Do you think there鈥檚 no good protest music these days? So did I, until I started looking for it. Every month, I listen to it all, then select the best that relates to that month鈥檚 political news. Here鈥檚 the round-up for June 2025.
01. STEREOLAB - INSTANT HOLOGRAMS ON METAL FILM听
At the start of June, climate activist Greta Thunberg set sail for Gaza with a boat full of protesters taking aid to starving Palestinians. Award-winning media analysts Media Lens detailed how as a "narcissist" for her actions. As writer Ricky Hale put it on X: "Amazing that we live in a time when starving people are being lured into the open to be gunned down by Israel and who tried to feed them." Her protest came days after Anglo-French band , which couches apt lyrics in ear-pleasing melodies. "The war economy is inviolable violently," they sing. "Suppresses all intelligence that conflicts with the stakes of those who drive it." Days later, Israel struck Iran in an illegal and unprovoked attack. The US joined in the bombing, egged on by a cheerleading media. 听 听 听
02. RON POPE - THINGS JESUS DIDN'T SAY
Many Jewish people are, of course, opposed to Israel's genocide, including Tune-Yards singer Merrill Garbus. Her indie band's new LP features 鈥淗eartbreak鈥, a song about her agony amid the war in Gaza. 鈥淚 felt and feel and am working through a lot of on June 16. Country musician Ron Pope, who has clocked up billions of streams, also addresses the on his new EP, released on June 20. "Jesus said don't help the poor," he sings, "unless they've filed the proper forms and weren't born in El Salvador, then traveled a long way. Blessed is the war machine. The merciless, the persecution. Poor man don't deserve a thing for which he can not pay. Wait, those are things Jesus didn't say." The record came as US President Donald Trump deployed the army against pro-immigrant protesters in Los Angeles. 听 听 听
03. NEIL YOUNG - TALKIN TO THE TREES听
Trump followed that with a military parade for his birthday on June 14. It was met by huge "No Kings" protests and . The parade featured the repeated playing of 鈥淔ortunate Son鈥, Creedence Clearwater Revival's song about wealthy Vietnam War draft dodgers. That led many to ask whether rich Vietnam War draft dodger . Definitely trolling Trump was Neil Young. Fresh from in his war of words with Trump, to attend one of his concerts. He then released his latest LP a day before Trump's birthday. Its song , and on "Let's Roll Again", Young urges US car makers to go electric, singing: "Build us something that won't kill our kids, runs real clean." But he rules out , Tesla CEO Elon Musk, with the lyric: "If you're a fascist, get a Tesla." 听 听
04. RYAN CASSATA - GREETINGS FROM ECHO PARK, CA听
Also inspired by Springsteen is the , released a week earlier. Its title and artwork both reference Springsteen's debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. But also just like Springsteen, the queer Los Angeles-based musician questions the "American Dream" - the notion that any American can achieve success. On , he addresses life under rulers such as Trump - a homophobe who is waging war on diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives - and Musk, a transphobe whose war on what he calls "the woke mind virus" began with his disgust at his own child becoming trans. "Maybe it's awful how I start to sink on the brink of too many thoughts," sings Cassata. 鈥淚 spent hours and hours thinking of oppressors in power, like when will I be free? I been preaching since I was a teen, but when you鈥檙e queer, there鈥檚 no American dream.鈥
05. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - TRACKS II听
On June 27, Springsteen himself released not one, but seven albums - , recorded from 1983 to 2018. Discussing the release with The New York Times, he laid into Trump yet again. , Springsteen attacked against pro-immigrant activists. 鈥淭here are communities all across America now that have taken in immigrants and migrant workers," said the rock star. "So what鈥檚 going on at the moment to me is disgusting, and a terrible tragedy." Yet his new collection shows he has been addressing divisive politics in his country for more than 40 years. On , recorded in 1983, he sings about a boy's initiation into the Ku Klux Klan in the words of the boy's father: "When the war between the races leaves us in a fiery dream, it'll be a Klansman who will wipe this country clean - this, son, is my dream." 听 听 听
06. GARBAGE - LET ALL THAT WE IMAGINE TO BE THE LIGHT听
Addressing that same racism is the new album from "Stupid Girl" hitmakers Garbage. On "There鈥檚 No Future In Optimism", the US band's Scottish singer, Shirley Manson, . "The night is dark and full of terror," she sings. "The air is thick with helicopters. People marching, cops are swarming. The city鈥檚 on fire and the sirens are screaming." Discussing it, she said: "I was changed entirely by seeing the footage of that cop kneeling on George Floyd鈥檚 neck. In Los Angeles there were huge protests." The LP's song with the words: "Make no mistake friend, they hate your women, they rob your children and they love their guns." As news of the LP's politics spread, , but Manson hit back, slamming the article for trying "to put a woman like me in my place鈥.
