Keep in mind that music lost a lot of its cultural cache since your benchmark decade of the 90's. Mass culture isn't really the same as it was then. I remember Weird Al talking about doing a lot fewer parody songs just because fewer people recognize any given song.
Yeah there's still music out there, but if you don't know it that's not really your fault.
Most punk like Bad Religion, Dead Kennedys, Anti Flag, Black Flag, The Clash, Dropkick Murphys has been very political from the start.
I know they are older now but Dead Prez, Foo Fighters, Rise Against and System of a Down are still active. Then there is the much older Roger Waters who has been very political throughout his career. And let's not forget the legendary Los Tigres Del Norte.
But coming back to younger artists
Bob Vylan?
Kneecap have been getting massive publicity because of their pro-palestine/anti-genocide stance. I haven't listened to much to their latest stuff, but I should re-explore them.
βWith the instant availability of information, and content so easily obtainable, is the culture now a product that's disposable?β
This quote goes back to 2007. 18 years later itβs not even a question anymore, music and the culture around it has become disposable.
Thereβs always going to be great bands and artists who have something to say! Iβve heard some of my favourite bands just in the last 10 years. But society is never going to look at music the same, itβs just something people tap on their screen and give a quick listen, or worse; just watching some idiotic lip sync to a 20 second excerpt of it on tik tok.
Bob Vylan.
Kneecap
With the rapid rise in accessible media tuned to everyone's personal preference there's not really a single artist that is capturing attention across the board, but that doesn't mean there's not protest bangers from several artists:
Off topic, why would you put Limp Bizkit with the classics?
I'm too old to say what anything this generation is, but look up "fucked up" by Macklemore. Came out at the start of the year and it's the most rage against the machine esque thing I've heard in years. Got me riled up.
Edit: I see you literally called him out in the post, so this is old news to you I'm sure. I'll leave it for others to find!
Architechts, motionless in white, rise against
Well recession pop is back, check out the new Lady Gaga or Kesha albums. So there is that sort of dissonance and syncopated funkier rhythms in pop music which can usually be connected to economic and social downturn.
I know that shit is worlds away from what you're referring to, I think you're looking for something more aggressive.
I think the 2022 Every Time I Die record Renegade goes pretty fucking hard, I listen to Planet Shit about once a month and just rage.
Planet B by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard goes pretty hard.
You can always check out whatever Napalm Death is doing, much of their stuff is political and social commentary, in fact I love ND lyrics.
No one has the " popular understanding of 'transgender' didn't really exist for gen x but whatever it's going to be, these songs are mostly about needing to transition but feeling unable to" that Kurt Cobain had, but Kurt did once say that early Nirvana was an attempt at copping Gang of Four, and Go4 is very political, critical and high energy. esp their first album "Entertainment!" and "Solid Gold". After that they become kinda disco.
Also consider diving into the incredible wealth of protest music produced before the 60s. The 60s is kind of understood as a high water mark for protest music, but IMO a lot of Dylan and stuff was promoted more because he was actually less political than like Phil Ochs. Woody Guthrie, Victor Jara, The Almanac Singers, Odetta, etc., had much sharper politics than most well known artists who came after.
Finally, last but best, not new but largely undiscovered and forgotten, the Swedish RATM: the 1998 album The Shape of Punk to Come by the Refused. By far, one of my absolute favorite left wing records
Elder Millennial and gen x. Rage and nirvana are my jams.
Dropkick Murphys are killing it right now. Their last 3 albums are all great.
I also really dig Jeff Rosenstock.
Regarding Palestine, a number of groups have done stuff on stage or donated money and so on, but there don't seem to be a ton that have written music specifically about the war. I'm guessing this is partly due to a lot of record labels supporting Israel on top of just so much other horrible shit going on in recent years. You could probably find more stuff if you looked for music by people from the countries directly involved.
Pretty much the same situation for Ukraine I think. Bands like Jinjer are vocally pro-Ukraine.
It's much easier to find one-off songs about a specific issue than like entire albums right now AFAICT (again probably partially because of how much crap is going on). A lot of groups also seem afraid to really hammer on specific points to avoid alienating fans I think, so it's sort of just the state of music as well IMO.
Before those, in the 60's there was CSNY, CCR, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Buffalo Springfield writing protest bangers.
Can't really think of much for this generation unfortunately. Instead we have, uh... Ye. :(
They don't exist, at least not in Western mainstream music. Record labels have learned from those artists and will now drop anyone who doesn't toe the capitalist/imperialist line. Like the singers being cancelled for supporting BLM or Palestine.
And it's very specifically just for leftist messages. Kanye straight up calls himself a Nazi and sold shirts with swastikas on it and didn't get canceled for antisemitism, but tons of pro-Palestine artists did. If an artist straight up calls themselves a socialist like Tupac did it would be career suicide.
As someone in Gen Z, I have never heard a mainstream song released in my lifetime that actually attacks capitalism beyond useless lip service or calls for any kind of anticapitalist action by the general public. They definitely exist but only by indie artists who will either never get signed onto a label or will be forced to capitulate to the capitalist propaganda machine if they do.
Limp Bizkit does not deserve to be anywhere near this list. They are a piss stain on the seat of the limo Kurt Kobain's brother rented for Prom.
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