this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2025
108 points (94.3% liked)

Asklemmy

50385 readers
394 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I feel global political oppression or global wars usually produce great music but Macklemore might be the peak.

Nothing against him, some of his songs are good, but I expected real rage inducing stuff with everything going on. Or is this just the state of music as a whole?

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Yeahigotskills2@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago

Some of these things are not like the others :-)

[–] deathbird@mander.xyz 56 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This is my whole point. Is streaming and music apps killing the massive songs like "Luke's Wall / War Pigs" , "Ohio", or "My Generation"?

[–] RunicSword@beehaw.org 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I saw a report talking about if there's a "song of the summer" this year. A lot of people said there isn't because more than ever we're siloed to our own music library/playlists.

Personally, I spend a few hours a week actually looking for new artists to listen to. There's so much music out there just waiting to be discovered.

[–] Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 1 week ago

I do the same thing and have discovered some great music. However, over the months or years I seem to return to classics to rage out or have a statement song. Go to a protest and you will hear " This is America" or "Sympathy for the Devil".

I'm just wondering if this generation will have their song or is there to many bands? Can a band cut through it all and still make something like those songs?

Maybe I'm the old man screaming at the clouds.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] y0y0ma@lemmy.sdf.org 32 points 1 week ago (6 children)

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

  • Killer Mike
  • Kendrik Lamar
  • Childish Gambino
  • Anderson.Paak
  • Bambu
  • Andrew Jackson Jihad
  • Feminazgul
  • Lowkey (British rapper)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] devolution@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago (21 children)

Off topic, why would you put Limp Bizkit with the classics?

[–] workerONE@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Maybe they did it all for the nookie

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (20 replies)
[–] _lunar@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

one of those is not like the others

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] BlueSquid0741@lemmy.sdf.org 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

β€œWith the instant availability of information, and content so easily obtainable, is the culture now a product that's disposable?β€œ

This quote goes back to 2007. 18 years later it’s not even a question anymore, music and the culture around it has become disposable.

There’s always going to be great bands and artists who have something to say! I’ve heard some of my favourite bands just in the last 10 years. But society is never going to look at music the same, it’s 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.

[–] Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 week ago (6 children)

This is America was produced in 2018. Say the word Mustard around a lot of people and they know what you are talking about. That is my whole point. We still have massive hits but no rage against the governments or wars.

I also feel that the design of current music ecosystem is doing this as well. They can stop music being released or throw money at it.

We don't have the bands kicking, for the most, against capitalism.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] can@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 week ago (8 children)
load more comments (8 replies)
[–] AHorseWithNoNeigh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] discocactus@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Childish Gambino? Yasiin Bey? Kendrick? Killer Mike? Hip hop alone has never stopped being critical of the machine... You must be living with your head under a rock or in headphones that only play top 40 or something. There is an absolute wealth of music that takes on the various hierarchies that dominate our world...

Edit: Doechii, ffs... Gorillaz... I could go on.

[–] Paradachshund@lemmy.today 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

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!

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago

I missed this one, spot on.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 12 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Expand your tastes, cousin. There's a lot of anti-war and angry music getting made right now.

[–] crazycraw@crazypeople.online 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] DampSquid@feddit.uk 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Not the most recent, but how about this ABSOLUTE BANGER by The Coup?

https://youtu.be/acT_PSAZ7BQ

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] AMoralNihilist@feddit.uk 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

mackelmore dropped like a couple of bangers when the palestine stuff was gaining traction in the mainstream.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] unmagical@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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:

  • Dropkick Murphys
  • Grandson
  • Durry
  • Otep
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] socsa@piefed.social 9 points 1 week ago

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.

Architechts, motionless in white, rise against

[–] lemmyuser100002@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 week ago

He lost a few points for the Super bowl. He could have made a statement to a president but didn't. His first couple of albums made statements about life in the hood.

I would say childish Gambino made more of a major statement with one song compared to Kendrick.

[–] hohoho@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (4 children)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Elder Millennial and gen x. Rage and nirvana are my jams.

[–] Juice@midwest.social 7 points 1 week ago

I took my daughter to a concert some years ago, when she was in middle school, and before any bands went on, "Killing in the Name Of" started up. I told her "at the end of the intro when the song starts up, everyone in the audience over 30 will start bobbing their head" and sure enough, thousands of adult chaperones all at once just start grooving

Dropkick Murphys are killing it right now. Their last 3 albums are all great.

I also really dig Jeff Rosenstock.

[–] brem@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Just because the music you listed isn't new, doesn't mean it can't serve the same purpose as it did for previous generations.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments
view more: next β€Ί