Asklemmy

Well recession pop is back, check out the new Lady Gaga or Kesha albums. So there is that sort of dissonance and syncopated funkier rhythms in pop music which can usually be connected to economic and social downturn.

I know that shit is worlds away from what you're referring to, I think you're looking for something more aggressive.

I think the 2022 Every Time I Die record Renegade goes pretty fucking hard, I listen to Planet Shit about once a month and just rage.

Planet B by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard goes pretty hard.

You can always check out whatever Napalm Death is doing, much of their stuff is political and social commentary, in fact I love ND lyrics.

No one has the " popular understanding of 'transgender' didn't really exist for gen x but whatever it's going to be, these songs are mostly about needing to transition but feeling unable to" that Kurt Cobain had, but Kurt did once say that early Nirvana was an attempt at copping Gang of Four, and Go4 is very political, critical and high energy. esp their first album "Entertainment!" and "Solid Gold". After that they become kinda disco.

Also consider diving into the incredible wealth of protest music produced before the 60s. The 60s is kind of understood as a high water mark for protest music, but IMO a lot of Dylan and stuff was promoted more because he was actually less political than like Phil Ochs. Woody Guthrie, Victor Jara, The Almanac Singers, Odetta, etc., had much sharper politics than most well known artists who came after.

Finally, last but best, not new but largely undiscovered and forgotten, the Swedish RATM: the 1998 album The Shape of Punk to Come by the Refused. By far, one of my absolute favorite left wing records

Regarding Palestine, a number of groups have done stuff on stage or donated money and so on, but there don't seem to be a ton that have written music specifically about the war. I'm guessing this is partly due to a lot of record labels supporting Israel on top of just so much other horrible shit going on in recent years. You could probably find more stuff if you looked for music by people from the countries directly involved.

Pretty much the same situation for Ukraine I think. Bands like Jinjer are vocally pro-Ukraine.

It's much easier to find one-off songs about a specific issue than like entire albums right now AFAICT (again probably partially because of how much crap is going on). A lot of groups also seem afraid to really hammer on specific points to avoid alienating fans I think, so it's sort of just the state of music as well IMO.

Before those, in the 60's there was CSNY, CCR, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Buffalo Springfield writing protest bangers.

Can't really think of much for this generation unfortunately. Instead we have, uh... Ye. :(

Fontaines D.C. comes to mind.

It's this super unknown band. Very underground. Nobody seems to know who they are. They're called Apostrophe.

This album came out this year

https://youtu.be/CDhTf3eaeoM

Grandson’s new album seems to be shaping up to have those tones. First released tracks hit them pretty pointedly. He’s not as refined as some of the artists you mentioned, though.

Kneecap. If you're even partly plugged in you know about Kneecap.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/arts/music/kneecap-glastonbury.html

Dub Fx? Check out Cracks in the Mirror. Definitely not as popular as your examples though

Who's that lady that wrote the folk song "It's not going away"? There are like three or four folk groups and troubadours writing protest songs for tiktok. Mon Rovia with Heavy Foot, Jesse Welles with The Poor, stuff like that.

Taylor Swift sorta got under Trump's skin, but she's not particularly political.

Gasoline by Måneskin

I'm a 90s kid and I never got into music like this. I always had single songs I liked, including from RatM, Nirvana etc but I never really cared about more than 1 or 2 songs of any individual artist, or albums. I just didn't like the other songs.

I assume the reason why you have these "recognizable" names was solely because music was sold in albums. People couldn't reaaaally get music conveniently any other way. And only the biggest ones could afford to produce albums in the first place. So even if you liked 1 or 2 songs only, you were "forced" to buy the whole album and since you got it already, why not listen to the rest. And since you didn't have infinite money to buy infinite albums you listened to the same ones again and again.

I never really did that. I bought an album and actually only listened to one song or I bought compilations. I never cared about a particular artist, only about songs. The current music acquisition process is perfect for me, I find plenty of amazing songs everywhere. Do I know the artist of my songs? Not really, and I don't care. When I meet someone, we listen to each other's music together. I vibe with and pick single new songs from them. We don't bond over artists, we bond over music. I think everything is perfect that way.

Edit: just one German example of a popular song that many people here know that criticizes shit here in the country: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y-B0lXnierw

Killswitch Engage's Atonement album has some excellent tracks with RATM-esque lyrics incl Crownsless King

Denzel Curry maybe?

Get into the punk/folk scene.

Wingnut Dishwashers Union

Pat the Bunny

Daze N Days

The Orphans

Really anything in this genre. You'd be surprised at the observations made by people living on the streets or just generally down on their luck.

Ashenspire's Hostile Architechture is, in my opinion, a fantastic album. Full-on anticapitalist metal with an operatic twist.

i know y'all will probably yell at me but in terms of the spirit of kurt musically and aesthetically you could make a case for harry styles.