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Protest Songs: why do I feel like there were many more (and many more that were popular) in the 60’s and 70’s? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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I’m a guy approaching 60, so I’ll start by saying my perception may be wrong. That could be because the protest songs from the late 60’s and early 70’s weren’t the songs I heard live on the radio but because they were the successful ones that got replayed. More likely, it’s because music is much more fractured than what I was exposed to on the radio growing up. Thus, today, I’m simply not exposed to the same type of protest songs that still exist.

Whatever the reason, I feel that the zeitgeist of protest music is very different from the first decade of my life compared to the last.

I’m curious to know why. My conspiratorial thoughts say that it’s down to the money behind music promotion being very different over those intervening decades, but I suspect it’s much more nuanced.

So, why are there fewer protest songs? Alternatively, why I am not aware of recent ones?

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[–] 9 points 2 years ago

Unfortunately, protest songs could absolutely be commercialised.

While not exactly protest songs, the grunge movement of the 90s was a reaction to what was seen as shallow, packaged pop music of the late 80s.

Once their snouts smelled profit, the usual middlemen rushed in to wrap that discontent in plastic and sell it to kids at Walmart, chewing up musicians along the way.

I think it's simply that protest songs are more difficult to wring profit from compared to creating pop music using the formula that sold the most last time.

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