This year, revolution is in the air. It is on the streets of Tunis and Cairo, in Tripoli, Athens and Madison. It is in hearts and minds, on the airwaves and TV channels, on the page, online and on protest signs. And it is on car stereos, CD players, mobile phones and I-Pods.
With so much change going on in the world lately, I decided to ask some of our writers to provide a soundtrack to revolution, protest and social change. From classic soul to riot grrl punk, each writer responded with a unique take on the idea of protest music. I suggest you hunt these songs down, crank the volume up, and get moving.
Sarah Jaffe
Bikini Kill – “Rebel Girl”
Sarah says:
Music IS my revolution. It’s not my revolution if I can’t dance to it, as my arm tattoo says (and Emma Goldman sort of said). I have two playlists, one titled “Solidarity Mother****ers” and one titled “Songs for Revolution” that I’ve been spinning heavily for just these sorts of things, but my absolute favorite is probably Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl.” Which is less about revolution (grrl style now) than that one girl whom you’d follow into any battle, but its drums are killer and “When she talks, I hear the revolution/in her hips, there’s revolution/when she walks, I see revolution coming/in her kiss, I taste that revolution!”
Emily Manuel
Sticky featuring Ms. Dynamite – “Boo!”
Emily says:
When I think about protest, I think most of all the bass music of London’s underground of the last 20 years, which is less linguistically linked than sonically to social change. In this all-out bass assault of a tune, Producer Sticky lays down heavy sub basslines and swung 2-step beats, while MC Ms. Dynamite lets loose a fiery storm of dancehall chat that is far better than her later Lauryn Hill aping “conscious” material. When she chats the lead-up to the chorus “dibby-dee the Dynamitee/get the people them a lively” you feel her calling out to the “massive,” the people. You know the place is about to explode, and then the bass just DROPS. That movement of pause, collectivity and then chaos and movement feels like the revolutionary moment to me.
Kristin Rawls
Billy Bragg and Wilco – Mermaid Avenue (album)
Kristin says:
Woody Guthrie’s living family members hired Bragg and Wilco to set some of his poetry to music. Popular mythology portrays Guthrie as such a quaint peacenik that it’s easy to forget what a radical activist he was. But the lyrics that Bragg and Wilco set to music here are filled with condemnation of global inequality and–in very explicit terms–capitalism. His support for workers’ movements and union rights is surprisingly trenchant in contemporary politics. And the musicians add such an upbeat sound that it’s hard to listen without feeling inspired to go out and protest. On a less serious note, folkie Todd Snider’s track, “Conservative Christian Right Wing Republican Straight White American Males” is pure comedic genius.
Erik Loomis
Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On? (album)
Erik says:
Arguably the greatest album of all time and certainly the greatest political album, Gaye doesn’t offer ideology but rather expresses the joys of positive change and frustration that change happens so slowly. What’s more, he had to fight to get the album made against a skittish record company afraid of ruffling feathers. The beauty of the music and the inclusive nature of Gaye’s lyrics created an album that tapped into the zeitgeist of 1971 and created songs we remember today. What’s Going On? is a great example of how political music can bring us together.
Mark Farnsworth
Boogie Down Productions – By All Means Necessary (album)
Mark says:
From the Malcolm X pose on the cover to the genius embedded in the vinyl what better tribute could KRS-One have paid to his murdered friend DJ Scott La Rock? If only rappers still had monikers like Knowledge Reigns Supreme the world would be a better place. With this album rap truly was the “Black CNN”.
Sady Doyle
P.J Harvey – “Sheela-na-Gig,” “50ft Queenie,” “Dry.”
Sady says:
I get more out of early PJ Harvey albums than I do out of music that’s specifically intended to motivate protest; with that sort of music, I tend to feel preached at. Harvey has so much fire and bravery and confidence as a performer, and her early music is simultaneously super-confrontational and introspective, and she has a vicious sense of humor. It’s inspirational, in that you want to be as cool as she is, but it’s not pushing you to any conclusions. So it gives you the energy you’re looking for, or the attitude, but it doesn’t tell you what to do next.
“Sheela-na-Gig” is a pretty tremendous song; a man tells PJ her body disgusts him, and she responds by listing all of the various things that are awesome about it, quoting “South Pacific,” and generally just writing an awesome, hilarious song about what a jerk he is and how much better off she’ll be once she “takes her hips to a man who cares.” As far as sheer lady-rage, I don’t think you get much better than “50ft Queenie,” which is about growing to tremendous heights, going on a rampage, and inviting the world to behold your mighty 50-inch clitoris. And “Dry,” which is about telling a vain, narcissistic lover that he has disappointed your vagina, is pretty tremendous, too. (Harvey writes a lot about anatomy; her first two albums, particularly, had a startlingly high rate of genital references per song.) Her new album, Let England Shake, isn’t as fiery or confrontational as her previous work, but it’s about war and its costs, and I appreciate the way she handles that, by focusing on the bravery and the passion it takes to fight, and also on the inevitable waste and death and chaos that is the consequence of fighting. If you fight at all in your own life, or have any sort of crusade, remembering that fighting always has large and often unintended consequences is important. And a lot of the lyrics are eerily apropos, given that we seem to be living in a time of protest, revolt, and revolution.
Image of G–20 protester in Toronto, by Loozrboy and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
