I’m a huge fan of protest music and have done a fair bit of study of this history of using music to express dissatisfaction with social, political and other problems throughout history. A little over a year ago, I compiled my list of the greatest protest songs ever recorded.
It was a fun exercise that led me across different genres of music and diverse eras from Woody Guthrie to Rage Against the Machine.
Protest music has flourished in the last few years experiencing a renaissance for the first time since the Vietnam era.
I decided to compile a playlist of notable anti-war songs through the year. Unfortunately, due to some limitations on Finetune, it is not definitive. I can only do a maximum of three songs per artist so I had to choose the top Dylan anti-war tunes to include.
I also omitted some classics to provide a greater cross-section of artists. Alas, some great songs were missing as well. But if you are interested in 45 songs that express a great deal of discomfort with war, then this list is for you. You can access the song list here.