【Secret Confessions (2025) Spongkey Episode 44】

The Secret Confessions (2025) Spongkey Episode 44history of protest songs is the history of America itself, and history seems to be getting especially musical these days.

Since Donald Trump announced his candidacy for President, artists from every background and genre have released songs and videos tackling the emotional atmosphere of the 2016 election.

Everyone from indie darlings Father John Misty and Arcade Fire to hip-hop icons Run the Jewels and Pusha T have recorded politically charged songs to match the climate that inspired more than 3 million women to take to the streets Jan. 21. Some are subtle, some are, uh:

Gorillaz came out of retirement to release an eerie Trump-inspired video, their first in six years, the day before the Inauguration. And the elusive Fiona Apple put out a simple, but effective protest song.

This new era of music-as-resistance stands out from past waves because of its variety: at the risk of generalizing, the protest music of the past tended to lean towards singular, individual genres. The '60s had folk music and rock, the '80s had punk, the '90s had rap and hip hop; all tackling issues specific to the social justice movements of their time. The 2000s have been dealing with an extreme range of issues and, as a result, a wide range of genres has responded.

Additionally, modern protest songs are particularly heated and direct, no surprise given the tenor of our political climate right now. Artists are targeting Trump specifically, using his name or image, in a departure from many of the political anthems of the last decade. More than 19 songs overtly referring to Trump have come out since 2015.

It's really the first time since the Bush administration, and Green Day's anti-Bush album-turned-commercially-successful-Broadway-musical American Idiot, that we've seen targeted political criticism -- about the people in power, not just the ideologies they represent -- become mainstream music. Naturally, Green Day adapted for a new president and performed what has become one of the most popular anti-Trump protest chants at the 2016 American Music Awards, shortly after the election.

Election aside, hip hop continues to be the largest and most popular platform for music criticizing the system, and its commercial success is a testament to the power, energy and inclusiveness of their message.

At a moment when the new administration launched its own White House website, which left out sections on climate change, LGBTQ rights or civil rights, the climate is ripe for empowering, diverse music that reflects the mood of the public to find a place in the mainstream.

Though we're definitely seeing more protest songs now than we have in the last eight years, they have a long history. Artists have been using music and art to reflect the opinions of the public since "entertainment" became a career instead of just a rousing game of hopscotch.

Performers like Bob Dylan and Public Enemy are written about in textbooks right alongside the Vietnam War and Rodney King riots, and for good reason: their music both wrote history and kept a record of the emotions behind it.

Notably, 2017 is the 50th anniversary of "For What It's Worth," the Buffalo Springfield anthem so transcendent it sounds like it could have been written today:

"There's battle lines being drawn/nobody's right if everybody's wrong/young people speaking their minds/ getting so much resistance from behind"

In an era where the president garnered only 37 percent of the youth vote, it's interesting to see a song that sold more than 1,000,000 copies in 1967 remain so prescient -- but not to its original demographic.

Americans who are 65 and older (AKA elders who likely own more than one Buffalo Springfield vinyl) overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump, even having been raised in a cultural climate defined by it's own anti-establishment, anti-war protests.

It could be an example of how people's views change as they get older or how pop culture incorrectly shapes our perception of entire generations. But it'll be interesting to see how the protest music that's being churned out with each passing week will age, and how it'll shape future generations' concept of what sort of emotions are floating around right now.

Certainly "F.D.T." will give them some ideas.