Where have all the protest songs gone?

Who cares - except guilt-tripping liberals and tie-dyed people who haven't forgotten the 1960s? I'm not going to waste a cent on some songwriter's lame attempt at social protest.
If I buy music, I'll buy it because I enjoy the songs - not the "social commentary". If I want commentary, there is plenty of that on talk radio and TV.

Avideo if you think that what you hear on radio and t.v. is meaningful commentary I have two large towers in lower manhattan I'd love to sell you.

The attacks against the U.S. on 9/11 dried up the traditional protest song market. Suddenly Americans saw themselves as innocent victims and in such a mindframe songs protesting what some see as unfair social conditions seemed of little importance. As any reasonable person can see there are still a vast array of problems in the world (war, famine, plague, limited resources, etc.), but the righteous rage of a victim tends to limit one's empathic impulses. Time is probably the only thing that will allow things to return to "normal".

Dylan is still singing his protest songs. Some people ask why he's not writing more of them. Well, why should he? The ones he wrote decades ago are still relevant and he still sings them (2 or 3 at each concert). And "Lonesome Day Blues" from 'Love and Theft' is a pretty haunting song that is a protest of sorts, more so as the album was released on 9/11.

hey slipknot1, we are the problem (me included)....and as far as i can tell, this is as busy of a street as anyplace and if we always leave it to the other person to do the right thing, well then we can't complain, but should resign ourselves to sink deeper into the muck that we've created.