They just don't know where to look or what they should be looking for. Young Americans by the tens of million are embracing music with a political message - it's just not your classic baby boomer protest song. It is much deeper, much darker, and much more disappointed in a society that is failing to take care of its obligations under the social contract that is America. I think it's important to realize that music has come a long ways since the heady days of 1968.
These days there are far more popular genres and an artist is much more likely to engage in subliminal messaging; the message today is far more fundamentally about economics, rather than foreign policy, although that remains an issue, although generally only within the concept of the decaying urban core, bored suburbia, and despondent rural ares. Across hip-hop/rap, metal, reggae, electronica, rock, and pop there is a bubble of discontent over the lack of opportunity that has been bubbling and is now bursting with the election of Barack Obama and the Occupy Wall Street movement. Young people are wide and awake, they're just not mimicking their parents protest music.
Here are 10 representative songs by artists that the authors of this story should have paid attention to otherwise they're just preaching to the baby boomer choir. I apologize for the lengthy response but the last time an article like this was published the discussion would have benefited from something like this. I have excluded the wildly successful Eminem and Lady Gaga who are discussed in a post above. Enjoy the political music, trust me, it's in there:
2000:
2001 (This song was banned from radio by Clear Channel after 9/11:
2002:
2003 (Off of Hail to the Thief):
2004 (German, but very popular in Amerika):
2005 (Jamaican, Bob Marley's Son - popular in the US):
2006:
2007: Remember when John McCain said Nine Inch Nails was his favorite band?
2008: There's about 3-4 minutes of a Malcom X interview at the beginning.
2009:
2010:
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