Music with a Message: Week 1

I’ve been planning my first week of songs for my new community radio show and thought to share the playlist with you. I have been experiencing first hand how difficult it is to locate political music when you really want to - it’s not impossible to find but not readily available as a discrete category of music. Between my own music collection, eMusic and the odd iTunes purchase I have been accumulating quite a few new and excellent tracks. My ideas for next weekend look like this:

Julian Lennon - Salt Water
John Butler Trio - Treat Your Mama & The Gov Did Nothing
Pink - Mr President
NoFX - Franco Un-American
Green Day - American Idiot
Yothu Yindi - Treaty
The Get Up Mob - From Little Things Big Things Grow
Blue King Brown - One Day & Stand Up
Bob Marley - Get Up Stand Up
Ben Harper - With My Own Two Hands
Billy Bragg – Ideology & Days Like These

This is a good mix of music addressing the misuse of power by governments, the environment, apathy, indigenous rights, and the need to be politically motivated. I particularly like Pink’s Dear Mr President – the version I have is sung with the Indigo Girls.