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?
128x128nrchy

Showing 1 response by boa2

If protest music is supposed to speak to the people most affected (by a draft, or an increase in military activity, in this instance) then Eminem's "Mosh" indeed reached them. It hit #1, in fact. If we of their parents' generation don't like what's being said, it's working perfectly.

Our culture these days is not exactly cohesive when it comes to protesting any cause. We don't seem to want to listen much to anyone who questions. Just my take, of course.