Like it or Not, The Protest Song Is Back!

Yay! The protest song is back! Or boo, depending on how you feel about the common folk expressing their opinions.

After years of near-silence, the art form known as the protest song has returned. On YouTube, and all across this great internet, the voice of the people is once again rising up to be heard.

But there’s a twist. These ain’t your hippie grandpa’s protest songs.

The new protest songs have taken on a decidedly modern beat, and the tracks coming from today’s artists are slammin’, yo! Although many point to John Meyer’s recent “Where Have All The Protest Songs Gone?” as today’s seminal rallying cry, insiders agree that Kanye West’s “Protest This M***********R” introduced a whole new generation to the art of songs that complain about stuff.

West, as well as fellow artists RedicKuLos and BoB(ee)90210, have taken the protest song of yore and knocked it upside the head, infusing it with relevance and a driving dance beat. Which, as it turns out, is quite an enjoyable combination. Says RedicKuLos “I don’t care how important your message is. If the fans can’t get they groove on, they ain’t gonna play that shit.”

But not everyone embraces the return of the protest song. Bono, of U2 fame, decries the current commercialization of the modern protest song. “A song, in order to be relevant and mean something, has to say something relevant. Its relevance can only be revealed in its meaning, and if the meaning is not readily apparent, the message is reduced to flaccid overwrought self-importance and pomposity.”

Sting, another long-time soldier in the fight against things, concurred: “What Bono said.”

In support, a coalition of musicians called SWAPS (Spoken Word Against Protest Songs) has planned “The Event Protesting Protest Songs” for summer, 2008. No songs will be performed to protest the protest song, but they will instead read poetry and present interpretive dance. To date, ticket sales have been sluggish.

Whether you agree that the protest song is still valid in 2008, or you think it should just go away, it’s hard to ignore the facts. People are fed up, and there are lots of issues. And historically, that’s a potent combination for the protest song.