SONGS ABOUT SOCIAL CHANGE
Rather than use my oppressive authority to brutalize your choices for Songs About Social Change, we will be taking the peaceful route and holding hands while singing “Kumbaya” and discussing the value and worth of each one of your songs. Finding the value and worth of some of these songs as social change anthems was much harder for some than others, but I digress. Shout out to Museum Matt for tag teaming the descriptions. Read along as we take you on a ride through history, looking at some of the most impactful songs about social change, protest, fighting injustice, and standing up for what is right.
We Shall Overcome - Pete Seeger (1901 - “I’ll Be Alright Someday”)
"We Shall Overcome" started it's life in the US but has been sung in North Korea, Beirut, Tiananmen Square, by protestors shortly before before 1972's Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland, and during the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa's Soweto township. It began as a folk work song that slaves in the fields would sing that was eventually published as a song by the name of "I'll Be Alright Someday" in 1901 by a Methodist minister named Charles Tindley. The first political use of this song dates back to 1945 in Charleston, South Carolina when workers went on strike against the American Tobacco company. Pete Seeger heard the song in 1947 and added his own touches to the song. "We Shall Overcome" became associated with the civil rights movement from 1959, when Guy Carawan stepped in with his and Seeger's version as song leader at Highlander, which was then focused on nonviolent civil rights activism. It quickly became the movement's unofficial anthem. Seeger and other famous folk singers in the early 1960s, such as Joan Baez to 300,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial, sang the song at rallies, folk festivals, and concerts in the North and helped make it widely known. President Lyndon Johnson, himself a Southerner, used the phrase "We shall overcome" in addressing Congress on March 15, 1965, in a speech delivered after the violent attack on civil rights demonstrators during the Selma to Montgomery marches, thus legitimizing the protest movement. This song was also sung by over 50,000 attendees at Dr. Martin Luther King's funeral.Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday (1939)
Abel Meeropol, a Jewish-American poet, wrote the poem "Strange Fruit" after seeing a photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. The poem links a tree's fruit with lynching victims through metaphor. Abel later set the poem to music. Billie Holiday was introduced to the song "Strange Fruit" while a resident singer at Cafe Society, New York's first integrated nightclub. Prior to "Strange Fruit", protest songs were used as propaganda for issues such as the union movement. "Strange Fruit" was the first song to express an explicit political message in the form of entertainment. Dorain Lynskey said it best, "Up to this point, protest songs functioned as propaganda, but Strange Fruit proved they could be art."Stand By Me - Ben E. King (1961)
This song can be interpreted as experiencing some of life's toughest obstacles but gaining strength from having a specific loved one by your side. There are over 400 recorded versions of the song, performed by various artists. The original version and its covers have appeared on music charts around the world.The Times They Are A-Changin' - Bob Dylan (1964)
Dylan wrote the song as a deliberate attempt to create an anthem of change for the time, influenced by Irish and Scottish ballads. Ever since its release the song has been influential to people's views on society, with critics noting the general yet universal lyrics as contributing to the song's lasting message of change. Regarding the folk inspiration and lyrical content, Dylan said "The civil rights movement and the folk music movement were pretty close for a while and allied together at that time."A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke (1964)
Sam Cooke was a gospel music veteran that was able to use his smooth voice and good looks to become a successful crossover artist in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1963, he was inspired by Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" because such a poignant song about racism came from someone who was not black. In addition, Cooke was ashamed he did not create a song with a similar message. Making such a song would be a risky maneuver due to its political message and the potential to alienate his new audience, but he could not ignore the moral outrage right in front of him. This song was inspired by various personal events in Cooke's life, most prominently from an incident when he and his entourage were turned away from a whites-only Louisiana motel resulting in being arrested for disturbing the peace. "A Change Is Gonna Come" became an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement. Unfortunately, just before the song was to be released as a single in December of 1964, Sam Cooke would be shot to death at a motel in Los Angeles at age 33.Turn! Turn! Turn! - The Byrds (1965)
This song is a cover of the song written by Pete Seeger. The lyrics are taken almost verbatim from the book of Ecclesiastes, as found in the King James Version (1611) of the Bible, (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) though the sequence of the words was rearranged for the song. The song presents them as a plea for world peace because of the closing line: "a time for peace, I swear it's not too late."
