The Times They Are a-Changin’

There was once a time where music was greater than itself, where songs were a vessel for a larger message – a brave challenge to the problems of the world and a way to empower those without a voice. The protest song is a dying breed, in a time where social and economic issues are more prominent than ever. You only need to travel so far through history to see the diverse heritage of political music, and the impacts these songs had on the world.

In 1964, Sam Cooke’s ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ became an anthem for the American Civil Rights Movement, written after Cooke’s run in with police after being turned down from a ‘whites only’ motel in 1963. Having heard Bob Dylan’s iconic ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’, Cooke was inspired to make his own contribution to a growing body of music centred around an increasing contempt for racism and discrimination in the U.S amongst black communities. In 1989, NWA’s infamous ‘Fuck Tha Police’ was released drawing attention to the racial tensions brewing amongst inner city urban youths and the police once again, while in the same year Public Enemy’s ‘Fight The Power’ became the anthem for a marginalised youth at a pivotal time in America’s modern history.

Widely regarded as one of the most influential songs of the 21^st Century, the smash-hit single brought the media’s attention to the inner-city communities tackling crack problems, growing AIDS concerns and seemingly never-ending racial divides. Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Killing In the Name’ (1992) was one of many songs adding to the rich tapestry of politically charged anthems contesting those holding power, and even at the turn of the century Bruce Springsteen’s ‘American Skin (41 Shots)’ stirred up further controversy following the killing of unarmed Guinea migrant Amadou Diallo, when four New York City Police officers fired a combined total of 41 shots against a young man working to make the money for college education.

In the words of Tom Morello at one Occupy Wall Street protest, ‘every successful movement has a soundtrack’.

While many musicians in the present day continue to write similar content with a strong focus on pressing political issues, these songs never quite seem to reach the heights set by the protest songs of the past, where revolutionary ideals penetrated pop-culture and challenged the established social order through art. Perhaps the dilution of the music industry through the rise of online file-sharing and streaming sites has created a stage far too large for the voices of discontent to be heard, instead confining the appeal of such songs to the respective niche audiences they stem from. Or perhaps due to the wide range of challenges we face it is simply too difficult to write with such universal appeal as to attract the attention needed to propel modern protest music to the masses.

Whatever the case may be, we are living in an age where the issues threatening societies are now truly global in scale. The vulnerability of the worldwide economy is pushing us into conditions not seen since the Great Depression, while we continue to strive for growth and economic development at the expense of everything we should hold dear. As the human population continues to grow and we continue to live beyond our own means, governments seem to be shortsighted to the point of delusion in the issues they choose to face and the pursuits they blindly follow. However, while it may seem easy to shake our heads at the dull future that has set before us and accept the constant mind-numbing reminder that ‘it’s just the way things are’, we must do the very opposite. Perhaps the greatest challenge our modern society faces is the growing apathy towards the issues around us, and the idleness to not challenge these problems and offer positive solutions to them. To accept hopelessness is to fulfill the role we have been prescribed by those in power, and feed the divide between the voice of the common people and those who represent us. But there is one voice which has always dared to defy such convention – the voice of the protest song. In the words of Tom Morello at one Occupy Wall Street protest, ‘every successful movement has a soundtrack’. With a growing awareness of the flawed systems that claim to operate to our benefit without consideration of our own best interests, it is only a matter of time until we find our own.