Working Class Anthem

We work. To earn the right to work
To earn the right to work
To earn the right to work
To earn the right to work
To earn the right to give
Ourselves the rights to buy
Ourselves the right to live
To earn the right to die.

— The Stupendium, "THE FINE PRINT | The Outer Worlds Song"

A Job Song is the kind of song workers sing to keep themselves motivated while they work. The subversion of this is the Working Class Anthem, a song that motivates the worker into rebelling against the job in favor of putting it in its place.

Much like the Earth Song, the Working Class Anthem is the type of song with a political agenda. In this case, it criticizes the economic conditions of the time, usually written and sung for and by the working class at the expense of the rich and powerful. Such topics include: low-wages, terrible working conditions, Bad Bosses that either abuse or are apathetic to the very laborers that give them their fortune, company scrip, environmental degradation caused by big industry, wage slavery, debt, the Military-Industrial Complex, private prisons, no bathroom breaks, and a whole host of other problems caused by an exploitative system.

While straight examples are sung by Working-Class Heroes, Villain Songs sung to glorify these societal ills also qualify. Songs that glorify things like income inequality and 20-hour workdays are usually sung by Sleazy Politicians and Upper-Class Twits who you Love to Hate, thus you associate these terrible things with a Very Punchable face.

Whether or not the moral of the song is "Capitalism Is Bad" or "Capitalism is deeply-flawed and needs a few amendments" depends on the example.

Sub-Trope of Protest Song. A pretty familiar topic in Country Music and heartland music (and maybe, depending on the artist, some punk, folk, and blues music, too).

---

Examples:

Films — Animation

• "How Bad Can I Be?" from The Lorax (2012) is a song sung by the Once-ler once his Thneed business takes off and manages to make a profit. While the song on its surface espouses the virtues of a profit-centric worldview, it's actually a Villain Song that shows the Once-ler slowly being corrupted by his success (and the bad influence of his family). We see in the song that not only is his business causing massive devastation to the environment, but he starts buying into a Social Darwinist mindset to justify it and starts "donating" to Fake Charities for good PR.

Films — Live Action

• Newsies: In contrast to the Job Song "Carrying the Banner" that starts the film, "Seize the Day" and "The World Will Know" depict the newsboys resolving to strike against Pulitzer and Hearst for fairer treatment.
  When you got a hundred voices singin'
  Who can hear a lousy whistle blow?

Live-Action TV

• Parodied on Saturday Night Live with "Corporate Nightmare Song", where four Emo employees in an office job start out complaining about the "working stiff" lifestyle until one by one they're all won over by it.

Music

• "The Chemical Workers' Song" by Ron Angel of the Teesside Fettlers (perhaps most famous in the cover by Great Big Sea) is sung by laborers in a chemical plant, and focuses primarily on the hellish conditions of their work, the injuries and health problems that they receive as a result, and the exploitative, manipulative bosses to whom they report.
• Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" offers a sort-of optimism to folks in a similar situation (Bon Jovi also being from New Jersey).
• "Proletariat Blues" by Blue Scholars discusses inequality between employer and employee regardless of whatever job you find, using Hip-Hop and Rap as a form of escapism.
• "Solidarity Forever" by Ralph Chaplin is a popular trade union anthem sung by various Labour Parties and Unions in the United States, Australia, and Canada. "Solidarity Forever" is a Protest Song that has become synonymous with labor unions, the lyrics written to inspire workers to band together and unionize against their bourgeois overlords.
• "Shift Work" by Kenny Chesney describes shift work as being tiring and difficult — often with sweat, noise, and/or terrible customers — and uses the phrase "shift work" as a bait-and-switch for a swear word:
  Talking about a bunch of shift work
  A big ol' pile of shift work
  Work seven to three
  Three to eleven
  Eleven to seven

