The Best Protest Songs Represent the Universal Fighting Spirit of Music

“My music is protest music—not just the music that you march to, but also the music that you rest and refuel to,” Jamila Woods said in 2016. Songs of strength and resistance have existed for hundreds of years. As long as people have faced oppression, they have expressed stories of their fights and galvanized others into action through music. In the last century, some of the most famous protest songs have emerged in response to wars, systemic racism, police brutality, the prison industrial complex, sexual violence, corporate greed, and climate change.

These songs vary in tone and style, but they share a spirit of the heart that drives them. Some of the best protest songs don't even particularly sound like they fit the genre. That's what makes them so exciting. Sometimes the protest transcends singular actions of solemn demonstration, into radical collective solidarity and joy. Almost any song can be one of protest—it just needs to be empowering. Below is a collection of some of the greatest protest music of the last century.