One really simple answer: people of popular-music-making age in the ‘60s and ‘70s were worried about getting drafted into a useless war. Sure we have plenty to be upset about, but the visceral threat of you or those you care about getting shipped off to ‘Nam was fertile ground for protest songs to become a major chunk of that era’s pop music.
this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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A lot of that energy has gone to rap/hip hop. Listen to NWA.
NWA was 87-91, over 30 years ago at this point. The gap between I feel like I'm fixing to die by Country Joe and Fuck the Police by NWA is smaller than the gap between Fuck the Police and today
Probably because you're not listening to rap/hip-hop.
Essentially popular music is made via assembly lines owned by manufacturers now.
- People churn out beats.
- Other people lay down gibberish lyrics to set a melody to the best from step 1.
- The best from step 2 get, writers, actual lyrics and an artist.
- Artist records
- Engineers heavily rework the recorded vocals
The companies that run these assembly lines aren’t going to rock the boat like that. Writers that neither made the music nor will have any part of recording or performing are making a product. It’s not a passion project, so they aren’t going to write protest lyrics either. In the 60s and 70s, there was a lot of popular music that really was made by individual artists and bands.
Today, there is plenty of protest music. It’s just not popular music because it doesn’t have as much industry backing.
There is still tons of protest music out there and I'll list some at the bottom. It might be the music you listen to and are exposed to might not be as angry at the man because as you become older you become the man, man. Also the shift to streaming has allowed 1000 flowers to bloom and it's hard to see them all especially if you haven't looked at genres like rap and metal that didn't get big till the 80s
No man is without fear - fit for an autopsy Constitutional - job for a cowboy Every song by arcania Wage slaves - all shall perish Genocide - suicide silence
I'm guessing but maybe music was less industrialised 50 years ago.
My understanding is that a lot of money goes into producing the music we hear on popular media.
Protest songs can't be commercialised.
Definitely not fewer protest songs. Lots of “new” protest genres exist now (punk, rock, rap, hiphop, reggae, still folk, etc.). Radio and television are way less relevant for reaching « protest » audiences (generally younger). Without the risk of conscription into a foreign war, the anti classist/racist/authoritarian protest likely sounds different.
The times, they are a-changing(but not much)