protest music

Say It Loud! 100 Timeless Protest Songs

Say It Loud! 100 Timeless Protest Songs

PopMatters has scoured the musical spectrum for the best examples of protest songs, including anthems of great popularity and obscurity that resonate today.

Pussy Riot Denounce Putin and Collect Crypto Donations for Ukrainians

Pussy Riot Denounce Putin and Collect Crypto Donations for Ukrainians

Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova stated, “I support Ukraine. Fuck Putin” moments into her set supporting Marina in New York City.

Melvin Gibbs Breathes New Life Into Protest Music on ‘4 + 1 Equals 5 for May 25’

Melvin Gibbs Breathes New Life Into Protest Music on ‘4 + 1 Equals 5 for May 25’

Long-time New York jazz sideman Melvin Gibbs breathes new life into protest music on the short but highly potent EP, 4 + 1 Equals 5 for May 25.

Kelsey Waldon Takes Up the Fight on ‘They’ll Never Keep Us Down’

Kelsey Waldon Takes Up the Fight on ‘They’ll Never Keep Us Down’

Kelsey Waldon covers seven famous protest songs to declare war on injustice today.

Wood Brothers’ Oliver Wood Covers  “The Battle Is Over (But the War Goes On)” (premiere + interview)

Wood Brothers’ Oliver Wood Covers  “The Battle Is Over (But the War Goes On)” (premiere + interview)

Wood Brothers' guitarist and vocalist, Oliver Wood releases a new reading of well-known the protest anthem with Bandcamp proceeds going to the ACLU. "I wanted to contribute something that kept peoples' momentum going," he says.

Old Crow Medicine Show Sing on Through Total Devastation

Old Crow Medicine Show Sing on Through Total Devastation

Social unrest, a global pandemic, and an industry that has forever been changed? No problem. Old Crow Medicine Show's Ketch Secor stares down the future.

ONO Confronts American Racial Oppression with the Incendiary ‘Red Summer’

ONO Confronts American Racial Oppression with the Incendiary ‘Red Summer’

Decades after their initial formation, legendary experimentalists ONO have made an album that's topical, vital, uncomfortable, and cathartic. Red Summer is an essential documentation of the ugliness and oppression of the United States.

Folk Singers Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore Show That a Working Class Hero Was Something to Be

Folk Singers Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore Show That a Working Class Hero Was Something to Be

Folkies Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore present a collection of pre-World War II songs about the struggle for economic justice with Working-Class Heroes: A History of Struggle in Song.

Smithsonian Folkways Presents ‘The Social Power of Music’

Smithsonian Folkways Presents ‘The Social Power of Music’

Curated by Smithsonian Folkways, The Social Power of Music is a dynamic and rich exploration of music's ability to connect and disrupt political, social, and cultural impasses.

For the People: Bush-Era Protest Songs and the Promise of Web 2.0

For the People: Bush-Era Protest Songs and the Promise of Web 2.0

Remember when Bright Eyes' "When the President Talks to God" and TV on the Radio's "Dry Drunk Emperor" protested George W. Bush? And when the Internet was full of promise for the best of humankind?

Pussy Riot: “Pong” / “Nightmares” (track review)

Pussy Riot: “Pong” / “Nightmares” (track review)

Just as tyrant and resistance – Putin and Pussy Riot – are locked in a seemingly endless game of Pong against each other, with acts of courageous defiance deflected by acts of brute tyranny.

Eddie Cochran’s Working Class “Summertime Blues” Asks, This Is Living?

Eddie Cochran’s Working Class “Summertime Blues” Asks, This Is Living?

Ever get the feeling that the struggle to get by makes it impossible to have the energy or the time to storm the barricades? That's what American capitalism has achieved in 2018: maximum depression. And that's why Cochran's 1958 song of angst plays on to this day.