Best songs of the "protest era."

Thanks! I'll give that a try tomorrow.

 

I forgot! I need to post these or I'll lose my Australian residency. When discussing protest songs, it is of course compulsory for all Australian residents to refer to our former Environment Minister.

Peter Garrett - Wikipedia

 

I'd forgotten about this, but I heard part of an interview with Labi Siffre on the radio today. Again, not from the 60s protest era, but a protest song nonetheless.

It's an excellent protest song because of its lyrics. I always thought the chorus was a bit meh, but the verses have very strong words that get the message across perfectly.

The song was about apartheid, and the lyrics are perfect for that. But the part of the interview that I heard today told me something I didn't know - that Labi Siffre felt that it applied just as much to the prejudice he faced for being gay.

 

Love Credence- but I think I would of picked "Fortunate Son" as my example of a protest song of the protest era.
Fortunate Son is a great one.

Which brings me to this.
I'm getting old. I don't listen to, or get, rap music or whatever it is they are calling it.

I once, tried to reach some understanding. I approached a younger person, with his car doors open, and some type of BLASTING rap like music playing, with lyrics I could not even really understand outside of the occasional catch of an obscenity or derogatory term.
Without fear, and trying to ask with as little pre-judgement I asked him "Why do you like this?". I was earnestly trying to understand. As musically it seemed incredibly unpleasant, and lyrically? Nearly impossible to understand.

To his credit, he looked at this middle age man, and tried to explain. He told me, I think without trying to be insulting, that it was probably just generational...I was too old to understand. But that it was "Protest" music...Truth....

I told him, I have great respect, love for The Protest music of the 50's (yes it exists), 60's and 70's...and onward....
Music in support of social awareness or cause I enjoy, respect and believe can be very powerful.
But Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Credence, Peter Gabriel- the list goes on and on....one common factor, is that you could understand what they were saying. Bob Dylan sang..."The Times They are a Changin" and you could agree or disagree, but also? You could understand him. His social message wasn't buried beneath ground shaking bass, and heavily peppered with obscenity.

When they sang, "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" everyone knew it wasn't a song about gardening.

It was protest, designed at least in part to be accessible. Todays protest music? Seems designed to 1st Shock..and 2ndly...show off the sub-woofers of your car sound system. What good is that? If there is any value to the protest, the handshake is so exclusive and so secret, it isn't reaching anyone without internet access to the liner notes.

Every generation is going to have something they want to say, in a manner they want to say it. And as time passes, maybe the style or manner of that conveyance evolves.

But for gods sakes man...if you want to tell me about life on the streets and police brutality or any other manner of problem you see in the world today?
Take a page from the pioneers.
When Billie Holiday, sang Abel Meeropol's song "Strange Fruit" is was a song of near pure metaphor, but caused controversy exactly because of it's accessible understanding of what it was talking about.
It didn't throw in a heavy bass line, a repeating hook, with a shocking obscenity, it was shocking because of it's comprehensible message.

For my money, songs like "Fortunate Son" still resonate. "Eve of Destruction"...unfortunately...maybe always timeless.

But protest, without accessible understanding- seems to me to be a waste of time.

Now if you excuse me...I'm going to a garden party, and I have to bring my sympathy for The Devil.

 

It's an easy thing to not get, especially given the preponderance of the wrong sort of music.

If you're listening to rap music (a) now and (b) in America, you've got no chance. It's abysmal.

What's often credited as the first rap song was actually from back in what @cyberpriusII referred to as "the protest era" - it's from 1971. And its protest is fairly clear.

And his Dad played for Celtic, the Scottish soccer team I support, which makes it even better.

Political rap in America was great in the late 80s and early 90s.

In the early 80s, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five did a lot, and it was commercial and melodic. The Message talked about urban poverty.

And White Lines (don't do it), while terrible advice for road painters, was not just a "just say no" type of song about how you should avoid cocaine, but also about the injustice that black dealers and users were imprisoned for long terms while rich white dealers, users and wholesalers would get away with a slap on the wrist.

