I feel like there are lots of parallels between the eighties and now (recession/inflation, yuppies/inequality, skin-heads/fascists, hot-cold wars etc.) but there used to be protest music! Where is that stuff now? Music that’s intelligent and outraged - like we should be!
I’m out of touch now, so if it exists, educate me! Or have the protest songs been removed from tiktok by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act (UK specific, but suppression of protest seems to be everywhere)? (I’ve linked to the Levellers - maybe it really was better back in the day?)
Some of the classical ones
L’internationale, which is still relevant today
La banderra rosa
Bella Ciao, which despite becoming a pop hit is a struggle song
El pueblo unido
La butte rouge
-The Red army choir have a ton of great ones
Then on more recent, just look at the punk and rap scene, there is a lot