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Does anyone do good protest music anymore?

I had the news on the radio at work this morning and there was some fellow babbling on about reinstituting the draft. At the same time I had the CDP on and Simon and Garfunkel were doing a Dylan protest song. This set my mind to wondering... but I don't remember what I was wondering about.

In the 60's and even early 70's there were lots of talented people protesting. Dylan and S&G are a couple of the obvious suspects but people like Gordon Lightfoot, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez and Barry McGuire added a lot to that period.

With this reactionary fearmongering about the draft is there any chance that a new crop of 'protest' singers will emerge, or has the good stuff already been done, and if so, who did it?
nrchy

Showing 3 responses by nrchy

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nrchy OP
2,124 posts
 
Not all of us, but I hate it
nrchy's avatar
nrchy OP
2,124 posts
 
I guess it seems to me that in previous protest music was more inclusive (as if that was a good thing) and less off putting...

I just have a hard time with a guy like Bruce Springsteen who has more money than the government telling me how bad everything is in the world. The same is true of all those multi-millionaries like U2, Ani DiFranco, Radiohead, or Rage Against the Machine. I can't take whiney millionaries seriously.

The people who made a mark on the genre were anything but rich. Pete Seeger was mentioned. He suffered for his art, so to speak. S&G and Dylan were some of the first to get the big payoff from protesting, but I don't think that was their goal. I think others jumped on the bandwagon when they realized they could get rich protesting whatever came up.

That's why I asked if anyone was still doing good protest music.
nrchy's avatar
nrchy OP
2,124 posts
 
Ehart I don't care about the record companies as they relate to this thread. So I guess I can have it both ways because that isn't the issue. I mentioned those acts because they were mentioned earlier in the thread. I have no use for either Rage Against the Machine or Ani DeFranco, not because of the subject matter, but because I don't like their music. That isn't a denouncement or an endoresment, it's just a personal thing...

Do you not consider S&Gs He Was MY Brother; Scarburough Fair/Canticle; or A Simple Desultory Phillipic to be protest music. Not everything they did was protest, but some of it is, and they were held in esteem by the movement (Such as it was).

Drubin my point was there are people who achieve success because they do what comes naturally and then there are people who succeed because they ride the wave. Success doesn't prove or disprove a persons motivation. There are people who protest because they know it will sell and there are people who protest because it is who they are, that's not the same thing. Pete Seeger accomplished succees regardless of what he sold because he related the point he was trying to make. Whether a person likes what he has to say or not, they cannot fault him for being genuine.
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