For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield (1966)
Although "For What It's Worth" is often considered an anti-war song, the inspiration was the Sunset Strip curfew riots in November 1966 — a series of early counterculture-era clashes that took place between police and young people on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, California. Locals, annoyed by young crowds going to clubs and music venues along the strip causing traffic congestion and loitering, lobbied for a strict curfew of 10 PM, which the youth felt infringed on their civil rights. Demonstrations and unrest occurred periodically for 2 months, including future celebrity Jack Nicholson, which forced some clubs to shut down within weeks.
Respect - Aretha Franklin (1967)
"Respect" is a song written and originally released by American recording artist Otis Redding in 1965. The song became a 1967 hit and signature song for soul singer Aretha Franklin. The music in the two versions is significantly different, and through a few changes in the lyrics, the stories told by the songs have a different flavor. Redding's version is a plea from a desperate man, who will give his woman anything she wants. He won't care if she does him wrong, as long as he gets his due respect when he brings money home. However, Franklin's version is a declaration from a strong, confident woman, who knows that she has everything her man wants. She never does him wrong, and demands his "respect". Franklin's cover was a landmark for the feminist movement, and is often considered one of the best songs of the R&B era.
Revolution - The Beatles (1968)
Inspired by political protests in early 1968 related to Vietnam, Polish communist government, and campus uprisings in France, Lennon's lyrics expressed sympathy with the need for social change but doubt in regard to the violent tactics espoused by members of the New Left. The song was viewed by the political left as a betrayal of their cause and a sign that the Beatles were out of step with radical elements of the counterculture. Lennon was stung by the criticism he received from the New Left. Having campaigned for world peace with Ono throughout 1969, he began to embrace radical politics after undergoing primal therapy in 1970. In a conversation with British activist Tariq Ali in January 1971, he said of "Revolution": "I made a mistake, you know. The mistake was that it was anti-revolution."
Everyday People - Sly & The Family Stone (1968)
Sly and the Family Stone's band members are black and white as well as male and female. They are the second major integrated band in rock history after the band Love. This song pleads for peace and equality between differing races and social groups.
Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969)
This song, released during American's peak involvement during the Vietnam war, became an Anti-War anthem throughout the time of the counterculture's opposition to the U.S. military's involvement. However, the song does show solidarity with the soldiers fighting the war. "It's the old saying about rich men making war and poor men having to fight them." - John Fogerty (lead singer of CCR)
Ohio - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (1970)
This song was written after Neil Young saw photos in Life Magazine of the Kent State shootings, where Ohio National Guardsmen shot and killed four students during a peaceful rally against expanding Vietnam involvement. Crosby once stated that Young keeping Nixon's name in the lyrics ("Tin soldiers and Nixon coming" ) was "the bravest thing I ever heard." After the release, the song was banned from some AM stations because of the challenge to the Nixon Administration. An article in The Guardian in 2010 describes the song as the 'greatest protest record' and 'the pinnacle of a very 1960s genre.' while also saying 'The revolution never came.'
What's Going On - Marvin Gaye (1971)
The 1965 Watts riots, which resulted in 34 deaths and $40 million of property damage in L.A., were a turning point in Marvin Gaye's life. He began asking himself, "With the world exploding around me, how am I supposed to keep singing love songs?" Gaye created the album What's Going On with influence from emotional conversations shared between him and his brother Frankie, who had returned from three years of service at the Vietnam War, and his cousin's death while serving. Gaye was determined to shatter Motown's pop formula and address pressing social issues. The first single from this album was the song "What's Going On". This song was originally written by Renaldo "Obie" Benson, member of the Four Tops, who was influenced by witnessing a police brutality incident in Berkeley on May 15, 1969 of anti-war activists in what was later known as "Bloody Thursday". Benson brought the song to his other musical group members, but they did not want to record the song due to its protest theme. Benson then presented the song to Gaye, who tweaked and enriched the song to add "some things that were more ghetto, more natural".
Changes - David Bowie (1971)
This is a reflective song about defying your critics and stepping out on your own. It also touches on Bowie's penchant for artistic reinvention. Rolling Stone's contemporary review considered that "Changes" could be "construed as a young man's attempt to reckon how he'll react when it's his time to be on the maligned side of the generation schism". David Bowie himself described it by saying, "We feel our parents' generation has lost control, given up, they’re scared of the future. I feel it's basically their fault that things are so bad."
