FYS Protest Songs

Songs of Social Protest is a comprehensive companion guide to music and social protest globally. Bringing together scholars from a range of fields, it explores a wide range of examples of, and contexts for, songs and their performance that have been deployed as part of local, regional and global social protest movements, both in historical and contemporary times. By placing historical approaches alongside cutting-edge ethnography, philosophical excursions alongside socio-political and economic perspectives, and cultural context alongside detailed, musicological, textual, and performance analysis, Songs of Social Protest offers a dynamic resource for scholars and students exploring song and singing as a form of protest.

Musicians have often wanted to change the world, and many--from underground grime artists to mainstream pop icons--channel that desire through the political power of music. Music has a unique ability to unsettle the most fundamental political and social conventions--or, alternatively, to stabilize the status-quo.   Sound System is the story of one musician's journey to discover what exactly makes music so powerful. Years of touring, protesting, and performing have given Dave Randall an insider's view of the music industry, enabling him to shed light on the most tightly held secrets of celebrity, commodification, and culture. A blistering, intelligent polemic about the political power of music, Sound System investigates the raves, riots, and revolution of contemporary culture to answer the question--how can we make music serve the interest of the many, rather than the few?  

Features 77 songs - including lyrics and sheet music - of solidarity, revolt, humour and revolution. Compiled over several generations from American and around the world, these powerful songs were originally written in English, Danish, French, German, Itaian, Spanish, Russian and Yiddish.

Honorable Mention, 2019 Foreword INDIES Awards - Performing Arts & Music Honorable Mention, Graphis 2021 Design Annual Competition​ Popular music has long been a powerful force for social change. Protest songs have served as anthems regarding war, racism, sexism, ecological destruction and so many other crucial issues.   Music Is Power takes us on a guided tour through the past 100 years of politically-conscious music, from Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie to Green Day and NWA. Covering a wide variety of genres, including reggae, country, metal, psychedelia, rap, punk, folk and soul, Brad Schreiber demonstrates how musicians can take a variety of approaches-- angry rallying cries, mournful elegies to the victims of injustice, or even humorous mockeries of authority--to fight for a fairer world.