Over the years, more or less radical comrades have made music and some of it has gained at least some popularity.
The post war period until about the 60s had folk-influenced singer-songwriters of various kinds like say Hannes Wader, Ewan MacColl, il Canzoniere delle Lame, etc.
The 70s had brought new genres to the forefront, with punk, reggae, ska, etc.
The early 80s were a time of a bunch of English new wave Bands singing about the horrors of contemporary capitalism and getting really popular commercially
The 90s still had some leftist music, say the Coup, Manu Chao, Chumbawamba, etc.
But what then? Of course, the quantity decreased because of what happened in 1989-1991, but what's even around?
A bunch of punk, rap and obscure metal, I suppose?
I'd love to see what recommendations you have, comrades.
If instrumental music counts, Godspeed You! Black Emperor started in the late 90s and is still going, generally they present themselves as nonspecific anarchists.
Theres also a side project named "A Silver Mt Zion"(Or variations thereof) that has explicitly anticapitalist and anarchist/libcom lyrics.
Ghais Guevara does I guess internet rap type stuff with some lefty bits and bobs.
Billy Woods is more spoken word experimental rap. Listen to his album Aethiopes. I think it's so content rich that it belongs in a museum. His mother was an English literature professor from Jamaica. His father was a PhD Marxist writer, active in the Zimbabwe War of Liberation. They made a very based son.
King Gizz - Mars For The Rich is a nice vent about rich scum colonising space.
East Coast Avengers aren't that good but I've got a soft spot for them cos it's headed by John Cenas cousin. They don't make music anymore but some of their songs are anti America at least, if totally unaware of actual leftism.
Viagra Boys do a good satire of masculinity too.
I’ll second Ghais Guevara. He’s not only truly talented but constantly mentions lefty stuff and we should be boosting the signal however we can.
Propagandhi is still kicking, although they’re closer to metal than punk musically these days. Gay, communist, vegan. Very Hexbear.
Yeah propagandhi immediately came to my mind as well. They are definitely thrash metal now though
yeah Crossover is seeing a big resurgence. going to have to check out this new propeghandi.
For a very different sound, check out former Propagandhi guy, John K. Samson or his old band, The Weakerthans. Definitely some leftist themes here and there. For instance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BatToG_RKrg
"So when they wonder where the money went
And we can't swim here anymore
And bankers warble algorithmically from the shore
The stations pump the new austerity
The Ogallala Aquifer and crackling California reservoirs making sure
Priced out of that old neighborhood for good
The payday lonely pray in parking lots
A one-bar wi-fi kind of town
The pilot flares oppose another night coming down
Coming down"
The solo stuff is some of my favorite recent music. He's a terrific lyricist.
Stray From The Path, Propagandhi, Crown Land, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Rise Against.
All of the above are punk or obscure rock music, it is true.
music and politics have been intersecting since the beginning of both, to reach the kids you need good audio/video editing
Anglo Music market was pretty cleaned up from all Left that isnt just asthetics. Lyrics are maynly just some vage individual focused bullshit or some "Sounds Profund but isnt" texts..
its actually extremly impressive that American culture (Still) will only produce the most placstic and vage "Superstructure" bullshit, instead of the Contradictions at least producing some great art.
Their last release seems to have been 13 years ago :/ (WDU)
Pat's made music with a bunch of different bands and under different names, but he's retired now. Also check out Ramshackle Glory.
Anti-Flag
AJJ
PUP
Defiance Ohio
The Thermals
Mischief Brew
Do Make Say Think
IDLES
Jon Maus
Joey Bada$$
Grandaddy
All at least nominally leftist (and listed in no particular order)
IDLES is just a British guy screaming a sociology degree at you and it's excellent.
My mother works 15 hours 5 days a week,
My mother works 16 hours 6 days a weeks,
My mother works 17 hours 7 days a week!
The best way to scare a Tory is to read and get rich
...
Sexual violence doesn’t start and end with rape It starts in our books and behind our school gates Men are scared women will laugh in their face Whereas women are scared it’s their lives men will take
...
Mother
Fucker
In the video for that first one you quoted, I've heard that what he's smashing is all his mother's chatchkes because it's what he had left of her when she died, and he didn't want the knickknacks, he wanted his mom back.
Those are all from the same song, I just cut out the repetition
And that's a good video, they're a really good band. Love when they just slip in theory to the bridge.
Honestly without hearing the mysic you could swap around a lot of their song lyrics and it would still work lol
My two favorite deathmetal (deathcore) bands are leftoids.
Cattle Decapitation are a bunch of vegitarians who's musical themes revolve around the destruction of the environment and animal abuse.
And my other fav, fit for an autopsy, have an alarming amount of Marxist themes in their music. I have to get ready for work so I can link stuff right now but I will share some on a bit.
Cattle decapitation are sick, seen them live 3 times. They're certainly a bit more on the kill all humans side of anticapitalist music but yes if you want songs about doing to humans what they do to animals this is good shit
NOFX and Bad Religion have some really good Bush era punk that's ostensibly left wing, you also have Tupac and Nas who were/are of the left. More modern music would be IDLES, Slowthai, Parquet Courts, Algiers, Jpegmafia, Denzel Curry, Death grips, Injury Reserve, Kendrick Lamar. There are also artists who produce leftist music but are at this point clearly just rad-libs such as Killer Mike from Run the Jewels and Portugal the Man.
I think that Section 80, Good Kid Mad City, and and TPAB address the poverty and exploitation of the black community by the government and broader culture in the US.
That's not left though, those criticisms are entirely compatible with liberalism. If that's left then 90% of hip hop artists are left. To be left is to embrace a positive alternative to capitalism.
He wraps up TPAB by interviewing Tupac wherein they discuss the masses rising up and eating the succulent capitalists. He also discussed the contemptible treatment of the poor/homeless on how much a dollar costs and the CIA's role of slinging crack in inner cities on Section 80 and GKMC.
