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Protest song

A protest song is often a kind of folk music (or, more recently, pop-influenced folk music). Such songs become popular during times of social disruption and among socially neglected groups and their supporters. They rail against injustice, racial discrimination, war, globalization, inflation, social inequalities and the like.

Folk songs occur throughout history, as in the American Revolutionary War and in the abolitionist movement of the 1800s. In the 20th Century, the union movement, the Great Depression and the Vietnam War also spawned protest songs. Some protest music traditions also date back to the American Civil War, when traditional songs such as 'We Shall Overcome' served as protest songs.

A common form of protest song, with acoustic guitar and harmonica, was popularized by the work of Woody Guthrie during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl.

Protest songs regarding unions and labor

  • "Allentown" Billy Joel
  • "Angel of Freedom"
  • "Banks of Marble"
  • "Bear The Burden in The Heat of The Day"
  • "The Blackleg Miners"
  • "The Blind Ploughman"
  • "Casey Jones - The Union Scab" Joe Hill
  • "Centralia"
  • "Coal Miner's Blues"
  • "Coal Miner's Grave"
  • "The Coal Owner And The Pitman's Wife"
  • "Come All You Coal Miners"
  • "Common Ground" Chumbawamba (re. 1984-1985 Miners Strike)
  • "Dump the Bosses" John Brill
  • "Fitzwilliam" Chumbawamba (re. 1984-1985 Miners Strike)
  • "From Little Things Big Things Grow" Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody
  • "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" Harry McClintock
  • "Hard Times Come Again No More"
  • "The International"
  • "It Takes a Long Pull to Get There"
  • "John Henry"
  • "Joe Hill"
  • "Little Man, You Had a Busy Day"
  • "One by One" Chumbawamba (about the late 1990s Liverpool Dockers Strike)
  • "Part Of The Union" The Strawbs
  • "Peg and Awl"
  • "The Popular Wobbly"
  • "The Preacher and the Slave" Joe Hill
  • "Rebel Girl" Joe Hill
  • "Roll the Union On"
  • "Shearing In The Bar"
  • "Shores of Botany Bay"
  • "Sixteen Tons" Tennesee Ernie Ford
  • "Solidarity Forever" Ralph Chaplin
  • "Struggle In The West"
  • "The Two Bums"
  • "There is Power in a Union" Billy Bragg
  • ";This Land is Your Land" Woody Guthrie
  • "Traveling Down the Castlereagh"
  • "Union Burying Ground" Woody Guthrie
  • "Union Maid" Woody Guthrie
  • "The Union Scab" Joe Hill
  • "The Union Train"
  • "Which Side Are You On?"
  • "Why Paddy's Not At Work Today"

Protest songs concerning racism, apartheid and civil rights

Protest songs concerning war

Protest songs concerning nuclear weapons

Protest songs concerning politicians or world leaders

Protest songs against police or authority

Protest songs concerning poverty

Protest songs concerning alienation

Protest songs concerning governments and imperialism

Protest songs concerning feminism

Protest songs concerning environmentalism

Protest songs concerning prohibition and the War on Drugs

Protest songs concerning heroin, drug abuse, and drug culture

Protest songs concerning globalization and corporate dominance

Protest songs concerning guns and violence

Protest songs concerning materialism

Protest songs concerning slavery

Protest songs concerning the persecution of homosexuals

Protest songs concerning television

  • "I Am the Slime" Frank Zappa
  • "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles
  • "Telecide" The Tubes
  • "Television, the Drug of the Nation" Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy

Protest songs concerning music critics and the music industry

Protest songs concerning animal rights and meat consumption

Protest songs concerning protest songs

Protest songs concerning Youth Rights

  • "Bored Teenagers" The Adverts
  • "Dyers Eve" Metallica
  • "Hell is for Children" Pat Benatar
  • "Prisoner of Society" The Living End
  • "Minor Disturbance Too Young To Rock" The Teen Idles
  • "Another Brick in the Wall" Pink Floyd

Protest songs concerning Land Rights

Other protest songs

Some protest song artists:

Referenced By

Billy Bragg | List of musical topics | Pete Seeger | Peter Seeger | We Shall Overcome

 

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Protest song".

 

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