Does anyone do good protest music anymore?

The most historically significant protest singer of all time is Pete Seeger. He has been doing it since the 40's. As a target of Senator Joseph McCarthy's communist-hunting House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950's, he has risked more than all who have followed him for the right of us all to sing out and to speak up. Having devoted his whole life to progressive, populist causes, I guess the only reason that he is not more active now is due to his advanced age. Certainly, there is a lot to sing about now.

Others who have been important are Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Odetta, Miriam Makeba, Tom Lehrer and Nina Simone.

No, not any more.

I guess it seems to me that in previous protest music was more inclusive (as if that was a good thing) and less off putting...

I just have a hard time with a guy like Bruce Springsteen who has more money than the government telling me how bad everything is in the world. The same is true of all those multi-millionaries like U2, Ani DiFranco, Radiohead, or Rage Against the Machine. I can't take whiney millionaries seriously.

The people who made a mark on the genre were anything but rich. Pete Seeger was mentioned. He suffered for his art, so to speak. S&G and Dylan were some of the first to get the big payoff from protesting, but I don't think that was their goal. I think others jumped on the bandwagon when they realized they could get rich protesting whatever came up.

That's why I asked if anyone was still doing good protest music.

Ss Nate, are you saying that it can't be good if it achieves commercial success? The music biz has changed alot over the past 50 years.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Peter, Paul, and Mary. Beginning in 1962 and up until December 2004, when Mary Travers was diagnosed with leukemia, the group's music spoke to various social issues, political causes, in addition to pot smoking dragons.