07. JUNGAJI - BETTING ON BLAK听
Police racism was also the focus of protests in Australia on June 1. Vigils were held for Aboriginal man Kumanjayi White, who was killed while being restrained by plainclothes police officers inside a Coles supermarket in Mpartnwe/Alice Springs on May 27. His grandfather noted that White's death came on the fifth anniversary of the killing of George Floyd. As the protests kicked off a national week of action to stop Black deaths in custody, Aboriginal soul singer . The musician is the chair of the Dhadjowa Foundation, which helps Indigenous families whose relatives died in custody, and . 鈥淚 tell politicians, rather than spending money building concrete jails, look at programs such as hip-hop festivals and sports matches to build up their respect for themselves and for their communities,鈥 he said.
08. ROGER KNOX - BULUUNARBI AND THE OLD NORTH STAR听
Politicians' spending priorities were laid bare on June 12, when the US announced a review into its AUKUS defence deal with Australia. Despite Aboriginal people across Australia being mired in poverty, the government has pledged to spend $33 million a day on AUKUS for the next 30 years. Yet on the same day the review was announced, The Sydney Morning Herald's chief political commentator suggested to the deal. Addressing that inequality and the incarceration of Aboriginal people is the new album from revered Indigenous singer Roger Knox, released days earlier. Its song "Prison Wall" reflects the Gomeroi artist's , which he sees as an opportunity to uplift and connect with those inside. "I've been performing in the prisons for many years," he said. "It's a place where you have to give it everything you've got."
09. JENNIFER REID - THE BALLAD OF THE GATEKEEPER听
Activists protested Australia's continued attacks on Aboriginal people on June 2, as they marched against the approval of Woodside's gas extension, a "climate bomb" that threatens to destroy ancient Indigenous rock art. The same day, more than 2000 people rallied in Boorloo/Perth to protest mining in Jarrah native forests. That action came as Peruvian indigenous group , with all proceeds going to help fight deforestation in the Amazon. As drifted across New York and Britain, Canadian band Lowest Of The Low released their new . That was followed by the by English folk musician Jennifer Reid, on which she tackles climate change. On "When the rivers rise, so must we", she sings: "The greed, injustice, and fires and death pave the path for our children's fate."
10. PULP - MORE听
Reid recently played as the warm-up act for British indie band Pulp, who released their first album in 24 years on June 7. On its track "Farmer's Market", singer Jarvis Cocker also cites climate change as he intones: "That's when I saw you, babe, in the car park of the farmer's market, backlit by the sunset, or maybe the fires marking the end of the world." Discussing the LP, he said:. I feel that many of the modern problems are because people are misled about climate change and see nature as an enemy that will knock down their house or give them skin cancer." The album is as lofty as the lanky singer, standing head and shoulders above almost everything else out there. But it is in the intervening years whose bluntness best reflects the despair at today's global woes: "Cunts are still running the world."
[Mat Ward has been writing for听麻豆传媒听since 2009. He also wrote听听and听makes听political music.听]
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