Protest song

A protest song is a kind of folk music (or, more recently, pop-influenced folk music). They become popular during times of social disruption and among socially neglected groups. They rail against injustice, racial discrimination, war, globalization, inflation, social inequalities and the like. Folk songs occur throughout history, as in the American Revolutionary War and the abolitionist movement of the 1800s. In the 20th Century, the union movement, the Great Depression and the Vietnam War were the primary stimuli for protest songs. The common form, with acoustic guitar and harmonica, was popularized by the work of Woody Guthrie during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. Protest music can also be traced back to the Civil War, where traditional songs such as 'We Shall Overcome' prevailed and succeeded as true protest songs.

Protest songs regarding unions and labor

• "This Land is Your Land" Woody Guthrie
• "Union Maid" Woody Guthrie
• "Dump the Bosses" John Brill
• "Sixteen Tons" Tennesee Ernie Ford
• "Casey Jones - The Union Scab" Joe Hill
• "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" Harry McClintock
• "Part Of The Union" The Strawbs
• "The Union Scab" Joe Hill
• "Allentown" Billy Joel
• "Hard Times Come Again No More"
• "The Union Train"
• "Struggle In The West"
• "Roll the Union On"
• "Shearing In The Bar"
• "Which Side Are You On?"
• "Solidarity Forever"
• "Shores of Botany Bay"
• "Peg and Awl"
• "Why Paddy's Not At Work Today"
• "James Connolly"
• "The Diggers Song"

Protest songs concerning racism, apartheid and civil rights

• "All My Trials" Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary et al.
• "Can Blue Men sing the Whites?" Bonzo Dog Band
• "Society's Child" Janis Ian
• "Hurricane" Bob Dylan
• "Dance Stance" Dexy's Midnight Runners
• "Jimmy Sharman's Boxers" Midnight Oil
• "7 o'Clock News/Silent Night" Simon and Garfunkel
• "So Strong" Labi Siffre
• "If I had a Hammer" Pete Seeger
• "Blackheart Man" Bunny Wailer
• "Too Many Martyrs" Phil Ochs
• "Trouble Comin' Every Day" Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
• "Biko" Peter Gabriel
• "Free Nelson Mandela" The Specials
• "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" Bob Dylan
• "Sun City" Artists Against Apartheid

Protest songs concerning war

• "I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier" Morton Harvey
• "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" Bruce Cockburn
• "In a World Gone Mad" The Beastie Boys
• "The Unknown Soldier" The Doors
• "Imagine" John Lennon
• "Peace" Los Lobos
• "Army Man in Vietnam" Big Joe Williams
• "War" Bob Marley & the Wailers
• "We gotta have Peace" Curtis Mayfield
• "I Ain't Marching Any More" Phil Ochs
• "War" Edwin Starr
• "Fighting for Strangers" Steeleye Span
• "Cops of the World" Phil Ochs
• The Electric Spanking of War Babies (album) Funkadelic
• "Born in the U.S.A." Bruce Springsteen
• "Buffalo Solider" Bob Marley & the Wailers
• "I Shot the Sheriff" Bob Marley & the Wailers
• "We Shall Overcome" Traditional
• "Eve of Destruction" Barry McGuire
• "123 What are we fighting for?" Country Joe and the Fish
• "Sam Stone" John Prine
• "Peat Bog Soldiers"
• "Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town" Kenny Rogers
• "My Generation" The Who
• "Fortunate Son" Creedence Clearwater Revival
• "Desolation Row" Bob Dylan
• "Today I Killed a Man" P. J. Proby
• "Blowin' in the Wind" Bob Dylan
• "Charlie on the MTA" The Kingston Trio
• "Turn, Turn, Turn" Pete Seeger
• "Heroes" David Bowie
• "Signs" The Five Man Electrical Band
• "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" The Kingston Trio
• "What's Goin' On" Marvin Gaye
• "For What It's Worth" Buffalo Springfield
• "The "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die" Rag" Country Joe and the Fish
• "Chicago" Graham Nash
• "Ohio" Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young-about The Kent State massacre
• "Bring the Boys Home" Freda Payne
• "War" Edwin Starr
• "What's That I Hear" Phil Ochs
• "Ball Of Confusion" The Temptations
• "Abraham, Martin and John" Dion
• "Universal Soldier" Donovan
• "Dover Beach" The Fugs
• "Dialogue" Chicago
• "One Tin Soldier (The Legend of Billy Jack)" Coven
• "Masters of War" Bob Dylan
• "Run Through the Jungle" Creedence Clearwater Revival
• "People Gotta Be Free" The Young Rascals
• "Sky Pilot" Eric Burdon
• "Turn Turn Turn" The Byrds
• "Alice's Restaurant" Arlo Guthrie
• "Revolution" The Beatles
• "The Times They Are A-Changin'" Bob Dylan
• "All Along the Watchtower" Jimi Hendrix
• "Freedom" Richie Havens
• "Handsome Johnny" Richie Havens
• "Tape From California" Phil Ochs
• "My War" Black Flag