Imagine - John Lennon (1971)
The best-selling single of his solo career, the lyrics of "Imagine" encourage listeners to imagine a world at peace without the barriers of borders or the divisions of religion and nationality and to consider the possibility that the whole of humanity would live unattached to material possessions. When asked about the song's meaning, Lennon said that he and Ono were given a Christian prayer book, which inspired the concept behind "Imagine". Several poems from Yoko Ono's book Grapefruit were the inspiration behind the lyrics. Rolling Stone described its lyrics as "22 lines of graceful, plain-spoken faith in the power of a world, united in purpose, to repair and change itself".
Get Up, Stand Up - Bob Marley (1973)
Marley wrote the song while touring Haiti, deeply moved by its poverty and the lives of Haitians. "Get Up, Stand Up" was also the last song Marley ever performed on stage, on 23 September 1980 at the Stanley Theater, now the Benedum Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Hurricane - Bob Dylan (1975)
Hurricane is a protest song about the imprisonment of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, an American-Canadian boxer, wrongfully conviced of murder and later released following a petition of habeas corpus after serving almost 20 years. Substantial controversy followed the case, ranging from allegations of faulty evidence and questionable eyewitness testimony to an unfair trial. After reading Carter's autobiography, Dylan visited him in prison and later with a group of supporters, after which he began to write the song.
God Save the Queen - Sex Pistols (1977)
This song expresses sympathy for the English working class and general resentment towards monarchy, specifically Queen Elizabeth II. "Banned by the BBC for 'gross bad taste,' this blast of nihilism savaged the pomp of Queen Elizabeth II's silver jubilee and came in a sleeve showing Her Majesty with a safety pin through her lip." - Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Songs of All Time article
Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2 (1983)
From the late 1960s to 1998, Northern Ireland was the focus of a conflict between the Unionists, who were mostly Protestants and wanted Northern Ireland to remain with the United Kingdom, and the Irish Nationalists, who were mostly Catholic and wanted Northern Ireland to leave the UK and join a united Ireland. This song describes the horror felt by an observer of the Troubles, also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, mainly focusing on the 1972 Bloody Sunday incident in Derry where British troops shot and killed unarmed civil rights protesters. Overall, 25 civilians were shot and 14 people died during a protest march against internment without trial. This event is the worst mass shooting in Irish history.
We're Not Gonna Take It - Twisted Sister (1984)
Twisted Sister member Dee Snider explains the song as "any time that the team is down by two, or somebody had a bad day at the office, they're gonna stand up and sing We're Not Gonna Take It". In politics, the song was used in 2012 by Republican VP candidate Paul Ryan (until Snider asked Ryan to not play it anymore as he did not support him) and in Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign (used with permission until Snider changed his mind as he did not agree with Trump's stances. It also became the rallying cry of the 2018 teachers' strikes in the US.
We Are The World - U.S.A For Africa (1985)
The success of "We Are the World" raised over $63 million (equivalent to $147 million today) to relieve starving people in Africa, specifically Ethiopia, where around one million people died during the country's 1983–1985 famine. "We Are the World" is sung from a first person viewpoint, allowing the audience to "internalize" the message by singing the word “we” together. It has been described as "an appeal to human compassion".
The Way It Is - Bruce Hornsby (1986)
This song makes reference to the divide between rich and poor and civil rights. The second verse explains that at one point, racial segregation was "just the way it is," but progress should be pursued despite those who say "some things will never change." The last verse celebrates the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but acknowledges that more is needed. It highlights individual prejudice and employment discrimination as an enduring form of racism. The third chorus suggests that it only feels like "some things will never change" when we wait for social problems to change themselves rather than taking steps ourselves to actively change them. The song was also sampled by 2Pac for his song "Changes."
Fuck Tha Police - N.W.A. (1988)
N.W.A. as a group was polarizing to Americans and was originally seen as revolutionary or perverse. The song "Fuck The Police" focuses on police brutality and racial profiling. Los Angeles Times reporter Gerrick Kennedy wrote, "The world hadn’t heard anything like it before. Radio stations and MTV refused to add the title song to their playlists. Critics didn’t get it, couldn’t see past the language, or, worse, refused to acknowledge it as music. Politicians even launched attacks, working to great lengths to condemn the music and its creators....Gangs, violence, poverty, and the ravishing eighties crack epidemic swept through black neighborhoods like F5 tornadoes. People were angry and restless, and without a flinch N.W.A documented its dark and grim realities like urban newsmen."
