Where are all the protest songs?

Originally posted by JSR
there is no conspiracy. people buy what people want. radios play what is promoted for purchase. there is no secret in that. it has always been this way.

Actually, the stations decide on what they play by categorising the tracks that they believe are fashionable and will get and keep them the most air time. Green Day's "American Idiot" recieved as much airplay as it did solely because the band were fashionable. Play lists are hugely powerful things, and trends/fashions/ideas can easily be promted out of them. The very fact that in the 60/70's they were more prevalent is because the DJ's had more control, were allowed to play what they wanted and impart their opinions. These days alot of what is played/spoken/alluded to is homegenised crap that is pre-scriped and rehearsed.

and.....up until my post, everyone was just posting their favorite songs, complete with youtube links. same as " what are you listening to " stuff.

Lighten up a little the question was asked, people posted their replies in the form of the very songs that seemed to be missing. Whats wrong with that? Sometimes things need a little air to evolve. I'd say you added a new cataylst to the discussion

protest songs are just a section of music. and it has been displayed very well in the previous posts before my seemingly offensive post, that there are plenty of protest songs out there.

I must have missed something - no one deemed your post to be "offensive" - it isn't at all. Its well written and within the T&C and I don't get where you've drawn "offensive" from

hence, "where did all the protest songs go?" they have always been there.

Yes, they have. But they aren't as prevalent in the mainstream now. The question is this - is that by fashion or design? And if its by design, is it due to deliberate manipulation of the media to "dumb down" people?

so...excuse me for my "protest" i will move along now.

Maybe you could write a song with your "protest" in it?

Originally posted by Tguntony
reply to post by CaptGizmo

 

Those songs are never played because their not very good! the radio plays hit songs if its not a hit its not gonna get much airtime

Kfed? Britney? . . . Right. . .

Quality has nothing to do with what's played on the radio. It's all about media companies either not liking the content of songs or being afraid of offending someone.

youtube.com...

Eminem - Mosh

youtube.com...

System of a down - Boom!

In a world where even Tom Hanks is blind to the truth, what do you expect. I've met Mr. Hanks, once at the D-Day anniveresry, I know he cares about people and humanity truly, then you read about him supporting Obama. I'm sorry but anyone who can turn their back or be too ignorant too know we have a true Founding Father running for President is dead to me, especially when they have enough power and money to make a good change. It goes to show even the smartest most human people in America are blinded by the mainstream and are to dumb to stop arguing about a douche and a turd to see there is hope, his name is Ron Paul and you choose to ignore him. I hope they like paying more for a censored internet next year.

Sorry if that was off topic, back to music. If you want to hear someone who does care and can see what's going on I suggest you listen to Jack Johnson before everything is "gone."

[edit on 8-5-2008 by dark_matter06]

Let's face it.. there is no plethora of protest songs against the war on terror like there was regarding Viet Nam because of 2 things.

1) We had a draft that was causing us to go to war against our will. There is no draft now. Those who join the military do it by their own free will.

2) The people of Viet Nam did not attack us in our own homeland, Islamic terrorists did.

We have much more important things to protest than the war and global warming (Owl Gore did not invent the internet, but he definitely invented global warming).... The IRS, the Federal Reserve, Credit card interest rates of 30 to 50%. Loan sharks only charge 10% interest. We are being distracted from the issues that really matter. We should be writing protest songs against these institutions.


Here is my own protest song against the IRS.

www.youtube.com...

The IRS sucks the life out of americans. It is anti freedom and anti american. We need to destroy it.

KB

Has anyone ever listened to The Clash? The Sex Pistols? How about Sham 69? The Avengers? The Dils? DOA? The Tom Robinson Band? Maybe Stiff Little Fingers or Crass??

The late 70's till late 80's were the most prolific period of protest song writing ever to be wittnessed. Made the Dylan era look decidedly tame in comparison

Protest music is out there still - but you gotta get off your butt and look for it...

J.

[edit on 8-5-2008 by jimbo999]

reply to post by kbgunn


Gore invented global warming?

Wow, news to me. What a smart dude! Imagine, figuring out all that scientific data, putting it together in a credible way, doing research all over the globe in order to verify your data - then publishig it worldwide in every scientific journal available.

Wow!

The guy is amazing!!

And you guys didn't want a genius like that to run the country???

J.

reply to post by Karlhungis














[edit on 5/8/2008 by Alien42]

reply to post by jimbo999


Sham 69 is a great band. I like that song If the Kids are United.

Crass is an awesome band also.

Both of those bands have great protest songs. And I agree if you want some good protest songs you just have to dig a little deeper and you will find them.

People just don't care enough plain and simple. Sure the "industry" is self serving but that's part of it. If people really cared they would buy/not buy to force the industry.

As soon as we have some sort of martial law TRULY instated within the country, THEN you will see people start to realize what has gone wrong in history. Not only will you hear songs finally that catch on, but you'll see a whole lot more. Demonstrations, campus protests, government protests etc..

Until then, society IS the boiling frog.

b

not sure if it's been said already, but the new R.E.M. album is outspoken about corruption in government. It's very good too, i recommend it.

