Political and cultural change themes in music isn't common now, but back in the 1960s to 1990s it was very common.

While Iris is popular right now because of Deadpool 3, the song Slide by Goo Goo Dolls is IMO the better song. It navigates the complexities of teenage pregnancy and the different questions that are pressed into young women in a culture that morally rejects abortion.

Nirvana released a song called "Rape Me", which is a song about rape culture. The media was so disturbed by it that they often attempted to write it off as a metaphor for the way the record companies treated Nirvana. Kurt Cobain corrected this view - this is a major theme in politics these days as powerful people who were given passes by the public because they didn't want to believe have had those passes revoked thanks to cultural movements (note, Kurt Cobain's wife, Courtney Love, warned about Harvey Weinstein many years before anyone did anything about it, she was ignored because no one wanted to believe her). While a nirvana song, I think the song hits closer to the mark when performed by women.

Rage Against the Machine’s song “Bullet in the Head” warns against cultural conformity and the public’s credulity. The album Rage Against the Machine expands on these themes, addressing the government’s destruction of indigenous American cultures, the mistreatment of survivors, and the inhumane/dehumanizing treatment of people deemed as undesirables in the song Killing in the Name which points out the blurred lines between law enforcement forces and the cross burning KKK.

Youtube bans the embedding of all studio versions of the song, so I have to post the live version:

Tupac's early work was far more political than his later work. Words of Wisdom is overtly political, talking about the US constitution and such. The song Part Time Motha (to the beat of Part Time Lover) is considerably less preachy, but it hits on all the themes of the suffering of impoverished families. It's about a single mother, a daughter (whose character is sung by Angelique and Tupac) who gets raped by her mother's partner, fearing pregnancy, and then it shifts to a man's perspective (Tupac). A good song to pair with this is the more well known "Brenda's Got a Baby" off the same album.

John Lennon has a ton of political songs. He touches on a lot of anti-divisional forces, anti-war, and government transparency. This one is about the plight of the working class. Also, one of the earliest songs on a major album to feature prominent F-bombs - yes, saying fuck in a song in the early 1970s was more or less unheard of.

And a fun and incredibly abrasive song that's self-explanatory:

And while on the topic of punk rock there's Body Count's Cop Killer - although sometimes this particular song gets labelled as thrash metal. The video says Ft. Ice T, but that's like saying Nirvana ft. Kurt Cobain or Rolling Stones ft Mick Jagger.

Then there's outlaw country stars, such as Kris Kristofferson who died this week. But I think that Willie Nelson's positive vision hits the better note. This is a holy-sounding pro-immigration song, that's not asking for only immigrants of a certain quality, but the tired and weak so that they can be made strong.

And I'll just finish this off with a personal favourite, entitled Fuck You by Lily Allen, quite a bit more recent than most political songs (there are video and studio recorded versions, but they're blocked from embedding because of age restrictions):

I miss political music. Anyone have any other favourites?

Favorite might be the wrong word.

HIND'S HALL · Macklemore

MACKLEMORE - HIND'S HALL 2 (feat. Anees, MC Abdul, Amer Zahr)

Society is already too political as it is right now.

That's exactly why political music would be great for today. You wouldn't have a need for it if society didn't care about politics. Downtrodden people and the overlooked and suffering castes/classes of society can always use a voice.

It certainly beats the fake politics of social media (particularly Twitter, Youtube, Facebook).

Because, let's be real, politics on social media isn't real politics. It's a bunch of cynical people shouting inconsequential nonsense at each other. At least half of them don't understand what the hell they're talking about, or what kind of ideology they think they've adopted and how it impacts them, other people, or the world at large. They just want to hear their nonsense repeated back at them. That's more cynicism than politics.

"Politics" on social media in a nutshell:

Here's a new Celtic Punk song from a few months ago from the Dropkick Murphys which is specifically anti-MAGA.

Here's what is considered the masterpiece by Rage Against the Machine. It's an anti-fascist song about the white supremecist element within police forces, works as an anti-ICE song.

And 1990s anti-fascist song another from the 90s alternative rock side:

And an anti-propaganda song from former Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison, with Klaus Voorman on bass and Alan White on Drums.

Sonic Youth - Youth Against Fascism - self explanatory.

And all the way back to the beginning - an anti-Nazi patriotic resistance scene filmed just after the fall of Paris, from the film Casablanca

Industrial Rock side, anti-fascist song by KMFDM (only available on YouTube due to violent imagery from war, JF Kennedy Assassination, September 11th attacks).