Man In The Mirror - Michael Jackson (1988)
Rolling Stone's Davitt Sigerson thought that "Man in the Mirror" stands among the half dozen best things Jackson has done, and he continued: "On ‘Man in the Mirror,’ Jackson goes a step further and offers a straightforward homily of personal commitment: "I'm starting with the man in the mirror/I'm asking him to change his ways/And no message could have been any clearer/If you wanna make the world a better place/Take a look at yourself and then make a change."”
Fight The Power - Public Enemy (1989)
Spike Lee sought a song to be the soundtrack for the movie Do The Right Thing and approached Public Enemy to make a song representing the theme of the movie. The song's lyrics have a revolutionary rhetoric and delivered by Chuck D with a confrontational and unapologetic tone. This song also samples multiple important figures in African-American culture from James Brown to Thomas "TNT" Todd, a civil rights attorney and activist. Laura Warrell of Salon interprets the song, "As a reaction to 'the frustrations of the Me Decade', including the crack epidemic in the inner cities, AIDS pandemic, racism, and the effects of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush's presidencies on struggling urban communities." RIP Radio Raheem.
Killing In The Name - Rage Against The Machine (1992)
This song was written about revolution and against institutional racism and police brutality. It has been described as "a howling, expletive-driven tirade against the ills of American society." The song reflects the racial tensions that exist in the United States as it was released six months after the Los Angeles Riots, which were triggered by the acquittal of four white police officers who beat black motorist Rodney King.
Changes - 2Pac (1998)
The song makes references to the war on drugs, the treatment of black people by the police, racism (explicitly the reconciliation between the black and white races in America), the perpetuation of poverty and its accompanying vicious-cycle value system in urban African American culture, and the difficulties of life in the ghetto. Released posthumously on his album Greatest Hits, the "Huey" that 2Pac mentions in the song ("two shots in the dark, now Huey's dead") is Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party. Further, the last verse of the song refers to Tupac's imagining himself being shot to death, mimicking the sound of the gun with the phrase "rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat".
Where Is The Love? - Black Eyed Peas (2003)
This song mentions various worldwide problems such as terrorism, racism, pollution, war, intolerance, gang violence, and xenophobia. The chorus asks for guidance from God to help solve the mentioned problems because the singers are questioning "Where is the love?". This song peaked at number 1 in countries around the world. Inspired by the tragedies involving attacks in Paris, Brussels and Orlando along with the police shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, a 2016 version was released with additional vocals from artists such as Justine Timberlake and Jamie Foxx.
State Of The Union - Rise Against (2004)
“If we’re the flagship of peace and prosperity, we’re taking on water and about to fucking sink.” So begins Rise Against‘s exegesis of the American Dream. Words criticize bureaucratic injustice and exhort the masses to take action before our own graves suggest our guilt.
Hope - Twista, Faith Evans (2005)
Twista sings about issues he sees in the world today that he wishes he could fix including hungry children and families, gang violence, negative news on CNN, Christoper Reeves' paralyzation, and the War on Terrorism. An alternate version of the song was sung by CeeLo Green in memory of 9/11.
Streets on Fire - Lupe Fiasco (2007)
Lupe Fiasco and Matthew Santos describe an apocalyptic world being swept under a massive, perhaps figurative plague of some sort. Though the “disease” can be interpreted in different ways, it’s most likely an allusion to depression, the HIV virus, street temptation, or government corruption. Streets is one of his characters he created, and although we never hear what the personified The Streets has to say, we see her actions. She is a “Virus spreading in all directions.” There is “no safe zone, No cure, and no protection,” from life on the street. To some the street is “forgiveness” it is “an entrance” for their hopes and dreams, while to others the street is “the vengeance” and “the exit” to life. The song comments on the many views people have of the street.
