This Machine Kills Fascists: 10 times music fought the regime
Art can be used to exercise many different emotions: love, sadness, joy, and anger, to name but a few. For as long as people have utilised art as entertainment or escape, they have also used their art form as a weapon against oppression or a tool of social change and activism. Whether that comes in the form of folk hero Woody Guthrie writing ‘This Machine Kills Fascists’ on his guitar or Childish Gambino lamenting the state of life in the US on ‘This is America’, protest music has always been present.
Long before the advent of punk music, musicians had been creating music that challenged the status quo and raised awareness for various issues. From Harriet Tubman using music to communicate with travellers on the Underground Railroad to Marvin Gaye asking ‘What’s going on?’ providing an invaluable account of the experience of many Black Americans in the 20th century, music as an art form has always been a useful vehicle for social change.
Despite claims by Sleaford Mods – who recently revealed themselves to be apolitical at the very sight of a Palestinian scarf – that “Protest songs, much like the majority of protests, don’t do anything”, there are actually countless examples of protest music that have had a real and lasting impact on society as a whole. Of course, there are some examples of artists using social issues to raise their profile or flog an extra album, but generally, these are fewer than those trying to incite actual change.
When punk exploded in the mid-1970s, music fighting the regime became the norm. A countless array of bands, including the likes of Crass, The Slits and The Clash opened the public eyes to the possibility that music could question authority and challenge social norms. Although music had achieved this previously, it had never been so widespread before, and punk music certainly inspired more popular examples of protest music later.
So, with that, let us count down ten of the best examples of music sticking it to the man and having a real-world legacy of social change.
10 times music fought the regime:
‘Strange Fruit’ – Billie Holiday
A skilled jazz singer with an uncanny ability to make every word she sings seem significant, Billie Holiday always sang from the soul. Lady Day reached the peak of her commercial success in the 1940s with recordings like ‘Lover Man’ or ‘Trav’lin Light’. However, it was her 1939 track ‘Strange Fruit’ that made the biggest impact on fans of the singer.
The haunting song is derived from a poem protesting against the lynching of Black Americans. Lynching was commonplace in the American south from the pre-Civil War period all the way through to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. As a result of Birth of a Nation’s release, a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan was caused in 1915, and the lynching of Black people became more and more common in the US. In fact, 1919 was claimed as one of the worst years for lynching in all of American history, even compared to the days before the abolition of slavery.
‘Strange Fruit’ contrasts the indescribable horror of lynchings with the pastoral beauty of the American south, “Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh, Then the sudden smell of burning flesh”. The haunting quality of Holiday’s vocals on this track – and the sheer emotion that can be plainly heard in her performance – is enough to send shivers down your spine. Although it was a struggle for the singer to find somebody willing to record and release this single due to fears about how it would be received in the south, it has an enduring legacy as one of the first examples of the fight for civil rights being incorporated into popular music.
‘All You Fascists’ – Woody Guthrie
When it comes to protest singers, Woody Guthrie is perhaps the poster boy. One of the most significant artists in American folk music, Guthrie was noted for his socialist ideals and close ties to communist groups in the US. Despite the extreme hatred for communism in the US during the Red Scare and Cold War, his song ‘This Land is Your Land’ was deemed so significant to American culture that it was committed to the National Recording Registry in 2002.
An out-spoken anti-fascist, Guthrie released ‘All You Fascists’ in 1944. One of his most notable songs, it is often thought about within the context of the Second World War. Another Guthrie track, ‘Tear the Fascists Down’, had discussed the effort of allied armies to rid the world of Nazism and the dictatorships of Hitler and Mussolini. The lyrics of ‘All You Fascists’, though released the year before the world war came to an end, discusses social justice issues much closer to home.
“Your poll tax and Jim Crow, and greed has got to go,” the folk singer asserts, reminding audiences that fascism is rife at home in the US through discriminatory Jim Crow laws against Black Americans. The singer also namedrops the trade union movement in the song, making no mistake that once the war in Europe is over, America must look at the problems inherent in its own land and make some changes.
‘Now That the Buffalo’s Gone’ – Buffy Sainte-Marie
One issue of social justice in the US that often gets downplayed, forgotten or deliberately ignored is the fight for indigenous rights. Of course, it is well known that European settlers in North America massacred indigenous tribes, stole their land, destroyed their culture and forcibly implemented a Western way of life upon those people through a policy of Manifest Destiny. It is often forgotten, though, that the plight of First Nations in North America continued well into the 20th, and indeed 21st, centuries.