[edit on 5/8/2008 by JPhish]

Well here's a thought - let's start making some songs!

I'm sure there are more than enough people on here who are good with songwriting, digital composing and vocals that the ATS community could produce some excellent and groundbreaking stuff

We could start with "Zeitgeist" and "Endgame" songs

Who's up for it?

I can't believe no one has mentioned David Rovics;
www.davidrovics.com...

All of his Music is political in nature, free, and quite good.

Originally posted by jimbo999
Has anyone ever listened to The Clash? The Sex Pistols? How about Sham 69? The Avengers? The Dils? DOA? The Tom Robinson Band? Maybe Stiff Little Fingers or Crass??

The late 70's till late 80's were the most prolific period of protest song writing ever to be wittnessed. Made the Dylan era look decidedly tame in cmparison

Protest music is out there still - but you gotta get off your butt and look for it...

J.

I'm pretty sure those bands have all disbanded by now (unless you count the Pistols silly reunion shows) and a lot of the punk from that era wasn't exactly protesting against anything in particular. They were just being rebellious.

reply to post by EverythingYouDespise


Sham 69 and the Avengers are still together. I just went to an Avengers show last year. And being rebellious is protesting. They were disgusted with what was going on in the world so they made their own kind of music.

I for one have no idea where all the protest songs are at...there should definitely be alot more of them though....


Hey!! I know!!! maybe they're all in that little piece of brain in the garbage from when Bush gave that mass frontal lobotomy to America LOL

Originally posted by jimbo999
reply to post by kbgunn

 

Gore invented global warming?

Wow, news to me. What a smart dude! Imagine, figuring out all that scientific data, putting it together in a credible way, doing research all over the globe in order to verify your data - then publishig it worldwide in every scientific journal available.

Wow!

The guy is amazing!!

And you guys didn't want a genius like that to run the country???

J.

Actually, Chicken Little invented global warming. The NASA data was not correctly calculated. Why haven't the global warmers admitted that? The warmest year was 1935 and we are going thru global cooling right now, just like in 1970's. It is all a cycle. Gore is a fraud. As bad as Bush is, at least he is better than Gore. Carbon offsets? Sounds like a religion to me, much like Catholic indulgences. When there is a warming trend, it is because the sun is hotter. Hundreds of Meteorologists are now refuting the warming nonsense. Notice that the warmers are now calling their religion "Climate Change". If everybody wants to believe that BS, fine. I will go on dealing with real problems. Want to deal with a real issue? How about dealing with the fact that rain forests are being torn down in massive amounts, reducing the oxygen in our air.

BTW, I drive a 2007 Prius, not to save the planet, but to save my money. How about a protest song about Big Oil raping us with $4 gas?

Where are all the protest songs? Great question. Here are some suggestions for the finding of protest songs:

1. Top-down searching: Look for such a genre in song lists on iTunes, Virgin, and other record databases. If you don't see it, send an email to the site administrator asking that they add that category or at least tweak their database to make "protest" a searchable term. Don't let yourself feel intimidated -- remember, "the customer is always right."

2. Bottom-up methods: Suggest a few topics for protest songs to some of the groups you hear in person or online. Where I live, for example, a real estate developer had an ill-conceived idea to plant a subdivision in our mountain community some years ago ... so of course a few hundred feisty local folks organized themselves, rented buses, and went to a local government meeting. A week before that event, I ran into a musician friend at the local grocery store; he told me he was planning to be on that bus. I replied, "Great ... but do you know what that group needs? They need a protest song, and you're the person who can write it!" Darned if he didn't write a thumpin' good song, which the busriders memorized on the long boring trip downtown. 18 months later, the real estate developers changed their mind. The songwriter did very well with that song afterwards, if I recall correctly.

3. A number of muckraking journalistic websites have studied the vast wasteland of music in the U.S. following the rise of Clear Channel as it purchased local radio stations around the country. Here for example is a link to a story on that topic on the Democracy Now! website:


www.democracynow.org...


In addition to raising concerns about media consolidation, the story explains how "low power FM" may be poised to give local listeners back a lot of choice over the content of radio broadcasts.


Finally, remember Margaret Mead's statement on how changes happen: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world." (I would give the citation on where this is quoted from, but so far, even her biographers have been unable to track that down!)



[edit on 5/8/2008 by Uphill]

Originally posted by theendisnear69
reply to post by jimbo999

 

Sham 69 is a great band. I like that song If the Kids are United.

Crass is an awesome band also.

Both of those bands have great protest songs. And I agree if you want some good protest songs you just have to dig a little deeper and you will find them.

Thanx. Too many people on this side of the Atlantic missed the whole shebang The media here was far too terrified of the whole thing first time round...

J.

Originally posted by MrdDstrbr
Well here's a thought - let's start making some songs!

I'm sure there are more than enough people on here who are good with songwriting, digital composing and vocals that the ATS community could produce some excellent and groundbreaking stuff

We could start with "Zeitgeist" and "Endgame" songs

Who's up for it?

Heh - I already do just that Have been doing for a long, long time too - don't want to give my age away heretho, as you never know who's watching.... heh

J.