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?
Lindsay Ellis did a great video essay on why protest songs in the early 2000s were so different from the protests of the 60s and 70s. In my opinion, American culture hasn’t shifted to make her points less valid today.
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Is there a text abstract of her thesis somewhere?
The too long, didn’t watch version:
Americans, particularly the right-wing, took 9/11 very seriously- to the point that anyone who was against war/American military expansionism in general and Iraq/Afghanistan in particular, were branded as equivalent to the terrorists who flew the planes.
The rise of flag-waving bro-country America uber alles nationalism which more or less flooded the airwaves.
The difference in the origin of the conflict. Even though both conflicts had a sense of “doing one’s patriotic duty” and a pervasive view that opposition to military intervention was unAmerican, the fact that the public had a clear perception (accurate or not) as to why we intervened in the Middle East meant that opposing views had a harder time getting mainstream traction. By contrast, no one knew why America was in Vietnam- so even though you were expected to “support the troops” and go if you got drafted, war opponents could safely point to the muddy origins as a solid basis for their views.
Finally, the widespread nihilism among GenX and Millenials. Everything sucks, nothing is going to get better, so just fuck it all.
Smash all of that together, and what you’re left with is a music scene that’s full of either “If you don’t literally fuck this flag right now you’re a dirty Muslim terrorist!” or milquetoast “Hey W sucks and war is bad but the troops are kinda okay we guess”
Until, of course, Green Day.
Thanks. Very interesting. I’m not sure I see such a stark contrast pre/post 9-11. However, the idea that the US public’s approach to the post-9-11 conflict would have an influence makes sense and isn’t something I’d ever have considered on my own.
Much appreciated! I often have less trouble maintaining attention on text as opposed to video. That thesis seems well in-line with my experience, coming to socio-political consciousness at that time. I’d also hope that mass consolation of mainstream media played into that video essay as, to me, that is one of the central root causes - the songs were and are still being written but, they are intentionally not allowed air time through both insufficiency in payola regulation and enforcement, and top-down editorial power.
Yeah, I’m curious but not 37 minutes curious.
Came here to link this! Definitely worth watching, OP!