Where has all the Protest Music Gone?

A documentary about Bob Dylan aired on PBS this holiday weekend. It not only discussed Dylan’s life but also the culture of the times in which he became a hit. As we all know those times were filled with progresses, activism and optimism. Enraged by a brutal war in Vietnam and preoccupied with fighting for minority rights the hippies of the 60’s fought for justice with vigor so endlessly strong that it truly rocked their generation. Their passion was poetically expressed by rock and roll and Motown. Music was an artistic expression of pure rebellion. As Dylan said himself, “The times they are a changing.”

Today our generation continues to enjoy the musical talent of artists like Bob Dylan yet many hardly understand its true significance. People seem endlessly fixated on un-intellectual music like the type of stuff that millions tune into on American Idol. I asked my mom, who grew up in the 1960s where all the protest singers have gone? She replied, “I don’t know, maybe our generation didn’t do enough. We really believed we could change the system. Maybe we were wrong and we just simply couldn’t. Your generation seems to have lost hope and they have become apathetic.” Perhaps she was right but I found it hard to believe that this fire for peace had just burned out.

Neil Young recently released a new anti-Bush album titled, Living with War. He told the Los Angles Times that he was tired of waiting for some younger artist to release an album about these issues and felt that perhaps only someone from his generation could do such work. Could it be true that as making music has become more and more about making money no one is willing to take the risk of losing profits through creating controversial music?

Tom Morello a well known radical artist recently stated in MTV news, "It's like Public Enemy and N.W.A were warring for the heart of the hip-hop nation, and a gentrified, blingy version of N.W.A won out. You listen to [Public Enemy's] 'Fight the Power' and It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, and you can hear America changing. Now it's just the relentless booty shake of hollow bling. There's not yet a soundtrack like in the '60s, when the music of the time was the music of revolution."

I find it difficult to believe with today’s headlines that our artists are choosing not to be artistic. Perhaps this is just what the music industry wants us to think. After doing some research on the topic I found that protest music does still exist but it’s certainly not being cranked out of the airwaves of music giants like MTV. Music, like everything else has been trampled on by corporate interests. According to this article, Why Neil Young is Wrong activist music still exists- you just have to look for it. One great place to start is the internet. If you are interested in this issue check out the article for more information and music to jam to.