WEEK 2 - protest genre research

PROTEST SONG GENRE RESEARCH

HISTORY

Protest songs are created to criticize and address controversial issues often relating to current political affairs.

The earliest known use of protest songs was during Revolutionary war in America in which these songs were created to mock their opponents – such as ‘Yankee Doodle’.

 After the war most protest songs were written by slaves in the United States as a way of self-expression as well as hiding code for escape; one of the most famous examples was when Harriet Tubman sang ‘Go Down Moses’ as a coded message in her Underground Railroad Missions.

EARLY 20^TH CENTURY

During the beginning of the 20^th century, anti-war songs become popularized with World War I and II. One of the earliest known anti-war song was ‘I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier’ which highlights the devastation of war. During this era, music also advanced with technology letting protest songs become more complex and artistic. In 1939, Billie Holiday released ‘Strange Fruit’ which reflected on racial injustice in America.

The attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II also sent a shift in the genre; in 1942, the National Wartime Music Committee in America was created to give the government greater control of music contents and thus focused of finding music to boost morale.

1950’S – 1960’S CIVIL RIGHTS

During the 1950’s and 60’s African American artists (such as Sam Cooke, Nina Simone and James Brown) were more vocal and used their music to voice black pride and the racial injustice. This coincided with the Civil Rights Movement.

1960’S – 1970’S

During this era, protest songs were more frequently seen to cover the controversy of the Vietnam war. This led to more artists influencing the genre and using their own styles to create political songs. some noticeable example is how Bob Dylan used his folk styled songs to translate his activist views and John Lennon’s ‘imagine’ promoting world peace.

1980’S-2000’S

A new form of protest music emerged from rap and punk music which dominated the scene during these decades; N.W.A and the Clash were considerable contributors with their anti-establishment songs and bands like Rage Against the Machine and Public Enemy gave voices to young activists.

The controversial presidency of Bush also inspired some of the decades biggest protest songs, such as ‘Mosh’ by Eminem. This track was released to discourage people voting George Bush back into presidency.

2010’S - ONWARDS

After the political unrest of the previous years, protest songs fell out of fashion due to a lull in controversy. However, in recent the genre has been revived rising tension with political affairs and controversial topics.