Political Communication through Music

This semester I will be instructing a Political Communicaiton class. While trying to find new ways to reach my students, I decided to spend a week discussing music as a form of political communication. The songs must address political issues, with political being thought of as control and use of the basic resources and interests of a community or the arrangement of relationships between individuals in a community.

I have been putting together a list. Here are some example listed by artist, song, and theme. I am sure that there are multiple songs tha I am missing, especially when it comes to Rap (this is one genre of music I know little about).

(1) What am I missing? (Especially in regards to minority voices such through women artists and in rap)

(2) Why is there a dearth of political music in the 1990s? (There may be a few answers to this quesiton such as an "era of Good Feeling" after the end of the Cold War, an economic boom, the rise of Clear Channel and the centralization of playlists, the lack of social unrest to protest, and the rise of individual angst and the commodification of that angst.)

Here a brief list (there are many songs i am missing):

1960s
Barry McGuire “Eve of Destruction,” (imminent apocalypse, 1965)
Bob Dylan, “Blowing in the Wind,” (civil rights, anti-war; 1962)
Bob Dylan, “"The Times They Are a-Changin’” (Social Protest; 1963)
Creedence Clearwater Rivival “Fortunate Son,” (Those that did not fight, 1969)
Merle Haggard, "Oakie from Miskogee," (Anti-Protestors; 1960s)

1970s
Marvin Gaye, “What’s Going On,” (Vietnam; 1972)
John Lennon, “Imagine,” (anti-war, anti-establishment, anti-religion, anti-corporation, 1971)
John Lennon, “Give Peace A Chance,” (1972)

1980s
Bruce Springsteen, “Born in the U.S.A,” (Soldiers Retuning from War, 1984)
Nina- “99 Red Balloons” (Nuclear Proliferation, 1984)
R.E.M. “Orange Crush” (Vietnam)
U2, “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” (The Troubles in Northern Ireland, 1983)
Fugazi, “Suggestion” (Objectification of Women” 1989)
Public Enemy, “Fight the Power,” (1989)

1990s
Arrested Development, “Tennessee,” (lynching; 1992)
Guns N’ Roses, “Civil War; (a tribute to anti-war songs; 1992)
The Cranberries, “Zombie,” (The Toubles, Easter Rising; 1994)
Rage Against the Machine (multiple songs though there may be something rotten in Denmark about this band)

2000s
Alan Jackson, “Where were you,” (September 11th; 2002)
Toby Keith, “Country of the Red, White, Blue, Blue” (September 11th; 2002)
Dixie Chicks, “Travelin Soldier,” (Anti-War; 2002)
Dixie Chicks, “Not Ready to Make Nice,” (Anti-Bush Remarks,, 2006)
Bruce Springsteen, “Into the Fire” (September 11th; 2002)
Green Day, “American Idiot,” (Ridicules American under GWB; 2004)