Just about any song by Jesse Welles these days...
A few examples:
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Bruce Springsteen put out this like 2 or 3 days after Pretti died
Check out Jesse Wells
I don’t know, but Green Day and Rise Against are two bands I like that do political music and both are still active.
Maybe subconsciously that’s one reason I like Japanese rock; it doesn’t feel as influenced by current events as western music does.
Rise Against - Megaphone (2018)
Rise Against - The Numbers (2021)
Rise Against - The Answer (2022)
Macklemore - fucked up (2025)
Carsie Blanton - Ugly Nasty Commie Bitch (2024)
Sorry that these are all YT links.
Clearly I'm a RA fanboy, but I look at the state of the world and I hear their songs, and they're the same picture. I can't ignore their music.
(ehem..except for the new Ricochet album with its questionable production decisions)
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Not exactly what you asked, but I think it’s important to note how old protest songs are still so relevant. I listen to a lot of 1980s music (in fact, presently playing my 80s playlist, just went from Tiffany to Belinda Carlisle) and older music.
Listen to the 1971 song Won’t Get Fooled Again by British band The Who. I’m sure most of you have heard it. Listen to what he said 55 years ago and imagine it was written this year, and see how relevant it is.
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Grandson’s entire catalog is riddled with protest songs but the latest album leaned into it fully for better or worse.
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King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Planet B
Lyrics:
[Verse 1]
Open your eyes and light the fluid
Get into it, petrol siphon
Low on meals, browning fields
Bury children
[Chorus 1]
Urbanization
Scarification
Population exodus
There is no Planet B
Open your eyes and see
[Guitar Solo]
[Verse 2]
Open your eyes and shoot the dingo
While this shit goes out the window
Multi-factions
Rusting tractors
Dying hero
[Chorus 2]
Only way through is colonization
Acclimatization
Population exodus
Monetization
Civilization
The operation has begun
There is no Planet B
[Bridge]
Patient seasons
Blacked out for ages
Dreaming of cake
Snowflakes blanket
Old deserts
Outskirts disperse
Earth is a blank verse
Last hearse
Dry nurse
(Oh!)
[Refrain]
Open your eyes and see
There is no Planet B
There is no Planet B
There is no Planet B
There is no Planet B
There is no Planet B
There is no Planet B
There is no Planet B
There is no Planet B
Open your eyes and see
[Outro]
Sinners are grinners, ear to ear
Baby Jesus sheds a tear
https://massiveattack.bandcamp.com/album/boots-on-the-ground
https://zealandardor.bandcamp.com/album/wake-of-a-nation-ep - the opening track Vigil is flawless but the entire band's discography is top tier.
https://runthejewels.bandcamp.com/track/close-your-eyes-and-count-to-fuck-feat-zack-de-la-rocha
Dropkick Murphy just wrote one right?
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Pretty much the entire will of the people album by Muse: https://youtu.be/tCiDblgUNEA
Billy bragg has a great song about the twin cities. It's a spin on that "first they came for" poem, but instead of the "and i said nothing because..." bit it has "so I got in their face!"
Check out the band Moon Walker. Monopoly Money, You're Next, Ban this Song, Apocalypticysm, probably all of it.
Syria has a few from 2011 يا حيف - سميح شقير جامعات بلا شبيحة [ نص تفاحة - محل زغير ومسكر بدنا نعبي الزنزانات الساروت - ساقط ساقط يابشاؤ Qashush , singing in the riots Qashush in the riots again post 2012 it escalated into a Civil War and the songs became about the civil war !
Joe Purdy s album Who Will Be Next. Came out in 2016, addresses white privlage, gun violence, general spiral into madness of the nation. A jem of songwriting simplicity.
A Sound Of Thunder - Els Segadors is a metal cover of the Catalonian national anthem. Catalonia was anarcho-communist during the Spanish civil war, but was defeated because the liberals betrayed them. The cover was played at the independence protests in 2018, I think
Kingslayer, 2020 might fit your question. Not sure exactly how articulate it is, but it is fucking angry and beautiful. And loud. Like, I'm literally not sure, because it's part Japanese.
No Place Like Home from Wicked: For Good
No$hu Fuck ICE ICE Baby
Not sure if it'd be your thing I like some Nascar Aloe stuff. His stuff is pretty out there. Loud, distorted and glitchy. He's the only more recent artist I can think of that is brutally outspoken on some of this stuff that I actually listen to.
Run The Jewels & Greg Nice - Ooh Lah Lah
Earth to Eve -Threat Level Orange
FUCK ice - chrissa sparkles
Control alt-right delete - the briggs
Who would Jesus bomb - Jordan smart
Christo-fascists - art bergmann
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1LSun9sx5j40WOV9jzcCbi?pi=BKWdubu9Q12h7
Lots of anti trump playlists on Spotify and deezer
願榮光歸香港 (Glory to Hong Kong) Protest Song during 2019 Hong Kong Protests...
(And... of course Youtube now age-restricts this video... was fine for the past 7 years... wtf)
Here's someone's reupload: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe1gTPcWyds
The original lyrics in Cantonese are lit, the English version doesn't even feel the same
This song is illegal in anywhere under PRC control, but I'm lucky to have to privilage to sing this as an Overseas Chinese
Minnesota Nazis!
singing resistance has a collection
They haven't been active for awhile now (early 2010s I think), but if you like hip hop check out Blue Scholars.
Their old stuff is much better but one that came out last week: Enter Shikari - Find Out the Hard Way...
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