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- Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit” This track has to be at the top of the list; it’s that influential. One of the first racism protest songs to be recorded in popular music, 1939’s “Strange Fruit” is based off a poem written by Abel Meeropol.
- Woody Guthrie, “This Land Is Your Land” One of the most iconic songs in American lore, “This Land Is Your Land” is actually such an important protest song for the verses that aren’t typically sung.
- “We Shall Overcome,” Pete Seeger. Written as a gospel hymn by a Methodist minister in 1900 and originally adapted during a tobacco workers strike in 1945, “We Shall Overcome” came to represent defiance, endurance, tenacity and sheer determination.
- Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind” The tune that endeared Dylan to legions of card-carrying folkies, “Blowin’ in the Wind” remains the standard template for every protest song that’s come along ever since.
- Tolly Wright
- “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday. When Billie Holiday recorded “Strange Fruit” in 1939, it became the first song by black artist to ever be released with such bold and explicit lyrics about racism.
- “We Shall Overcome” Based on the gospel song of the same name by Rev. Dr. Charles Albert Tindley, one of the most influential African American ministers of the turn of the 20th century, “We Shall Overcome” became synonymous with the black civil rights movement of the 1950s and ‘60s.
- “War” by Edwin Starr. “War,” as in “What is it good for? Absolutely nothing,” became a funky battle cry among the thousands of Vietnam War protesters on college campuses across the America.
- “Mississippi Goddam” by Nina Simone. Written in 1963 by Nina Simone in response to the assassination of Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist who fought to end segregation at the University of Mississippi, “Mississippi Goddam” is a song damning the racist actions of the Deep South.
Jan 23, 2021 · H.E.R., Leon Bridges, Dolly Parton, and more have perfected the best protest songs, running the gamut from worker's rights to racial injustice.
Dec 7, 2020 · 2020 was defined by the sounds of rage, resolve, mourning and solidarity. Here are 20 songs and albums that represent the best protest music of the year.
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- Radiohead – Idioteque (2000) Radiohead - Idioteque (Oficial video HD) Subs Español. In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change issued its third report and came to the conclusion: "There is new and stronger evidence that most of the [global] warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities".
- Pixies - Monkey Gone To Heaven (1989) Pixies - Monkey Gone To Heaven (Official Video) One of the more oblique protest songs on the list, Black Francis ponders the destruction of the ozone layer and the oncoming environmental apocalypse in terms of the Old Testament "numbers" for Man, God and the Devil.
- Rage Against The Machine – Killing In The Name (1992) Rage Against The Machine - Killing In the Name. Rodney King was savagely beaten by members of the Los Angeles police in March 1991, and the whole incident was caught on camera.
- Green Day - American Idiot (2004) Green Day - American Idiot [OFFICIAL VIDEO] The title track of Green Day’s 2004 album was o riginally written as a response to US President George W Bush and the war in Iraq that came out of the September 11 attacks.
May 1, 2024 · The best protest songs take on the political issues of their day but also transcend their eras to speak to future generations.
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Feb 25, 2021 · From the days of slavery through the Civil Rights Era to the BLM movement, Black music has emboldened American protests with songs so intertwined with events that they've become part of the...
