Many people underestimate the power of music. Melodies that raise the hairs on your arms. Beats that sync up with your heart. Words that feel like they could have come from your own brain. Music is made with the intention to make you feel something. Whether it be the pain the musician is going through, the joy they’re experiencing, or the hope they are trying to inspire, they want to stir the listener’s emotions, hoping you feel the way they felt while creating their masterpiece.
For times of resistance, there is protest music. These compositions are made to keep you going, even when it feels like the fight is impossible. That music is made to help you feel less alone in your fight; to let you know that there are others in this journey with you. When everything around you feels like it’s falling apart and no one is noticing, resistance songs are there to let you know that you aren’t crazy.
Protest music and resistance songs aren’t new. In fact, they’ve been around for centuries. In 1774, Dr. Joseph Warren wrote “Free Americay”, a popular song for the American Revolution against British tyranny. “Woodman, Spare That Tree!” by Henry Russell in 1837 was one of the first songs used to help advocate for environmentalism. The Hutchinson Family Singers created “Get Off The Track!”, a ballad that called for emancipation in 1844. A Pro-Suffrage song named “The Suffrage Flag” was written in 1884 by William. P. Atkinson proclaimed how much better the world would be when women were granted the right to vote (which wouldn’t happen for another 3 decades). Joe Hill, a labor activist, wrote “The Preacher and the Slave” in 1911 as a condemnation of the Salvation Army. There were songs that helped enslaved people find their way to freedom. Songs to reconnect those kidnapped people with the cultures they were robbed of, or deal with the grief of the family members they lost. These few songs are just a fraction of the protest music that emerged in the centuries leading up to the 21st, and every single one of them was important in its time. Some are still pertinent to the world we live in. (source)
Morris, George P. (Lyricist)
Songs of resistance are still being made today. Music that tackles issues like women’s rights, healthcare reformation, and pushing back against harmful governments is alive and well in 2026. The main problem is that the musicians who create them are often overlooked in favor of popular mainstream artists whose only goal is to make another hit. Many radio stations stick to the fun songs, the dance tracks, the ballads about ex-lovers; anything that is deemed safe for the general population and won’t rock the boat with the people in charge.
Luckily, we no longer need to rely on radio stations that handpick the “more palatable” songs in an effort to keep us under a false sense of security or placate the conservative powers-that-be. We live in a modern age where we can discover new music from around the world and create our own playlists that reflect how we actually feel. Here are 5 songs for you to add to your modern resistance collection.
“Labour” by Paris Paloma
Hard hitting lyrics:
“All day, every day, therapist, mother, maid
Nymph, then a virgin, nurse, then a servant
Just an appendage, live to attend him
So that he never lifts a finger
24/7 baby machine
So he can live out his picket-fence dreams
It's not an act of love if you make her
You make me do too much labour”
“Take My Country Back” by Enter Shikari
Hard hitting lyrics:
“Get up, get up and feel the rising tide
I’m fed up, fed up with all the cyanide.
Don’t want to take my country back
I want to take my country forward”
“Dead Men Don’t Rape” by Delilah Bon
Hard hitting lyrics:
“They get so offended when I say
Dead men don't rape
But where is their anger when I say
Women are women are women are dying”
“THREAT LEVEL ORANGE” by Earth to Eve
Hard hitting lyrics:
“Ain't it obvious
The person in the office is
A racist
Bride came in the mail, but he opposes immigration
That's someone's abuelita
Not a foreign armed invasion
That would be the masked men raiding graduation ceremonies
Unmarked vans snatching people off the street
Broke amendments 5, 10 and 14
At least
But please, tell me again how this is still democracy”
“G-U-I-L-L-O-T-I-N-E” by HummusVacuum
Hard hitting lyrics:
“G-u-i-l-l-o-t-i-n-e
Yeah, what might seem barbaric is a last resort to me
‘Cus we waited for our crumbs to trickle down so patiently
And now we get to cosplay like it's 1933”
Protest music hasn’t gone anywhere. Sometimes you just need to search a little harder to find it. When you do, let the beat lead your steps. Let the words give you the courage to continue the fight. Let the songs of resistance deliver the message that you, and we, are not alone in this revolution.