My President - Jeezy, Nas (2008)
The "Golden Age" of hip hop is given to the time period of the late 80's and early 90's due to the strong themes of socially conscious rap. Around 1997, the next era of rap emerged with the "Bling Era". Songs focused on drugs, misogynistic themes, and materialism. After the election of Barack Obama as President, some thought hip hop would return to the themes of politically and socially conscious themes of the "Golden Age". This song instead blends the two eras by being social conscious while also focusing on themes from the "Bling Era": materialism and drugs. Erik Nielson describes the lyrics and themes of this song in his journal article from the Journal of Popular Music Studies titled "'My President is Black, My Lambo's Blue': The Obamafication of Rap?", He writes that "While Jeezy’s combination of black and white is clearly intended to represent his own authority, gained in his community through the drug trade, his symbolic attempts to draw on the duality of black and white to illustrate power become complicated, even undermined, when placed alongside the first black man poised to occupy the White House."
Same Love - Macklemore feat. Mary Lambert (2012)
This songs talks about the issue of gay and lesbian rights and was recorded during the campaign for Washington Referendum 74, which, upon approval in November 2012, legalized same-sex marriage in Washington State. Macklemore explained that the song also came out of his own frustration with hip hop's positions on homosexuality. "Misogyny and homophobia are the two acceptable means of oppression in hip hop culture. It's 2012. There needs to be some accountability. I think that as a society we're evolving and I think that hip hop has always been a representation of what's going on in the world right now." The cover artwork for the single shows a photograph of Macklemore's uncle, John Haggerty, and his husband, Sean. "Same Love" became the first Top 40 song in the U.S. to promote and celebrate same-sex marriage.
Hands Up - Vince Staples (2014)
On the scale of protest songs, Staples’ latest definitely falls on the side of outright anger and vitriol. Backed by the whirl of police sirens, Staples drops vicious line after vicious line about his tales of police brutality and broken systems, as well as his anger, will surely resonate more broadly. "Shoot him first without a warning and they expect respect and non-violence, I refuse the right to be silent"
Freedom - Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar (2016)
Beyoncé performed "Freedom" with Kendrick Lamar as the opening number at the 2016 BET Awards on June 26. It opened with a voice-over of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech as female dancers marched towards the main stage. August Brown of Los Angeles Times deemed the rendition "powerful, politically and aesthetically charged," and felt that it was evocative of concepts found on Lemonade with its "Hurricane Katrina floods, imagery of the African diaspora, and the relationships between personal and national traumas". Brown went on saying that the politically charged performance came in during a right time, when the matters of black pride, xenophobia and racial justice were highly discussed and finished his review by concluding that watching Beyoncé and Lamar perform was "a consummation of everything good and right in pop music today".
Formation - Beyonce (2016)
This song contains strong political criticism in its lyrics, being described by Los Angeles Times's Mikael Wood as "a statement of radical black positivity." It also was noted by Joseph Lamour who commented during a review for MTV that "Formation" is "a song whose lyrics are teeming with notions of empowerment and pride in her heritage as a black American with roots in Alabama and Louisiana." Syreeta McFadden for The Guardian notes that the music video depicts archetypal southern black women "in ways that we haven't seen frequently represented in popular art or culture"
The Sand In The Gears - Frank Turner (2017)
This song was written in regards to the election of Donald Trump. As an opponent of Trump's views, Frank sings about wanting to throw sand in the gears, or otherwise prevent Trump’s plans from succeeding. On election day, Frank called Trump “the absolute embodiment of every joke, every lazy prejudice and slur about Americans ever levelled by the armchair warriors of the old world.” When asked who he’d change places with for one day, Frank said "Donald Trump, and then I'd have a fucking word with myself, and a haircut."
This Is America - Childish Gambino (2018)
The song addresses the wider issue of gun violence in the United States, the high rate of mass shootings in the United States, along with longstanding racism and discrimination against African Americans. Will Gompertz, arts editor of the BBC, asserted that "This Is America" was a "powerful and poignant allegorical portrait of 21st Century America, which warrants a place among the canonical depictions of the USA from Grant Wood's American Gothic to Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, from Emanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware to America the Beautiful by Norman Lewis".
Danny Nedelko - IDLES (2018)
Danny Nedelko is considered a pro-immigration track with a modern retrofitting on the European migrant crisis of the 2010s. The track is the story of Ukrainian immigrant, Danny Nedelko, who is a close friend of the members of the band. The song's lyrics take aim at and are heavily critical of nationalism, while making the focus of the song as a celebration of multiculturalism and diversity. The song celebrates various immigrants from Freddie Mercury to the "local Polish butcher".