Protest Music Quotes

N.W.A were the audio-documentarians of their time. They were trying to shock people with the violence of their language and the subjects they were talking about. The fact that they dressed in guerilla outfits like the Black Panthers made them shocking by their appearance as well.

I guess the majority of people who want to ban certain musicians are the ones who are so proud of everything America stands for.

I was always a politician from the day the civil rights people chose me as their protest singer.

I had maybe heard 'The Times Are A-Changing' on the radio, but I had no idea who Dylan was. No idea.

Or like in the early 70's when we had the reaction against acid rock and all the fuzz tone, and feedback, and the noise. And you had James Taylor and everyone went acoustic and that.

I'm not really a musician. I'm a performer, and I love rock n' roll. I've embraced rock n' roll because it encompasses all the things I'm interested in: poetry, revolution, sexuality, political activism - all of these things can be found in rock n' roll.

I collaborated with so many people from Chicago - so many Black people, young Black women organizations like BYP100 and Assata's Daughters. Just being out there, I saw what a community mobilizing can accomplish in terms of freedom and how music and my words in my music can play a significant part in that.

When people think of the American Identity, they don’t think of torture, they don’t think of illegal wiretapping … or many of the other things that have been happening in the last 6 years…. Singers are like the canary in the coal mine. When things are happening, they must be sung out.

I've never written a political song. Songs can't save the world. I've gone through all that.

Early in my career, people wanted to hear music about protest, about trying to change things.

My dad was a huge Bob Dylan fan, so we listened to his music, Cat Stevens, Simon & Garfunkel, and all that kind of stuff.

Personally more so than shock, I think, rap music has to be born of rebellion.

I do the protest stuff. I do country and western. I play both acoustic and electric guitar in a lot of different styles, from loud, psychedelic stuff to quiet finger-picking.

I don't like political rappers.

The protest songs of the 1960s and 70s managed to blend political and societal views with music from the heart.

In Japan, there has always been a small number of musicians who have been outspoken on social issues, but they tend to be dismissed as radical.

Hip-hop, at its best, is disruptive.

Punk was more based on social change than on music, so it didn't bother me too much. It wasn't really a musical threat.

Let's face it: There are people who are extremists in every corner of society, and whatever flag they're waving is something Bad Religion has stood against.

You'll always see me at a political rally and the black strip club; I'm gonna represent smoking weed and supporting Trayvon Martin on my record, because I'm a whole man.

Public Enemy is the security of the hip-hop party.

When I discovered Gil Scott-Heron, I discovered a musical hero, a man who spoke baritone truth to power over jazzy funk at a time when funky music was primarily about shake, shake, shaking your booty.

Give metal a chance!

N.W.A had something in common with the Rolling Stones and MC5 and groups like that: the voice of rebellion. It's rebellion against your parents. It's rebellion against the system. It's rebellion against society.

I think hip hop is a dance music that's rebellious by nature.