Protest Music of the Bush Era

By the way, where did you get those shelves from in your room? They're just what I've been looking for.

Vatiska

Does it include the most overlooked protest song of all time? (https://youtu.be/Y5Orsk54xUU) I’m excited to find out!

LND

"The book about aliens" Yay! I was thrilled to win an advance copy from Goodreads and read it this past week. I liked it a lot. The characters are dealing with an existential shift in the fundamental way they understand the world. I think of the line I love from Octavia E. Butler's 'The Parable of the Sower' “All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you.” The novel moves along quickly, always telling you something new, revealing another distant corner to be looked around, a new strange thing to discover and process. I was reminded of "Sphere", by Michael Crichton, where there is a strange scientific and alien puzzle to be figured out. Cora, the protagonist, has a lot going on in her life even before 'things' start falling out of the sky. There is mystery and adventure and frightening encounters and acts of kindness and bravery and sacrifice. All in all, I read it quickly and really enjoyed it. Good job, Lindsay!

Glenn Ponka

thank you for making a long video essay again! I've missed these. Nice nod by todd in the shadows hehehe. also really love this shade of lipstick on you

Really? My dad is a huge fan, goes to her concerts, has her albums, I don't think she's especially obscure?

Gabe

Maybe this is just me, but Lindsay seems surprised when she says "Maybe Greenday Good?" Was there ever a concensus that it was bad? Like I don't know anyone who really disliked them, they always seemed to produce fairly competent, catchy songs. Was "Greenday Bad" a thing at some point?

Gabe

It's certainly not as popular or mainstream as Green Day's American Idiot, but if you do want a pointed protest song from the Bush era, listen to Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes "When the President Talks to God" off the live album Motion Sickness.

This was fascinating to watch from my growing-up-in-Canadia-at-the-time-reflection perspective. Also, Peaches. Peaches had her album 'Impeach My Bush' and a track of the same name that I listened to alongside many of the punk songs listed above by Genuine Dragon. And now I'm also curious about the 'I'm Afraid of Americans' collab with Bowie and Reznor... When did that come out? Anyhoo—what a trip. Great video.

Kait Hatch

It really, really does.

Kait Hatch

I gotta say, I'd forgotten about it, but honestly, just from a musical perspective, American Idiot slaps.

Gabe

Not to mention from the 9/11 part Leftover Crack’s Fuck World Trade. But they are probably too internal to punk and the punk scene.

Derek Horkel

As an ex-Evangelical who was a kid at that time I was so triggered to see Steven Curtis Chapman pop up unannounced

This was interesting, Lindsay. I think during the 1960's, the mainstream (big record labels) were less financially dependent on the status quo than they are today. They could *afford* to go against the government. Today, they don't want to take the financial risk. But I think you missed a lot of potential material in the punkspace for protest music. The War on Errorism -- 2003 by NOFX Recipe for Hate -- 2003 by Bad Religion The Empire Strikes First -- 2004 by Bad Religion The Terror State -- 2003 by Antiflag etc. Anyway, I take your points about popular music, but the idea there was a ton of counterculture going on in the 2000's. Oh -- I also want to say there's a lot of culture out there that thoughtfully poses specific complaints and threats to the system. If you want a full music video experience, The Coup's Guillotine is a countercultural cornucopia. And if you're looking for practicing musicians, I mean, look no further than LA's Las Cafeteras.

I had forgotten that the guy who threw his shoe at Bush actually threw both his shoes. I remember feeling like that man was a hero and that clip is still so cathartic right now. You duck those shoes you fucking war criminal.

De

oh wrong era i guess

I was wondering if NWA's F*ck the Police would come up. Was it just outside the purview of the video, too close to current events for comfort, or does it not quite fit the definition of a protest song?

I was actually visiting relatives in Texas in December 2001 (I'm from the UK) and I remember this song on the radio all the time that went something like "Osama, you're mama didn't raise you right". Was kinda wondering if it would pop up here or if it was some kind of fever dream (like a lot of that holiday).

Pete Ashton

I didn't pay attention to pop music...at all? during this era (my early teens basically) with like maybe American Idiot being the only thing that broke through (-ish) so this was, uh, educational. Turns out I didn't...miss...all that much, haha, and can now feel less bad about being a teenage shut-in Legit lolled at the King of the Hill sandal-throwing jump-cut bits (just solid) followed by YUO ARE CORECT, kudos

Eli Bildirici

So weird to see Nellie McKay mentioned. I've never met anyone else who's even heard of her. (I wonder if saying "I should've signed with Verve instead of Sony" hurt their relationship? :shrug emoji:) Also, I immediately thought of Sleater-Kinney's One Beat (2002), which is very anti-Bush (it even has a song which calls out the lack of protest songs in Combat Rock), but I'd never call S-K "popular" in the Top 40 sense. How much of the disappearance of pop music from protest stems from a popular disconnect from politics until the current 'situation'? PS ears with feet 4 lyfe

On the special relationship: I’m British and I remember seeing Love Actually in the cinema, and people actually stood up and cheered when Hugh Grant gave his “you’re not the boss of us” speech aimed at the US President.

Joanna M

The music in this video is the (unfortunate) music of my teenage years, it was super interesting to learn more about the context of this, which I definitely didn't understand at the time. Thanks for your insight, Lindsay!

Paige Lansky

Another great vid. I must admit when the Irish popped up, I had a moment of 'not this again please' having an ancient ancestor getting his arse kicked by the British Government for wanting libs for all. I'm glad to see so many compatreons getting triggered as well... That's why it's so good.

