PMP#121: Protesting Protest Songs

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Are protest songs effective, either as protest or songs? Four songwriters including your host Mark Linsenmayer, Lilli Lewis, Rod Picott, and PMP’s audio engineer Tyler Hislop discuss how protest works in various musical genres, who it’s aimed at, and when it goes wrong. Has the day of the protest song passed, or is it alive and well?

Rod mentions how Bruce Springsteen clarified the political character of “Born in the U.S.A.” by rearranging it (and so did Neil Young with “Rockin’ in the Free World.”) We also mention “1913 Massacre,” “Fuck the Police,” “Signs,” “Ohio,” “We Are the World,” “Why We Build the Wall,” crappy protest songs against COVID restrictions, Hip Hop for Respect, and more.

Lilli mentions Crys Matthews. Mark mentions this article about Twisted Sister and their song used for Ukraine. Visit worldunited.live re. Ukraine.  

Each of us has written some kind of political song: Rod, Lilli, Tyler, and Mark. Learn more about Lilli and Rod’s current releases at folkrockdiva.com and rodpicott.com.

Some articles with more lists and such include:

• “The 50 Greatest Protest Songs” by Martin O’Gorman
• “Rolling Stone Readers’ Poll: The 10 Best Protest Songs of All Time” by Andy Greene
• “The Popdose 100: The Greatest Protest Songs of All Time“
• “The Most Misunderstood Political Songs Ever: 10 Tracks You Didn’t Get” by Brett Milan
• “10 of the Worst Political Songs You’ll Ever Hear” by Tom Hawking
• “The Ten Least Effective Protest Songs” by Tim Worthington
• “Protest Music: Songs and Free Speech” at First Amendment Museum

Follow us @folkrockdiva, @RodPicott, @sacrifice_mc, and @MarkLinsenmayer.

The supporter version of this episode includes our bonus Aftertalk featuring all of our guests. Get it at patreon.com/prettymuchpop, or now you can sign up directly via Apple Podcasts for a subscription for ad-free and bonus material for three of Mark’s podcasts together on the Mark Lintertainment Podcasts Channel.

This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network and is curated by openculture.com.

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