Been thinking a bit about this, popular music (the ones that hit top 100 charts or whatever) never has lyrics that point out real problems or point to culprits and how they’re fucking our shit, which is very easy to find in punk rock and some variations, as well as rap.
Of course, part of the problem are the record labels themselves, which often hold artists “hostage” in order to profit off them. Bigger ones will obviously prefer to avoid having such lyrics become popular.
Still, there seems to be absolute zero songs in certain genres that even come within 10 meters of talking/singing/teaching/bringing awareness about situations that affect a LOT of listeners, even from far away, and would be extremely helpful in spreading some knowledge.
Granted, doing so is easier said than done, a catchy tune that calls out big oil’s many attempts to burn the world, or big pharma’s frequent price gouging, aren’t things “any idiot” can come up with. But that nobody outside “angry” genres seems to be doing it is what saddens me.
System of a Down, Flobots, Rise Against & Rage Against the Machine aren’t popular music?
Yes, but how often do you see them in mainstream media these days?
So now the qualifier is mainstream media & popular music?
The qualifier listed by op was “popular music”
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Those are definitely the most popular artists in our current day. Rage out out a new album only 20 years ago.
SOAD has new songs out now & are working on a another album.
Rise Against released an album last year & the year before that.
Tom Morello released an album in 2021 & also has an XM radio show.
Is SOAD currently popular? Ministry just put out an album with a lot of political lyrics (like they always have) but I wouldn’t consider them a currently popular band either.
Also, Tom Morello’s solo output is not Rage Against the Machine, and if you heard it, it would be pretty clear to you.