With all of the insanity going on in the world, this felt like an excellent time to talk about writing protest music. I am writing this post after an especially abominable presidential debate while Covid rages on. I hope that songwriting brings you some catharsis during dark times.

What makes a good protest song?

Art is subjective, which means that different people are going to have different ideas about what makes a good song vs. a bad one, but here are a few specific parameters to figure out whether something is a good protest song, specifically:

1. Do people resonate with it enough to sing along, share it, play it at protests? Basically, sing-a-long-a-bility.

2. Does the message have stakes and does the artist express them with urgency?

3. Is the message/story clear enough for the average person to follow?

The songs in the Venn diagram above are all songs that I personally love, but each is lacking a crucial element that would catapult it into "great protest song" territory.

Want to write a great protest song or hear some of my favorite protest song examples? Check out this video:

♫ Time Stamps:

0:35 - What Makes a Good Protest Song

6:06 - Sing-a-Long-a-Bility

7:28 - Urgency

9:32 - Clarity

The arts are important and writing protest music is a great way to make your voice heard. Let's do our best to channel all of our rage and frustration into storytelling, writing music, and of course, voting. If you are in the U.S., you can find voting Information here.

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Quick Disclaimer: If you’re not American, I apologize for making this post a little U.S.-centric. I recognize that there is a lot going on in a lot of different places, but hopefully, the things I laid out here will translate to other situations. Since I am American and live in Philly, where bad things apparently happen, I wanted to address the state of politics in the U.S., especially right before this crucial election.