• "Shackles of Indoctrination" by Derelict is a song that portrays modern society as a world where wealthy corporate interests are worshipped as God-Kings perfectly willing to sacrifice everyone and everything for their own personal gain.
• DropkickMurphys' "Worker's Song" is about how workers never live to share in the fruits of their labour and when it comes to defending their country and what they've built, they're the first to be sent to die in a war.
• Epica's "Resign to Surrender - A New Age Dawns - Pt. IV" poetically calls out income and wealth inequality with stanzas like "Now that all hands are tied / We're panic stricken / Wealth out of sight / Demolition, the damaged pride / The price of ambition", and closes on the lines "Chasing our addictions, we're stunting our growth / Once we get rid of this ballast we'll be able to / Restore the balance and distribute our wealth".
• "There Is Power In A Union" is the name of two separate songs, one written by songwriter and Industrial Workers Of The World member Joe Hill in 1913, and the other by Billy Bragg in 1986.
• "The Poverty of Philosophy" by Immortal Technique is a rap number pointing out that working to change an inherently broken system — from the US to various Latin-American countries — within its own rules is a fruitless endeavor because many of its societal ills are based around manufactured crisis that those suffering from under it are forced to work under.
• "Working Class Hero" by John Lennon describes "people who are working class, who are supposed to be processed into the middle classes, or into the machinery."
• "Roll On" by The Living End is specifically about the 1998 Australian Waterfront Dispute, in which the Patrick Corporation undertook a restructuring of their operations for the purpose of dismissing their workforce. The restructuring by Patrick Corporation was later ruled illegal by Australian courts. The dispute involved Patrick Corporation terminating the employment of its workforce and locking out the workers of the workplace after the restructuring had taken place, with many of these workers members of the dominant Maritime Union of Australia. The resulting dismissal and locking out of their unionised workforce was supported and backed by the Australian Liberal/National Coalition Government.
• As the name would imply, "To Be Poor is a Crime" by Freddie McGregor is a song about the profit-centric nature of the justice system.
• Country singer Kip Moore wrote "On the Case" in time for Labor Day 2014, honoring the men in the construction industry. The first airing was on the official Case Construction website. Kip Moore stated that he was impressed by the workers who make up a large part of his fanbase, and who would come up to thank him for his music after they had worked long shifts before watching him perform.
  Yeah, after all these years, I'm still burning on this road
  I'm willing, ready, rock solid, I keep steady
  This big chip on my shoulder, and this grin upon my face
  Knows I got this man, cause I'm on the case
• "Coffin Factory" by The Mumlers is a song about how much it sucks spending most of your week building things that don't really benefit anyone just to make your bosses slightly richer.
• Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" is basically an ode to thankless dead-end jobs.
  Working 9 to 5, what a way to make a living
  Barely gettin' by, it's all taking and no giving
  They just use your mind and they never give you credit
  It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it!
  9 to 5, for service and devotion
  You would think that I would deserve a fair promotion
  Want to move ahead but the boss won't seem to let me
  I swear sometimes that man is out to get me!
• Johnny Paycheck's country song "Take This Job and Shove It" is about a guy ready to quit the factory job he's been at for 15 years, partially due to his crappy bosses.
• Stan Rogers’ “White Collar Holler” presents a semi-satirical song from the point of view of a computer coder.
• The Rolling Stones' "Salt Of The Earth" is about how working-class people and their struggles are overlooked in society.
  Raise your glass to the hard-working people,
  Let's drink to the uncounted heads.
  Let's think of the wavering millions,
  Who needs leading, but get gamblers, instead.

• Bruce Springsteen's "Jackson Cage" speaks to the disillusionment brought on by dead-end jobs in Jackson, NJ:
  In the Jackson Cage
  Down in the Jackson Cage
  You can try with all your might
  But you're reminded every night
  That you been judged and handed life
  Down in the Jackson Cage
• "The Fine Print" by The Stupendium is a Filk Song dedicated to the video game The Outer Worlds, a song about how much it sucks to live under the hyper-capitalist society the game takes place in.
• Donna Summer refers to "the oldest profession" in "She Works Hard for the Money"
• The Trope Codifier is "Sixteen Tons" by Merle Travis (made popular with the Tennessee Ernie Ford version), a song about the day-to-day of a working-class man in a Company Town whose laborious job is a constant cycle of paying of debts and feeding back into the very business they give their lives to.
  You load 16 tons, and what do you get?
  Another day older and deeper in debt.
  St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go;
  I owe my soul to the company store.

• Italian song Alla mattina appena alzata is about difficulties of working in the paddy fields. Its melody was later used in Bella Ciao song.
• Many classic sea shanties including (but in no way limited to) Wellerman, Blow the Man Down, Sloop John B, and Leave 'Er Johnny, are about the hardships faced by sailers, whalers, docksmen, and other labourers. The songs were often working songs whose rhythm helped workers stay in time with each other for tasks such as hauling line or rowing, and whose lyrics distracted from monotonous or taxing jobs. In this way there is quite a bit of historical and cultural overlap between sea shanties and dry land working songs such as "I've Been Working on the Railroad".
• bo en and Gus Lobban's "Money Won't Pay" is a peppier variation. It goes into how working every day just to make a living and constantly doing overtime can wear a body down, but advocates for the listener to forget it once in a while and dance the night away.
• Lunch Money Lewis' "Bills" rather bluntly says that the singer works hard every day because he's the breadwinner of his household, and everything is getting more expensive.