Awareness for this issue was raised, once again, through the medium of folk music. Buffy-Sainte Marie recorded various tracks detailing the struggle for indigenous rights in North America, but ‘Now That the Buffalo’s Gone’ is perhaps the best-known example. The title of the track refers to the mass slaughter of buffalo in the United States in the 1870s. Buffalo were killed en masse with the express intention of destroying the nomadic lifestyle that indigenous tribes had enjoyed for centuries. Traditionally, tribes would follow the buffalo herds around, using them as a source of food and as a means of honouring nature and the Earth. With the buffalo numbers rapidly reduced, this essentially led to the end of indigenous life as it was known.
‘Mississippi Goddam’ – Nina Simone
If Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit’ had started the cultural frontier of the civil rights movement, then Nina Simone continued that legacy with ‘Mississippi Goddam’. Simone had become notable for her 1959 debut album Little Girl Blue, a triumph of jazz brilliance that placed her among the most skilled jazz pianists of the period. She built upon her success by performing pop songs in order to raise money for her studies in classical music. However, as the civil rights movement raged on through the 1950s and 1960s, Simone found herself becoming more and more frustrated with the position of Black people in the USA.
Written in response to the racially motivated murders of Emmett Till and Medgar Evers in Mississippi, in addition to more widespread issues facing Black people at the time, ‘Mississippi Goddam’ showcased a much more raw, angry side of Simone than her previous work. The musician later called the song her “first civil rights song”, of which a few other examples followed, including ‘Ain’t Got No’ and ‘To Be Young, Gifted and Black’.
There is no shortage of fantastic music from the civil rights period that raised awareness of the plight of Black people in America. From Gil Scott-Heron to Marvin Gaye, many prominent Black artists took a stand against the discrimination faced by them due to the colour of their skin. However, the sheer rage of ‘Mississippi Goddam’ makes it an unforgettable track that acts as a perfect summation of the mood at the time.
‘I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag’ – Country Joe and the Fish
The 1960s was a tumultuous time in American history. Not only did you have the civil rights movement, the assassination of JFK, the indigenous rights movement and the rise of second-wave feminism, but there was also the ongoing war in Vietnam.
US Troops had been fighting against the communist Viet Cong in Vietnam since the mid-1950s, but it was in the ’60s, as a result of televised coverage of the war, that a growing anti-war movement sprang up among young students in America. Blossoming with the ‘peace and love’ hippie subculture, the anti-war counter-cultural movement was perhaps one of the best-soundtracked protests of all time. With tracks by the likes of Bob Dylan, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Rolling Stones all becoming synonymous with anti-Vietnam war protests, it is difficult to pick just one track to sum up the period.
Ultimately, though, the anti-war movement is best summarised in the Country Joe track ‘I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag’. Setting it apart from other songs on this list, the track uses satire and dark humour to protest against the attitude that young American men should feel proud, excited even, to be sent across the world to die for their government. With a notable performance at Woodstock, in which Country Joe donned an army shirt, you can see how the lyrics, “What are we fighting for? Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn, next stop is Vietnam”, encapsulated the feeling of many people at the festival, who did not see any reason for the needless deaths of soldiers in Vietnam.
‘Oh Bondage Up Yours!’ – X-Ray Spex
When you think of music that challenges the regime, you probably think of punk music. The movement, which had its roots in the fast-paced garage rock of The Stooges, erupted in the UK in 1976. One of the most notable examples of how the genre challenged the establishment came in the form of the Sex Pistols track ‘God Save the Queen’, which protested against Elizabeth II’s silver jubilee and was subsequently banned by the BBC. However, the work of Sex Pistols was shortlived and only so much social change can come from a glorified manufactured boy band.
One of the most enduring rebellions of the punk rock boom comes in the form of ‘Oh Bondage Up Yours!’ by X-Ray Spex. Fronted by Poly Styrene, one of the first of a generation of mixed-race kids to grow up in the UK, the track is fuelled by defiant anger at consumerism and the shackles placed upon women in society. Throughout her career, Styrene was always looked down upon both by her contemporaries and those in the music industry for being a defiantly individual woman in an industry dominated by white men. She later referred to the track as “a call for liberation”.
Not only did X-Ray Spex become a prominent voice in the punk scene, but this song, in particular, had a huge influence on later movements, such as the riot grrrl scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile all list Poly Styrene as a huge inspiration to them, for proving beyond all doubt that women can be angry too, and they can do it better than you.