And both of those songs have lovely tunes, and no swearing.

In the late 80s and early 90s, which I think was my favourite time for American rap, things were a bit less melodic and a bit more sweary. But they carried very strong political messages.

Public Enemy's Fight The Power was one of the clearest. It talks about how important it is for people to be politically aware and to understand when and how they're being oppressed.

(A little bit of swearing in this one.)

And NWA's [Go Away*] Tha Police isn't, as its title might suggest, about aggression towards the police, but is complaining about how the police won't enforce the law if crimes are being committed against poor black people.

*Not actually "Go Away".

I'm not going to link to this one because it will get the thread moved to purgatory. I'll PM you a link if you like.

But here's their more melodic and less sweary Express Yourself, which is, like Fight The Power, a very broad song about the importance of empowerment and self-expression in the light of oppression.

More to come.....

 

So.....

While the old-school stuff in the previous post is, I think, worthwhile protest music, new American rap is not protest music and it is not good. The closest there's been to protest music from American rap recently is King Kunta by Kendrick Lamar (which again I'm not going to link to, because I just find it offensive and rubbish).

The trouble with that is that, while the story of Kunta is fascinating and inspiring, and a brilliant protest song could be written about him, Kendrick Lamar's song is a load of misogynist nonsense and is unlistenable.

Since about the turn of the century, America has not been the place to look for good protest rap.

Australia has been good for it, and so has Britain. France has been excellent, but I won't subject you to a load of French rap unless you'd like me to do so. Chinese, Korean and Japanese rap take the genre and make it bland and easily-packaged.

American rap has been predominantly either banal or offensive (and often both), and has been less about political issues than about the rapper's lack of respect for women, how much money he's got, and how brilliant he is, and how many times he can use the n- and b- words - often seemingly as punctuation rather than words.

I linked to an excellent Australian song earlier on this thread - I'll link to it again here. Much as Nina Simone wasn't singing about actual fruit, Briggs is not singing about actual apples. It's about the massive challenges aboriginal kids face in Australia.

(Couple of swear words in here, but only where they're relevant and necessary.)

Briggs is also part of the band A B Original. Their song January 26 is an important one at the moment: it's really had considerable influence on the debate about whether Australia Day should be on January 26. (It is at the moment, and it really shouldn't be: that's not an anniversary of Australia becoming a nation; it's the anniversary of white people taking possession of the land, so it quite specifically excludes aboriginal people.)

(Again, a little bit of swearing. And quite a few Australianisms that you might not understand.)

For some spectacularly immature adolescent swearing, mixed in with a really good, clear, anti-right-wing message, TZU's The Horse You Rode In On is worth a listen. It's worth bearing in mind that this is from 2004, when John Howard was our right-wing Prime Minister, who fed off the far right's racism and intolerance. It covers a wide range of Australian issues from the time.

(NSFW)

Again, very Australia-specific, and from about the same time, but The King Is Dead by The Herd gives you a good view of the more cerebral Australian rap. It's from 2007, when John Howard (see above) was defeated by Kevin Rudd, who The Herd thought would change everything and would be a vast improvement. So it's not exactly a protest song - it's a celebration of an election defeat, and a warning that the new Prime Minister must meet their expectations.

It's got much of the best of Australian rap: it deals with specific political issues; the grammar is decent; it's pleasantly melodic; and it's hard not to like.

Now there's a song...

Anyway, I hope this has been educational.

 

I'm just going to keep my reply simple. And say this was a few years ago, and I am admittedly out of the loop. I'm calling "it" rap music, but I really have no idea what it would be called.
Music I have lost touch with? -Probably the best definition for ME personally.

The definition of it being protest came NOT from me, but from the young man I conversed with.

And I do not mean this specific shared incident to be an indictment of all "rap" music, or any music that I do not listen to.
It's more an observation and simply a shared story.

 

I get all of that. I just hoped you might find this a bit interesting. The joys of YouTube mean it's easier to go through things this way than it would have been for the man in the car back then.