Theatre

• Billy Elliot: Because Billy's father and brother are involved in the 1984-1985 U.K. Coal Miners Strike, many of the songs focus around this, including "The Stars Look Down", "Solidarity", and "Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher".
• The title song from The Cradle Will Rock is about how unions and the working man will eventually prevail no matter how many brutal tactics a Corrupt Corporate Executive like Mr. Mister pulls out.
  That’s thunder
  That’s lightning
  And it’s going to surround you
  No wonder
  Those storm birds
  Seems to circle around you
  Well you can’t climb down and you can’t say no
  You can’t stop the weather
  Not with all your dough
  For when the wind blows
  And when the wind blows
  The cradle will rock
  • "Joe Worker" showcases the brutal reality of working class people without the safety of unions.
  Joe Worker just drops
  Right at his working he drops
  Weary weary
  Tired to the core
  And then if he drops out of sight
  There’s always plenty more
  Joe Worker must know
  That somebody's got him in tow
  But what is the good
  For one to be cleared
  For it takes a lot of Joes
  To make a sound you can hear
• In the Heights: Sonny's verse in "96,000" involves him dreaming of using the lottery money to protest the status quo in the barrio.
  The rent is escalating (what?)
  The rich are penetrating (what?)
  We pay our corporations
  When we should be demonstrating (what?)
• "Skid Row (Downtown)" from Little Shop of Horrors highlights this, particularly in the Urchins' verses.
  Uptown you cater to a million jerks.
  Uptown you're messengers and mailroom clerks.
  Eating all your lunches at the hot-dog carts.
  The bosses take your money and they break your hearts.
  And Uptown you cater to a million whores.
  You disinfect terrazzo on their bathroom floors.
  The jobs are really menial, you make no bread.
  And then at five-o'clock you head
  By subway
  Downtown
• Les Misérables is full of them:
  • "Work Song" depicts the harsh conditions of the prisoners doing manual labor, many of whom have received punishments that outweigh their crimes.
  • "At the End of the Day" shows the poor of France constantly struggling to keep bread on the table with their meager jobs, with whisperings of uprising.
  • "Do You Hear the People Sing?" invokes the trope. While it is sung by the relatively well-off college students, they are attempting to incite an uprising in the lower classes who are most affected by the unfair laws. It doesn't work. The song has since been used in a number of real-life protests.
• RENT: "What You Own" depicts Mark struggling to keep his head down in his soulless tabloid job, until he finally realizes he needs to quit to work on his own film, honoring his friends who are struggling with AIDS.
  Mark: Alexi?? Mark. Call me a hypocrite, but I need to finish my own film! I QUIT!
• Sweet Charity: "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This" starts out with Charity and her friends resolving to find a way out of their dead-end taxi dancer jobs, but subverts the trope when their dream jobs end up being just menial service jobs.

Video Games

• Warframe: "We All Lift Together" sung by the indentured workforce of Fortuna about the futility of working off their debts for the "greater good" of the Corpus' profit margins.
• Wasteland 3 DLC The Battle Of Steeltown features a version of Joe Hill's "There Is Power In A Union" as part of its soundtrack - consistent with the DLC's industrial setting of Steeltown.

Web Animation

• Helluva Boss: In MAMMON'S MAGNIFICENT MUSICAL MIDSEASON SPECIAL (ft. Fizzarolli), Fizzaroli, with some encouragement from Blitzo and Asmodeus, sings "Two Minutes Notice", a song doubling as one of these as well as a "The Villain Sucks" Song towards his Bad Boss, Mammon, telling him how he's finally fed up with all of Mammon's abuse and that he's finally quitting.

Western Animation

• Steven Universe: In "Sadie Killer", Steven and the Cool Kids form a band, but struggle to find their sound. Sadie joins them for a horror movie night after an exhausting shift at the Big Donut; motivated by her frustration, she and the band create a song called "The Working Dead" in which Sadie compares her working-class life to being a zombie. At the end of the episode, she joins the band and quits her awful job.

---