History Main / ProtestSong

* "16 Military Wives" by Music/TheDecemberists is transparently about the Iraq War, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush's bullying foreign policy, and celebrities who could barely come up with even the wishy-washiest of stances on the topic. The music video features a ''LARP/ModelUnitedNations'' conference gone completely insane, with Colin Meloy (the lead singer) as the United States beating up on Luxembourg (multi-instrumentalist Chris Funk) before eventually Luxembourg leads a (musical) revolt, joined by Ireland (keyboardist Jenny Conlee). Like we said, wacky.

** Later on, it was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScrETEASlo set to Russian lyrics]], and became an iconic song of the early anti-Tzarist movement:

** ''[[http://www.folkarchive.de/pie.html The Preacher and the Slave]]'', also known as ''Pie in the Sky'', is a biting parody of the Salvation Army and other churches, and a great case of intentional LyricalDissonance.

* The 1915 anti-war song "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Didn%27t_Raise_My_Boy_to_Be_a_Soldier I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier]]" became very successful in the United States among those who opposed the country's potential entry to UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

* Music/WoodyGuthrie's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxiMrvDbq3s This Land Is Your Land]]" was written as a critical response to Irving Berlin's 1938 hit "God Bless America", which Guthrie thought ignored a lot of the problems going on in the country. The song includes lyrics talking about bread lines and class warfare. Then the first three verses were included in a school songbook, and it spread as a patriotic ballad as a stealth torpedo, which exploded when Pete Seeger sang all the verses, as Woody wrote them, at [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnvCPQqQWds Barack Obama's inauguration concert in 2009]].

* Music/CharlesMingus' "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT2-iobVcdw Fables of Faubus]]" from ''Music/MingusAhUm'' from 1959 slammed Arkansas governor Orval E Faubus for refusing to admit African-American children into "white" schools.

* "When The Levee Breaks" from ''Music/LedZeppelinIV'' as covered by Music/LedZeppelin[[note]]originally by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe [=McCoy=][[/note]], an apocalyptic blues-rock nightmare about the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927 1927 Mississippi floods]] and the resulting misery endured by the blacks (forced to work on the levees, abandoned once their properties were destroyed, attempting to leave to the Northern states to alleviate poverty).

** In a similar vein, "[[http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/riot-squad-1981 Riot Squad]]" by The Newmatics was written about a police raid on a live music performance the year before, and also picked up by the anti-Tour movement.

* Music/{{Scorpions|Band}}' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XboMUt59LtI "Crossfire"]].
* Killer Dwarfs' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY-HGhnyfXw "Dirty Weapons"]].
* Icon's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBJF7AsfnLY "World War"]].

** "We Can't Make It Here" (2005), by [[Music/JamesMcmurtry James McMurtry]][[note]]son of [[Literature/LonesomeDove Larry]][[/note]], has similar things to say about the longer-term trend of outsourcing and hollowing out local economies. Robert Christgau (from the ''Village Voice'') named it ''the best song'' of the 2000s, and Creator/StephenKing said it "may be the best American protest song since 'Masters of War'" (by Bob Dylan--see the 1960s folder).

* Music/{{Macklemore}}'s "Same Love" is this for gay/lesbian rights, specifically same-sex marriage (and more specifically still, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Referendum_74 Washington state Referendum 74]], which was on the ballot in Macklemore's home state that year).
* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd-__QZZOW4 Long Live Egypt]]" and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgw_zfLLvh8 Sout Al Horeya]]" probably make [[UsefulNotes/TheArabSpring Egypt's 2011 Revolution]] the first one in history to have a SoftRock soundtrack.

* Rapper YG and Nipsey Hussle released a song entitled "[[https://youtu.be/WkZ5e94QnWk FDT]]", an acronym for "Fuck Donald Trump". It's pretty self-explanatory what it's about.

[[https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-business-philosophy-from-the-art-of-the-deal-2015-6 There’s no such thing as being too greedy...]]"

* [[KoreanPopMusic K-Pop]] group Music/GirlsGeneration's 2007 song "Into the New World" is a feminist anthem that's been adopted as a protest song throughout Asia in the latter half of TheNewTens. This trend started in 2016 in South Korean student and anti-government protests and has since spread throughout Asia, even being translated into Thai by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020–2021_Thai_protests protesters in 2020]].

** "Am I Wrong", released in 2016, calls out indifferences to current events, with SUGA's line "We all are dogs and pigs We get angry and become dogs" being a TakeThat of the [[http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-south-korea-dog-pig-20160711-snap-story.html classist remarks of a government official during the then soon-to-be-impeached Park Geun-Hye's government]], who said that "99% of South Koreans have no ability to move up in the world and can be treated like animals".

* Bella Ciao, an Italian partisan song from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, sung by left-wing antifascists, has gone on to be used as a song of general protest, usually against governments, as seen in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNocyz1NRjA this video]].

* Most songs by Scottish folksinger Dick Gaughan. "[[http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/songs/texts/lovesong.html A Different Kind of Love Song]]" is his response to someone who complained he only sang political songs.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJmMzWlQmcw La Ballade Nord-Irlandaise]], about [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles Northern Ireland]]

* "Think About It" by Music/FlightOfTheConchords is a parody of this trope, teaching us valuable lessons such as how sweatshops are bad... because they don't actually make sneakers cheaper; how people have become so uncaring.... that nobody stops to check if a headless man is dead. [[spoiler: turns out he's dead.]]

* Music/FrankieGoesToHollywood's ''Two Tribes'' was one of the classic 80s anti-war songs. Its music video featured UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan and UsefulNotes/KonstantinChernenko fighting in a wrestling match, with other world leaders as spectators.
* Music/MenAtWork's "''It's a Mistake''" was about the lingering MutuallyAssuredDestruction doctrine during the later years of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar.

