I feel global political oppression or global wars usually produce great music but Macklemore might be the peak.
Nothing against him, some of his songs are good, but I expected real rage inducing stuff with everything going on. Or is this just the state of music as a whole?
I listen to a lot of weird punk and am not particularly good at knowing what’s popular, but I’d guess Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino and/or Run the Jewels?
RTJ is so fucking good at bringing that class conscious fire in the belly that RATM did. To be honest though, I think acts like Brass Against are keeping the music and the message alive and deserve a lot more visibility.
Brass against is so much fun!
(Admittedly, I have a soft spot for brass acts like March Fourth n Too Many Zoos.)
Fully agree, RTJ is probably the closest in terms of RATM fire but sadly generally figure them as the least popular of the three? (Though I am ignorant as hell about what’s popular)
I hadn’t heard of those two, loving them both already! I love brass mixed into other music but I’ve never been much of a ska fan, which is the first place you usually expect to get that. It’s hard to know where to look and I’m always delighted to find it.
Stuff like Gwar’s Saddam A-Go-Go (even when Brockie was poking fun at ska he did it well) and N.A.S.A.'s Spacious Thoughts where the brass takes an already heavy sound and makes it soar - it gives me life every time.
Haven’t heard Spacious Thoughts, sounds like a fun time, I’ll blare some while working today!
Oddly, I dug ska growing up but my more recent delve into brass bands are no doubt the result of my buddy watching Treme and getting really into New Orleans brass! So, if you’re looking for more, for me that was a great jumping off point to the likes of the Dirty Dozen Brass band and the Rebirth Brass band.
It’s just one track from an otherwise great album. Still can’t recommend it enough - it’s a Kool Keith and Tom Waits collab.
Hadn’t heard ol Tom Waits in forever, that was great! Thanks!
😁
It’s king gizzard y’all sleeping
They’re basically the Pink Floyd of our generation. Too bad they’ll never have the same reach as PF or older bands due to the heavy current cultural fragmentation.
The algorithm won’t boost anything trying to rage against the machine. Gotta make generic bullshit to get clicks. Only way to make money these days is to get clicks
The “algorithm” is not some conspiranoic mastermind, it just serves whatever retains the most attention and generates clicks for advertisers. It’s users who don’t want to listen to <insert your favorite rebel> because they prefer bland pop or whatever kids listen to these days.
Algorithms are definitely biased to push whatever agenda they want.
That’s what I said. The agenda they want just happens to be “money”, not whatever political conspiracy every political group comes up with.
Jesus Christ you people will bitch about anything.
Please explain to me how an algorithm is worse than having to bribe execs to get on the radio and wait for the song to be played. And then if lucky it’ll get played 40 times in repeat.
I’m sure this will be a coherent answer 🙄.
It doesn’t if you don’t use services and algorithyms… But damn crap like Spotify is popular. I would never, but it’s like they hand it out when you turn 5 and say this is the default!
Good protest music is coming out now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZYB5v69n7w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpNDaMc02Eg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlIREcAu0PI
More mainstream artists like Macklemore, Bob Vylan, Kneecap are also out there fighting the good fight.
Check out Jesse Welles for more folky protest music.
He also has non-protest music too, but some good recent protest and political songs include:
Love this!
RTJ?
RTJ4 coming out right when the pandemic and George Floyd being murdered was magical. That album is straight gas. Saying this as a 48 year old white dude.
And then the tour getting cancelled for COVID and then Zack fucking his ankle was a real bummer.
Kneecap
Bob Vylan
Both got in trouble for speaking out about the Palestinian genocide.
100% agree with you.
100 Gecs maybe? Great as they are, I doubt it tbh. This gen is spoiled with choice more so than any before them (those lucky ducks). The internet-boom turned this game right on it’s side and media companies are still trying to figure out how to get back to business as usual. Sure, they’ve got their superstar acts like Swift and Lamar, but even those two huge names are vocal about rejecting that same old order in a way that just wasn’t feasible for similar acts a couple decades ago.
I think trying to find one singular act like your Nirvanas or Madonnas of the past just isn’t going to work from now on. These days, tastes and takes are just too splintered to reach a satisfying consensus on something like this.
I’ve had this conversation with one of my older friends. We used to have a lot more of a monoculture when it came to media. You could joke about last night’s popular TV shows because nearly everyone you knew was watching them.
There just wasn’t as much stuff being produced at the time. Now, you can always be listening to something new, 24/7, and you still won’t even begin to tap the potential of “what’s popular”. And once you step outside the US, that blows up to a whole new proportion.
IDLES
I dont think there is one. Many listening to so many artists.
But naethan apollo is one of my favorits!
Reading all of this and not seeing Visgra Boys or Mannequin Pussy is weird. Shout out to Lamborghini Girls too.
I’m 40 so idk what the kids like.
They’re not so prolific or relevant now but I feel Rise Against deserves a mention. I did my senior essay on their work in high school and honestly it changed a lot of my political opinions doing research/listening for that.
I almost forgot, rise against and Tom Morello did this song live together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5hLetyUToI
Sharptooth has some lovely rage and very political lyrcis. They might fit this question. Then again they aren’t super popular
It’s hard for me to think of one as many artists may come out with a couple political songs, but it isn’t necessarily their whole discography.
Macklemore and Childish Gambino come to mind for me as both have had political songs and somewhat politically active.
Grandson has some pretty good ones
