“I hope you die scared of all the kids that know the truth.” That line from the recently released Superchunk song “Cloud of Hate” sounds like it was written specifically to soundtrack the past two weeks in national headlines. Indeed, the song could have been written about the emerging youth

Here’s a song from last year that still hasn’t left my personal rotation in 2018: “Rome Wasn’t Burnt in a Day,” a stealthy post-punk ode to working together in tearing down impossible structures of power. It appeared on the debut record by ESCAPE-ISM, “Introduction to Escape-ism,” the first-ever solo record

Raye Zaragoza is a Native American (O’odham), Mexican, Taiwanese, and Japanese singer-songwriter. She garnered praise as well as awards for her protest song against the Dakota Access Pipeline, “In The River.” Last year, Zaragoza released an album, “Fight For You,” that contains multiple songs of protest. They draw inspiration from

Protest Platforms is a three-part series examining what it means for music to protest today. Platforms have always helped to shape protest music. Independent artists, punk labels, and do-it-yourself (DIY) organizers have long suggested that the means through which music is created and distributed carries as much political weight as

Field Music’s David Brewis of England was incensed by Brexit. It was a “proper Charlton Heston at the end of Planet of the Apes moment.” On Field Music’s new album, “Open Here,” the indie rock band reflect on a post-Brexit world, as well as the rise of United States President

In the decades-long struggle against apartheid in South Africa, Hugh Masekela was one of several musicians whose music came to represent the sound of resistance to racist oppression by the government. On January 23, Masekela, 78, died from prostate cancer. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) mourned

The days following this year’s Women’s March are as good a time as any to repeat the central question posed by “Levitating,” a collaborative track by Xenia Rubinos, Sammus and Olga Bell: “Are you really down? Way down? All the way down?” “Levitating” is a smooth and steady intersectional anthem

Every sweetly sung Nana Grizol song plays out like a diary entry or a letter written directly to a friend, which make the band’s meandering personal-political poetry all the more impactful. The didactic nature of the music makes the stories more potent, and the embedded values more accessible. Since 2003,

Prolific singer-songwriter David Rovics is one of the few working musicians, who regularly produce topical protest songs which directly address current events. His music is in the tradition of radical folk musicians like Phil Ochs. From his latest album, “Ballad of a Wobbly,” released in December, Rovics breaks down what

Kevin Gosztola and Liz Pelly put together a collection of some of the best albums of protest music in 2017.