lokariototal

What are the best social protest bands? Bands like RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE! Bands that stand for something. Bands about being rebell and protesting again injustice or inequality. Idealistic bands that stand for something!!!

TheCellarTapes

The tricky thing for me about protest bands is that they're always going to have an air of hypocracy about them, due in part to the industry they find themselves in, especially with all that money swirling round the music industry.

I dont doubt the merits of individual songs and which part of the heart they came from, but I cannot take bands with a protest message all that seriously, I'm afraid.

To answer the question though, I do really love Gogol Bordello, but I aint an anarchist punk dude

mr dave

absolutely 100% agree.

i can't take the apparent hypocrisy seriously, the idealism is only appealing while you're an idealist that still sees the world in black and white. once you've grown to see everything in shades of grey the inherent immaturity of the ideals is too hard to ignore.



also.... Soundgarden? social protest? 1 song per album on average if that hardly makes them a protest group. maybe i just misinterpreted them all these years, then again the fact that they left their music open to interpretation is what made them so great to my ears. as opposed to being lectured for 44 minutes a pop a la RATM.

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ElephantSack

Rage Against the Machine is an obvious top choice.

And thank you for not posting this in the Punk category. Although people tend to exemplify punk rock as the most rebellious or socially-aware music around.

Usually, one of the things I look for in a band is poignancy. So here's some of my tops that at least have select moments of political/social intensity.

Immortal Technique
Soundgarden
The Who
The Clash
NOFX
Bad Religion
Tom Waits
The Roots
Les Claypool
Pink Floyd
Tool
Corrosion of Conformity

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Astronomer

Excellent list, I would concur with all of these! Rage Against the Machine, Tool, and Tom Waits would be some of my favourites.

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ElephantSack

Okay. We're friends now.

You know, I could understand how it would be difficult to see how exactly Soundgarden were socially aware. But its only because they were more obscure with their references and gripes. If they were going to come out and say "Fuck this.", they usually wouldn't just come out say it outright (except for "Ty Cobb"). They were usually more precise in what they were addressing, but they would also do their addressing very poetically, so a lot of times it was hard to understand exactly what they were talking about.

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BTown

I'm a fan of Soundgarden and I have 3 of their albums, could someone explain to me what soundgarden protests?

I am in no way disagreeing with you, you are probably correct due to me not reading much about soundgarden but I am really curious as to what they protest.

Trolling isn't just restricted to music.


ANyway, bands like Operation Ivy and Minor Threat would be at the top of my list. Possibly Daniel Johnston if he counts.

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Sansa Stark

1. Crass
2. Crass
3. Crass
4. Crass
5. Crass

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