Are 'protest songs' a thing of the past?

I grew up in a invigorating era for politics - the divided but energised Britain of Thatcher, the incomprehensible outrage of Apartheid, the explosion of nuclear weapon stockpiling and East - West posturing and increasing awareness of global poverty and environmental issues.  Any major disaster would lead to a charity single and there was a proliferation of political 'pop music' in the 1980s, not seen really since the 1960s.

I was thinking about this the other day and honestly, I can not remember the last overtly political song that I could remember that could reasonably be described as 'popular' music - perhaps Pink's Dear Mr President or Mosh etc from Eminem?  Nothing in the UK though?

I started this as a discussion topic with friends recently over dinner.  Most political ideologists of the left have argued that, if you really dig deep, there are aspects of the pervading political philosophy of the ConDem government which actually constitute more of a sinister assault on British welfarism than Thatcherism ever did.  It's more subtle and less provocative for sure.  Wouldn't that though make it more dangerous and something that the people should be singing about so where are they?  The students and the unions are on the streets so what is happening with the airwaves?

I have a few theories if I may - an angry generation putting it's slippers on (we bought houses, got careers and found other things to worry about), the explosion of social networking as a more accessible and dynamic forum for articulating protest(ation), the increasingly visual and dance based nature of music (not best suited to political pop), recession depression and associated political acquiescence and the increasing use of cinema as a vehicle for political expressions.  There will undoubtedly be better explanations than mine.

For now, I am going to celebrate what I hope not to be the end of the political or protest song by sharing a great protest song about a great protest singer, Victor Jara.  Hopefully there will be a new generation out there, scribbling away with love and anger.

Dick Gaughan - Victor Jara of Chile (written by Arlo Guthrie and Adrian Mitchell)