Song of Social Significance. Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1983.
- Ray Pratt. Rhythm and Resistance: Explorations in the Political Uses of Popular Music (Media and Society Series). Praeger, 1990.
- Ronald D. Cohen & Dave Samuelson. Liner notes for Songs for Political Action. Bear Family Records, BCD 15 720 JL, 1996.
- Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison. Music and Social Movements: Mobilizing Tradition in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge University Press, 1998.
External links
- Strange Fruit - history of protest music from PBS
- Vietnam: The music of protest, Steve Schifferes, BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
News, Sunday, 1 May 2005 - Labor and Industrial Folksongs: A Select Bibliography from the Library of Congress