The Effectiveness of Protest Songs – Four Songwriters Discuss Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast #121

Are protest songs effective, either as protest or songs? Your host Mark Linsenmayer is joined by Lilli Lewis, Rod Picott and Tyler Hislop to discuss how protest works in various musical genres, who it caters to and when it goes wrong. Is the day of the protest song over or is it alive and well?

Rod mentions how Bruce Springsteen clarified the political nature of “Born in the USA” by rearranging it (just like 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”, shitty protest songs against COVID restrictions, hip hop for respectand more.

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

Each of us wrote 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 items with more listings and such include:

follow us @folkrockdiva, @RodPicott, @sacrifice_mcand @MarkLinsenmayer.

This episode includes a bonus chat featuring all of our guests which you can access by supporting the podcast at patreon.com/prettymuchpop or choosing a paid subscription through Apple Podcasts. This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network.

Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast is the first podcast hosted by Open Culture. Browse all Pretty Much Pop items.