Are there any good protest songs from the past few years?

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I was thinking about how Bruce Springsteen is the only artist I know of who has written a protest song lately and I was wondering if anyone else had any good recommendations since… 2016 or so.

Edit: so many great recommendations! Thank you all!

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Just about any song by Jesse Welles these days…

A few examples:

War isn’t murder, Red, Join Ice, The Poor

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Came to say this, upvoted.

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“CEOs come and go and one just went”

Referring to the United healthcare CEO in the song United Health.

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He had kind of a shit take after Kirk got murked tbh

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Jesse Welles, newer folky protest singer with early Bob Dylan/Arlo Guthrie vibes

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I was going to share Jesse’s music. I second this recommendation.

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I’m liking him a lot.

Back in the Vietnam days, it took a while for protest songs to get written, recorded, released, sold, and finally listened to by the target audience. That could take months.

But today, a songwriter can compose a response to an atrocity that day, and instantly release it on numerous platforms, and be part of the actual conversation.

Now we just need more good protest songwriters.

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Check out Jesse Wells

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Bruce Springsteen put out this like 2 or 3 days after Pretti died

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I don’t know, but Green Day and Rise Against are two bands I like that do political music and both are still active.

Maybe subconsciously that’s one reason I like Japanese rock; it doesn’t feel as influenced by current events as western music does.

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Rise Against - Megaphone (2018)
Rise Against - The Numbers (2021)
Rise Against - The Answer (2022)
Macklemore - fucked up (2025)
Carsie Blanton - Ugly Nasty Commie Bitch (2024)
Sorry that these are all YT links.

Clearly I’m a RA fanboy, but I look at the state of the world and I hear their songs, and they’re the same picture. I can’t ignore their music.

(ehem..except for the new Ricochet album with its questionable production decisions)

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While it came out 22 years ago, State of the Union still feels like it could have been written for now.

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Prayer of the refugee holds a special place in my heart.

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Carsie’s newest album with the burning hell is great.

https://youtu.be/ZhCi_AssQMg

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Grandson’s entire catalog is riddled with protest songs but the latest album leaned into it fully for better or worse.

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I came to make sure grandson was mentioned. Their Soundcloud tagline is something like “the soundtrack to your revolution”.

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I was hoping you were just a very supportive grandma tbh

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He/Him

Not exactly what you asked, but I think it’s important to note how old protest songs are still so relevant. I listen to a lot of 1980s music (in fact, presently playing my 80s playlist, just went from Tiffany to Belinda Carlisle) and older music.

Listen to the 1971 song Won’t Get Fooled Again by British band The Who. I’m sure most of you have heard it. Listen to what he said 55 years ago and imagine it was written this year, and see how relevant it is.

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Agree on old songs still having power in this context. Doesn’t feel old to me, Soup is Good Food by Dead Kennedys may as well have come out in 2025 instead of 1985.

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Meet the new boss

Same as the old boss

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King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Planet B

Lyrics:

[Verse 1]
Open your eyes and light the fluid
Get into it, petrol siphon
Low on meals, browning fields
Bury children

[Chorus 1]
Urbanization
Scarification
Population exodus
There is no Planet B
Open your eyes and see
[Guitar Solo]

[Verse 2]
Open your eyes and shoot the dingo
While this shit goes out the window
Multi-factions
Rusting tractors
Dying hero

[Chorus 2]
Only way through is colonization
Acclimatization
Population exodus
Monetization
Civilization
The operation has begun
There is no Planet B

[Bridge]
Patient seasons
Blacked out for ages
Dreaming of cake
Snowflakes blanket
Old deserts
Outskirts disperse
Earth is a blank verse
Last hearse
Dry nurse
(Oh!)

[Refrain]
Open your eyes and see
There is no Planet B
There is no Planet B
There is no Planet B
There is no Planet B
There is no Planet B
There is no Planet B
There is no Planet B
There is no Planet B
Open your eyes and see

[Outro]
Sinners are grinners, ear to ear
Baby Jesus sheds a tear

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Ministry’s "Goddamn White Trash"

“Indoctrinated, the facts are ignored

Manipulated into civil war.”

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Dropkick Murphy just wrote one right?

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OP

Thanks for the recc! Just looked it up; link for anyone interested:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mSrDkRm7_78

Citizen I.C.E.

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Billy bragg has a great song about the twin cities. It’s a spin on that “first they came for” poem, but instead of the “and i said nothing because…” bit it has “so I got in their face!”

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Pretty much the entire will of the people album by Muse: https://youtu.be/tCiDblgUNEA

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Check out the band Moon Walker. Monopoly Money, You’re Next, Ban this Song, Apocalypticysm, probably all of it.

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願榮光歸香港 (Glory to Hong Kong) Protest Song during 2019 Hong Kong Protests…

(And… of course Youtube now age-restricts this video… was fine for the past 7 years… wtf)

Here’s someone’s reupload: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe1gTPcWyds

The original lyrics in Cantonese are lit, the English version doesn’t even feel the same

This song is illegal in anywhere under PRC control, but I’m lucky to have to privilage to sing this as an Overseas Chinese

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Joe Purdy s album Who Will Be Next. Came out in 2016, addresses white privlage, gun violence, general spiral into madness of the nation. A jem of songwriting simplicity.

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Earth to Eve -Threat Level Orange

FUCK ice - chrissa sparkles

Control alt-right delete - the briggs

Who would Jesus bomb - Jordan smart

Christo-fascists - art bergmann

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1LSun9sx5j40WOV9jzcCbi?pi=BKWdubu9Q12h7

Lots of anti trump playlists on Spotify and deezer

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They/She/It(Uppercase)

A Sound Of Thunder - Els Segadors is a metal cover of the Catalonian national anthem. Catalonia was anarcho-communist during the Spanish civil war, but was defeated because the liberals betrayed them. The cover was played at the independence protests in 2018, I think

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Run The Jewels & Greg Nice - Ooh Lah Lah

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Kingslayer, 2020 might fit your question. Not sure exactly how articulate it is, but it is fucking angry and beautiful. And loud. Like, I’m literally not sure, because it’s part Japanese.

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Not sure if it’d be your thing I like some Nascar Aloe stuff. His stuff is pretty out there. Loud, distorted and glitchy. He’s the only more recent artist I can think of that is brutally outspoken on some of this stuff that I actually listen to.

I Throw A Fit

Move To America

Revolt

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No Place Like Home from Wicked: For Good

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They haven’t been active for awhile now (early 2010s I think), but if you like hip hop check out Blue Scholars.

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Minnesota Nazis!

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singing resistance has a collection

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Their old stuff is much better but one that came out last week: Enter Shikari - Find Out the Hard Way…

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