'The evolution of American protest music'

Welcome! As mentioned here and in the syllabus, this blog will be run as an off-site place to continue and expand our discussions of protest songs, propaganda music, and the social movements with which each interacts and acts through.

Looking forward to meeting all of you next Monday — in the meantime, the following short video from Vox is a good scene-setter for our explorations along a similar scope of history and genres.

There's also an interesting recent podcast on NPR that tries to round up some of the best political pop music from 2018. The episode was sparked by a comment by an NPR commentator: "You can't find good political music." Oh yeah...? But focus on the various definitions these podcasters apply to what makes effective political music (and — effective at what?). Hear it here.

Bring to class any thoughts or questions spurred by this, especially in relation to the assigned readings!