‘Zombie’ – Fela Kuti and Afrika 70
Fela Kuti is an undeniably important artist when it comes to political and protest music. His activism in Africa throughout the course of his career has forever cemented his place as a musician of the people. His music often covered themes of government corruption, colonialism, and poverty, as these were issues that plagued his native Nigeria.
‘Zombie’, the title track from Fela’s 1976 album, provides a scathing critique of soldiers in the Nigerian military. He compared the soldiers who would blindly follow the orders of corrupt officials in the government to zombies, “Go and kill! Go and die!”. Although backed with the funky horns of Fela’s unique Afrobeat style, his delivery on this track is undeniably angry. The track proved to be a hit with audiences and raised awareness for the issues of corruption and abuse of military power in Nigeria, both within the country itself and on a global stage.
Unsurprisingly, the Nigerian Armed Forces, who ruled the country at the time of the track’s release, were furious. Upon hearing the track, the military was sent to destroy the Kalakuta Republic, a commune that Fela Kuti had set up. In the process of destroying the commune and savagely beating Kuti, the military also killed Fela’s mother by throwing her from a window. In response, Fela delivered his mother’s coffin to the Supreme Military Headquarters. Despite the fact he was very nearly beaten to death during the raid, Kuta continued to write and release music which criticised the military rule of Nigeria, and his legacy is still very much alive to this day.
‘Ghost Town’ – The Specials
The 1980s, according to nostalgia addicts, was a time of excess in the UK. Hairspray, bright colours, flash cars, and Duran Duran music videos have become eminent for the decade. For the vast majority of people in working-class communities across the north of England and the Midlands, however, their vision of the ’80s was very different. The country had struggled through the 1970s, dealing with the winter of discontent and economic downturn, but as the country moved into a new decade, the domestic policy of Margaret Thatcher began to take hold.
Thatcher decimated the industrial towns and cities in the north of England, the effects of which are still seen today in places like Barnsley and Bradford. The people were suffering, and all they had to watch were the glamorous music videos of people on yachts on Top of the Pops.
The Specials had never been a group to stray away from social issues. The founders of the 2 Tone movement, designed to unite black and white youths together under a common love of ska and punk music, their songs covered topics ranging from the National Front to contraception. Their magnum opus came with ‘Ghost Town’ in 1981. A social commentary piece evoking images of violence, unemployment and urban decay, ‘Ghost Town’ held a mirror up to the face of Thatcherite Britain. The song became a rallying cry for protests against Thatcher’s government, helped out by the fact it was released at the same time riots were occurring across the country as a result of police discrimination against Black youths.
‘Fight the Power’ – Public Enemy
Back across the Atlantic, Black Americans were still facing untold levels of discrimination in their own country. One of the predominant groups pushing for Black liberation was Public Enemy. The Long Island hip-hop group fronted by Chuck D is noted for the political messages. Tracks like ‘911 is a Joke’, which criticised the disproportionately long wait time for emergency services responding to emergencies involving Black people, raised the group’s profile as a band with a message.
‘Fight the Power’ was first conceived as the theme for Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, which itself deals with the issue of heightened racial tensions in America. Somewhat eclipsing Lee’s film, the Public Enemy track has since been viewed as one of the most influential songs in the history of hip-hop music. The group’s bassist, Brian Hardgroove, has said the track is “about fighting abuse of power”.
The themes explored on ‘Fight the Power’ were indicative of the attitudes of other hip-hop groups at the time, such as N.W.A., who repeatedly rapped about issues surrounding police brutality and the abuse of power by police in the USA. None of those tracks summed it all up as succinctly as ‘Fight the Power’, though.
‘Killing in the Name’ – Rage Against the Machine
“Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me!” is a prime example of music fighting the regime and sticking it to the man. Rage Against the Machine were one of the defining bands of the 1990s, and their track ‘Killing in the Name’ is still utilised as a protest song against police brutality around the world.
Blending elements of punk, hip-hop and metal, the song’s lyrics were inspired by the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the beating of Rodney King, “Some of those that work forces, are the same that burn crosses”, comparing police officers to members of the KKK. The sentiment of the track returned again after the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020.
In many ways, the song has eclipsed its original meaning and is now used as a general protest song against the powers that be. In 2009, the track was used as a protest against the music industry during a campaign to get it to Christmas number one in the UK in order to prevent the winner of The X Factor from claiming the number one spot. During this campaign, Rage were asked to perform the track for the BBC, but without swearing. Surely asking a band called Rage Against the Machine not to swear was an effortless task? It went about as well as you would expect.