Murray Sutherland

It's been an hour since I watched the vid and I can't get American Idiot out of me head. Thanks a lot Lindsay!

Giuseppe Grasso

Always good to get new content! I was waiting for you to mention that "My united states of whatever"

Giuseppe Grasso

Surprised to remember that Against Me!'s "White People for Peace" didn't drop until 2007.

Thomas Dempsey

Anyone else remember the mid-00s Nine Inch Nails album "Year Zero" that was entirely political and anti-Bush. What I vaguely remember from the time is that critics loved it but NIN fans were less enthusiastic and felt disappointed that it didn't go into personal topics like usual and sadly I think it kinda fell out of the radar. I am not sure tho if the lack of enthusiasm from fans was maybe just my perception. And it certainly didn't ride the "happy-bouncy-angry" wave that Green Day so successfully caught.

I had it, and I just couldn't figure out what to say about it other than "it exists" so it got cut. a LOT got cut from this ep

Lindsay Ellis

"Yo George" honestly means a lot to me

Lindsay Ellis

Lindsay describing pro-war songs in the 60s as being more anti-anti-war songs is interesting. A song I think of from the era is Merle Haggard's 'The Fightin' Side', which is an anti-hippie song masquerading as a pro-military song, or maybe the other way around -- the fighting advocated in the song seems to be more against anti-war protesters than the Vietnamese. 'Okie from Muskogee' is another Merle song of the era that makes a nod in that direction ('We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street'). Merle is legitimately a country legend, but those songs ... eeesh. On another note, one song not mentioned in the video that I thought of was Bright Eye's 'When the President Talks to God', which I see Lindsay addressed in the comments as so: ' I just couldn’t think of what to say about it other than “it exists”' which is pretty fair.

Jacob Haller

Thanks for the great video! I'm sure everyone will have their "But what about *this album*" response, but I can't help but think that the songs from Team America World Police had as much of an impact as American Idiot. At least thats how I remember the 2000's as a teenager. Keep up the good work!

Barry Donnelly

The fact that trauma shouldn't have to be experienced and held onto to create art was amazingly explored in Nanette (which I know everyone has seen but I felt compelled byo point it out anyway 😂)

Keep complaining about What's Going On it only makes me want to sing it MORE

Shiny Skunk

I was happily surprised to see "Yo George" included in the post-2004 section of the video! Tori had her own song processing 9/11 with "I Can't See New York" on Scarlet's Walk. And then of course American Doll Posse, on which she created a persona to embody her political message.

Luke

You dissed my favorite bands of the time, not even mentioning Boom!, or that the drummer has the polar opposite opinion to the other members. But I still love your content, even when I'm disagreeing :)

Vazul

I was certainly expecting War on Errorism to be mentioned. Admittedly, it wasn't a big hit even though I bought the CD and played it plenty at the time. While BYOB might be more on the nose lyrically, the music video for Boom! was the most on the nose what with it featuring anti-war protests from the months before the invasion of Iraq. I suppose that would've made the conclusion a bit muddled in terms of arguing in favour more for protest than for music.

As a theatre nerd, I want to add that American Idiot was pretty much a success. Solid Broadway run, excellent tour run, lots of regional productions. It just wasn't, like, Cats.

died at the correct sax horse

Ugino

Lindsay do you need a hug? Also Avi just said "I didn't know how much I needed Bush getting a shoe thrown at his head set to the King of the Hill theme song before now"

dustycymbre

This was perfect timing for me - I've been going through a renewed interest of music history lately, which has included going through punk pop like Green Day. And I will defend them as good, for sure - Dookie's an excellent punk album and I like how they were able to renew interest in their music with American Idiot, like you said.

Dead Meat

What a lovely throwback collaboration. : ) The weird thing for me is that I was a big evangelical conservative (child) during this time so my instinctive connotations to these songs are all screwed up. My family stopped listening to the Dixie Chicks after the Bush thing and soon after we only listened to CCM until about 2005... pray for me. 😜

Not enough of a blip to make the video since there was 0 chance of it getting on the same stations playing Toby Keith, but Steve Earle did release a decent anti-war/protest album (complete with a goofy love song about Condoleezza Rice) called "The Revolution Starts Now."

Steve Johnson

Considering the subject was about protest songs, yeah, that covered that weird time in our lives rather nicely. I often remember political bands or bands with political songs like NOFX, Refused, Anti-Flag, Crass, etc who had political messages relevant before we even got to the 00’s. Oo-rah Country was less of a thing where I was, so I only heard of it in reference to this time. But that defeatism after W2 was too real

Dammit Joe

Oh my god. Hello Todd. Holy shit it has been YEARS since the two of you did something together. Also I don't know if it's intentional or not but the video is public right now.

Josh Spicer

American Idiot by Green Day was a blatant rip off of The Idiots are Taking over by NOFX. In fact, that whole album was a rip off of the War on Errorism album by NOFX........ Also, Fat Mike is the guy who organized the Rock Against Bush album and tour. I really, really hope you don’t fail to mention NOFX here. It would hurt my soul if they were just erased..

Nick Ulanowski

🤞plz mention wolf eyes 🤞

Oh snap, Lindsay and Todd!!!

apocalypsethen

OMG. You’re totally gonna talk about my favorite band NOFX, aren’t you?

Nick Ulanowski