* ''Music/TheMessage'' by Music/GrandMasterFlashAndTheFuriousFive is a protest song too against [[BigRottenApple life in the ghetto]].

* Music/BruceHornsby's "''The Way It Is'" was a social commentary on the civil rights movement and the growing wealth gap in America.

* ''Creator/JonaLewie'''s 1980 hit ''Stop The Cavalry'' was not just a [[ChristmasSongs Christmas Song]], but an anti-war protest song.
* Music/{{REM}}'s ''Fall On Me'' and ''Cuyahoga'' have been described by its members as being about environmental pollution.

* ''Music/NautilusPompilius'': ''Nautilus'' has a lot of that. For example, "Bound by One Chain" is a song against the Soviet government, and "The Khaki Sphere" is an anti-war song.

* Music/TheRollingStones have tried their hand at a few of these:

* "Zombie" by The Cranberries, against the IRA.

* Music/{{Scorpions}}' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XboMUt59LtI "Crossfire"]].

* Bronski Beat's "No More War" (obvious) and "Smalltown Boy" (homophobia).

* "Child's Play" by Music/{{TNT}} was written by singer Tony Harnell as a protest against nuclear weapons.

* "King for a Day" by Music/BattleBeast speaks of a RevolvingDoorRevolution of {{Corrupt Politician}}s who come in saying they'll improve things, and instead profit off the office for as long as they can before being "dethroned".

** Earlier, there was the entirety of ''Music/{{Animals}}'', which served as a critique of Britain's capitalistic nature. "Dogs" is a critique of the dogmatic business owners who instill their reign upon the masses, while "Sheep" calls out the hive minded people who buy into the lies they're fed, but in particular, "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" calls out the shadowy bureaucratic leaders behind the scenes who get no repercussions, going so far as to call out MoralGuardian Mary Whitehouse ''by name''.

** "Us and Them" from ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon'' addresses popular attitudes towards war and suffering, and the album ''Music/{{Animals}}'' is basically a long rant about popular culture, with some rather specific {{Take That}}s in "Pigs".

* Music/BlackSabbath had a lot of these on their early albums before their lyrics [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible started becoming more and more cryptic]]: "Wicked World" (from ''Music/{{Black Sabbath|Album}}'', "War Pigs", "Electric Funeral", "Hand of Doom" (all from ''Music/{{Paranoid|Album}}'') and "Children of the Grave" (from ''Music/MasterOfReality'') all come to mind.

* Music/BlackSabbath had a lot of these on their early albums before their lyrics [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible started becoming more and more cryptic]]: "Wicked World" (from ''Music/{{Black Sabbath|Album}}, "War Pigs", "Electric Funeral", "Hand of Doom" (all from ''Music/{{Paranoid|Album}}'') and "Children of the Grave" (from ''Music/MasterOfReality'') all come to mind.

* Music/BlackSabbath had a lot of these on their early albums before their lyrics [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible started becoming more and more cryptic]]: "Wicked World", "War Pigs" (from ''Music/{{Paranoid}}''), "Electric Funeral", "Hand of Doom" and "Children of the Grave" all come to mind.

** ''[[Music/ExodusAlbum Exodus]]'': ''Guiltiness'', ''The Heathen''.

Name a recording artist from between 1964 and 1978. Chances are he, she, or they have at least one protest song, and it's a folk song about the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar. More recently, common subjects include racism (especially [[PoliceBrutality police brutality]], racism, and profiling, which has created its own subtrope, the AntiPoliceSong), the [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror Iraq War]], [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections corruption]], [[BannedInChina censorship]], [[GreenAesop environmental issues]], and [[HelpHelpThisIndexIsBeingRepressed big governments controlling lives]]. LyricalDissonance often arises when a director fails to appreciate that a sufficiently-subtle protest song is not in fact the upbeat anthem he believes it to be. Or sometimes it's entirely intentional on the part of the writer. If the song is in protest of a ob, than it's a WorkingClassAnthem.

Name a recording artist from between 1964 and 1978. Chances are he, she, or they have at least one protest song, and it's a folk song about the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar. More recently, common subjects include racism (especially [[PoliceBrutality police brutality]], racism, and profiling, which has created its own subtrope, the AntiPoliceSong), the [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror Iraq War]], [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections corruption]], [[BannedInChina censorship]], [[GreenAesop environmental issues]], and [[HelpHelpThisIndexIsBeingRepressed big governments controlling lives]]. LyricalDissonance often arises when a director fails to appreciate that a sufficiently-subtle protest song is not in fact the upbeat anthem he believes it to be. Or sometimes it's entirely intentional on the part of the writer.

** "Kletka" by the Russian band Kis-Kis is a song protesting the corrupt and greedy governments of Russia and Belarus.

* Music/GreenDay's ''Music/AmericanIdiot'', and "Holiday" and the title track in particular, were heavily critical of the George W. Bush government.

* Pretty much anything by Music/RiseAgainst.

* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E17LastExitToSpringfield Last Exit to Springfield]]", in which Lisa composes a protest song (unnamed in the episode, but subsequently known as "Union Strike Folk Song (Parts 1 & 2)" on its CD release) for the power plant workers after Mr. Burns cons them out of their dental plan. It uses the style of Depression-era folk music.

* Parodied in the ''[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Simpsons]]'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E17LastExitToSpringfield Last Exit to Springfield]]", in which Lisa composes a protest song (unnamed in the episode, but subsequently known as "Union Strike Folk Song (Parts 1 & 2)" on its CD release) for the power plant workers after Mr. Burns cons them out of their dental plan. It uses the style of Depression-era folk music.

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!!'''Parodies & lampshades in fiction:'''