Political music is most commonly thought of in terms of lyricism: artists saying something. Yet in my mind, the most powerful political voices are those with a different way of seeing and processing the world and the sounds that emanate from it. These artists pay particular attention to the soundscapes they shape to suit their words, in some cases even creating new categories of genre to describe the sound and the political fervor within it.
These are five of my favorite "political" songs; those in which the music that houses the lyrics excites me the most.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
1 of
— Hendrix Star Spangled Banner
/
2 of
— Lou Bond Cover
/
3 of
— Fela Kuti cover
/
4 of
— Tr(n)igger cover
/
