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Is Protest Music Dead?

Jamie MacColl from Bombay Bicycle Club explores what has happened to protest music, asking if the genre has died or simply evolved.

Jamie MacColl is the guitarist from Bombay Bicycle Club. He also happens to come from an amazing heritage of protest singers - his grandfather was the British activist and protest singer Ewan MacColl, his grandmother is the US feminist and folk singer Peggy Seeger and his great uncle was Pete Seeger, who helped popularise the protest song "We Shall Overcome" in the 1960s.

However Jamie admits his own band's music is far from political.

Keen to explore the current state of "protest music", Jamie goes on a journey to find out who, if anyone, still makes protest music. And, if they don't, do musicians still find ways to speak out about issues, socially, politically or culturally?

From the #blacklivesmatter movement in the US, to artists saying what they really think on twitter, to the rise and rise of grime in the UK, Jamie finds out whether protest music is dead, or has just evolved.

Includes interviews with Billy Bragg, Olly from Years and Years, Hozier, Ghetts, Little Simz, Rou Reynolds from Enter Shikari, US artist Tink and a sit down chat between Jamie and his own grandmother Peggy Seeger.

1 hour

Last on

Tue 5 Apr 2016 21:00
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 1

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Clips

See all clips from Is Protest Music Dead? (4)

Music Played

  • Bombay Bicycle Club

    Shuffle

  • Enter Shikari

    Anaesthetist

    • Ambush Reality.

  • Stormzy

    Know Me From

    • Stormzy.

  • Bombay Bicycle Club

    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ By Now

    • Island.

  • Nicki Minaj

    Anaconda

    • Cash Money/Young Money.

  • Trimbal

    Confidence Boost

  • Hozier

    Work Song

    • Rubyworks.

  • Hozier

    Take Me To Church

    • Island.

  • J. Cole

    Be Free

  • Tink

    Tell The Children

    • Unknown.

  • Kendrick Lamar

    King Kunta

    • Polydor.

  • Skepta

    Shutdown

    • BBK Records.

  • Skepta

    That's Not Me (feat. JME)

    • 3 Beat.

  • Ghetts & Rude Kid

    One Take

  • Ghetts

    Rebel

    • Disrupt.

  • Novelist

    Street Politician

    • Anti-Establishment Music.

  • Little Simz

    Gratitude (feat. The Hics)

    • AGE 101 Music.

  • Kendrick Lamar

    The Blacker The Berry

  • Kendrick Lamar

    Alright

    • To Pimp A Butterfly.
    • Aftermath/Interscope.
    • 7.

Broadcasts

  • Tue 26 Jan 2016 21:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 1
  • Tue 5 Apr 2016 21:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 1