ABSTRACT
As a style of music born out of teenage rebellion and idealistic youth confronting hypocritical authorities, reader would think that rock would be jam-packed with protest songs. In light of the spate of protest songs released in the run-up to the 2004 US presidential election, that judgement would be reinforced. The majority of the rock protest songs of the 1960s can be seen as folk music, or at best, folk-rock. Another important explanation for the profusion of protest songs in the fabled 1960s is the state of the rock media in its first decade. Yet rock came into being at a time of high political fervour – the 1960s. This was a time of protest – initially the civil rights struggle, and later demonstrations for free speech by university students and, especially, the anti-Vietnam War movement. Youth's involvement in these protests and, simultaneously, their interest in rock music, created the conditions for a proliferation of protest songs.
