Songs and Protests: Is There a Link?

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The link between music and protest has always been a close one, and there are songs reflecting social and political struggles and issues that can be found in every generation of artists. Nevertheless, as noted in the book Playing for Change: Music and Musicians in the Service of Social Movements, there is no way to correctly determine whether music has any effect on social movements (Rosenthal and Flacks 26). Essentially, it is impossible to state that a certain song became the primary trigger for a certain protest or affected it to a considerable extent. At the same time, I believe that music solely does not possess the capacity to instigate social movements, but it can unify protestors and activists.

In the history of music, many highly influential bands and musicians wrote commercially successful politically-charged songs that failed to stimulate people to start social movements. One of the main examples of a song that contained a social message and was extremely popular is John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero,” which did not contribute to the creation of any major social movement. Moreover, the song continues to attract controversy to this day since John Lennon was not a member of the working class himself, and, from this perspective, the song can be viewed as rather hypocritical (Trzcinski). Additionally, there are bands such as Range Against the Machine, whose sole discography mainly consists of protest songs, which despite being sold millions of copies, did not stimulate any movements.

At the same time, artists have the ability to write music that, instead of creating social movements, can contribute to their unity and encourage more people to join them. A proper example of a song that became an actual chant of a social movement in recent years is Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright.” The song was used extensively by the Black Lives Matter movement activists and protestors during demonstrations allowing people to sing the chorus together and thus enhance their sense of unity (Mckinney). In other words, “Alright” strengthened the bonds among the people participating in the protest and encouraged them to be more active.

While there is a link between music and protest, songs alone, despite being political and commercially successful, cannot start a social movement but can contribute to it and inspire people. Songs such as “Working Class Hero” and bands such as Range Against the Machine, which mainly writes protest music, have demonstrated that the creations of artists cannot become the foundation of protest. Yet, at the same time, music can be used as a tool by the existing social movements to strengthen the unity of protestors, exemplified by songs such as Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright.”