Rolling Stone reports a recent rise in protest songs
The subtitle of “Protest Songs Rise Again,” from the recent edition of Rolling Stone (May 3-17, 2007 issue): ”Everyone from Ozzy to Maroon 5 weighs in on the worst president ever.”
According to this article, rock has now entered “its most politically charged phase since the late Sixties.” Tom Morellos’s new solo album (The Nightwatchman) “is packed with protest songs that all but call for armed uprising.”
Political music has been gaining popularity since Bush’s 2004 re-election:
Among the most striking statements were Bright Eyes’ Dylanesque folk song “When the President Talks to God” and Neil Young’s Living With War, which included “Let’s Impeach the President.” “It’s almost impossible to ignore everything that’s going on right now,” says Sum 41 leader Deryck Whibley, who has several fervently anti-Bush songs on his band’s new album, due this summer. ‘You can’t really escape it.”
Some of the most outspoken protest songs this year are from artists whose music is anything but confrontational: Norah Jones sings that the president may be “deranged” on her new song “My Dear Country.” “It just sort of came out in the writing - it wasn’t a decision we made,” she says. Amos is even more direct on her upcoming new album, American Doll Posse. “Yo, George/ Well, you have the whole nation on all fours,” she sings on “Yo George.” Says Amos, “Something in me refused to stand by anymore and watch the war continue without doing something about it.”
They’re pretty late, aren’t they?