Protest songs concerning nuclear weapons

• "We Will All Go Together When We Go" Tom Lehrer
• "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" Bob Dylan
• "Wooden Ships" Crosby Stills and Nash
• "Nagasaki Nightmare" Crass
• "Redemption Song" Bob Marley & the Wailers
• "99 Luftballoons" Nena
• "Pride of Man" Quicksilver Messenger Service
• "Put Down That Weapon" Midnight Oil
• "Stand or Fall" The Fixx
• "Russians" Sting
• "Two Suns in the Sunset" Pink Floyd

Protest songs concerning politicians or world leaders

• "The Ballad of Ronald Reagan" The Austin Lounge Lizards

Protest songs against police or authority

• "Cop Killer" by Ice-T
• "I Fought the Law" by Bobby Fuller Four

Protest songs concerning poverty

• "In the Ghetto" Elvis Presley
• "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)" Bob Marley & the Wailers
• "Cloud Nine" The Temptations
• "Freddie's Dead" Curtis Mayfield
• "The Message" Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
• "Electric Avenue" Eddie Grant

Protest songs concerning alienation

• "Beautiful People" Melanie
• "The Sound of Silence" Simon and Garfunkel
• "I am a Rock" Simon and Garfunkel
• "The Boxer" Simon and Garfunkel
• "At Seventeen" Janis Ian
• "What the World Needs Now" Dionne Warwick
• "Rocky Top"

Protest songs concerning governments and imperialism

• "God Save the Queen" The Sex Pistols
• "Revolution" Bob Marley & the Wailers
• "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" Paul McCartney
• "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" U2

Protest songs concerning feminism

• "Woman is the Nigger of the World" John Lennon
• "I am Woman" Helen Reddy
• "Only Women Bleed" Alice Cooper
• "Better Man" Pearl Jam

Protest songs concerning environmentalism

• "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" Marvin Gaye
• "The Days of Pearly Spencer" David McWilliams
• "Crazy Horses" The Osmonds
• "Damn this Traffic Jam" James Taylor

Protest songs concerning prohibition and the War on Drugs

• "The Pusher" Steppenwolf
• "Illegal Smile" John Prine
• "Sam Stone" John Prine
• "Legalize It" Peter Tosh
• "Burn One Down" Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
• "Smoke Two Joints" Sublime
• "Police in Helicopter" John Holt
• "Coming into Los Angelese" Arlo Guthrie
• "Henry" New Riders of the Purple Sage

Protest songs concerning heroin, drug abuse, and drug culture

• "Kicks", Paul Revere & The Raiders
• "The Needle and the Damage Done" Neil Young
• "Straight Edge" Minor Threat
• "Cocaine" Jackson Browne

Protest songs concerning globalization and corporate dominance

• "Radio, Radio" Elvis Costello & the Attractions
• "Panic" The Smiths
• "Californication" Red Hot Chili Peppers
• "Throw Away Your Television" Red Hot Chili Peppers
• "We love the Pirate Stations" reportedly The Rocking Berries although credited to 'The Roaring Sixties' to distance themselves from the campaign to save offshore radio around the UK.
• "Won't Get Fooled Again" The Who

Protest songs concerning guns and violence

• "If It Were Up to Me" Cheryl Wheeler
• "Saturday Night Special" Lynyrd Skynyrd
• "Zombie" The Cranberries [1]

Protest songs concerning materialism

• "My Pink Half of the Drainpipe" Bonzo Dog Band
• "Well Respected Man" The Kinks
• "Pleasant Valley Sunday" The Monkees
• "Little Boxes"
• "Rockin' in the Free World" Neil Young
• "Where Do the Children Play" Cat Stevens

Protest songs concerning slavery

• "Redemption Song" Bob Marley
• "Mister Charlie" Robert Hunter/Grateful Dead

Protest songs concerning the persecution of homosexuals

• "Fuck Aneta Briant" (sic) David Allen Coe

  (Presumably, the spelling of Anita Bryant's name was altered to avoid slander charges.)

Protest songs concerning the days of the week

• "Gloomy Sunday"
• "I don't like Mondays" Bob Geldof

Protest songs concerning television

• "I Am the Slime" Frank Zappa
• "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles

Protest songs concerning music critics and the music industry

• "Jimmy Buffett Doesn't Live in Key West Anymore" David Allen Coe
• "Jules and Jim" Pete Townshend

Protest songs concerning meat consumption

• "Meat is Murder" The Smiths

Other protest songs

• "One in a Million" Guns N' Roses
• "Losing My Religion" R.E.M.
• "Excuse Me Mister" Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
• "Maggie Out!" Anonymous
• "Aenima" Tool
• "Rain on the Scarecrow" John Cougar Mellencamp
• "The River" Bruce Springsteen
• "Industrial Disease" Dire Straits
• "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" Frank Zappa
• "The Cutty Wren"

Main protest song artists

• Joan Baez
• Donovan
• Bob Dylan
• Woody Guthrie
• Joe Hill, see Industrial Workers of the World
• Burl Ives
• The Clash
• Billy Bragg
• Wilco
• Tom Lehrer
• Bob Marley
• Phil Ochs
• Pete Seeger
• Peter Tosh
• Public Enemy
• NWA