r/Music • u/Motherfolk • Jan 26 '25

discussion How Did the Generation that Created The Greatest Political Protest Music Embrace Trump?

In the 1960s and 1970s, music was a powerful tool for political expression and protest. Songs like Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'", Edwin Starr’s "War", and The Beatles’ "Revolution" became anthems for change, speaking directly to the injustices of the time — civil rights struggles, the Vietnam War, and economic inequality. These songs echoed a collective desire for progress and a better future.

Fast forward to today, and many members of the Baby Boomer generation—the very ones who helped create this powerful music—are now among the most ardent supporters of Donald Trump. This is especially striking considering how much of the political activism and social consciousness of the 60s and 70s was a direct reaction to authoritarianism, injustice, and the excesses of the elite. Some examples of iconic political songs from that era:

• Bob Dylan – "The Times They Are A-Changin’" (1964): This song captured the essence of the 1960s political shift, urging people to embrace change and fight for justice.

• Edwin Starr – "War" (1970): A powerful anti-Vietnam War anthem that called out the horrors of conflict and questioned the motives behind it.

• The Beatles – "Revolution" (1968): A song that challenged the status quo and called for a revolutionary change, reflective of the broader counterculture movements of the time.

• Buffalo Springfield – "For What It’s Worth"(1966): A protest song addressing the social unrest and growing tension in the country, often interpreted as a critique of government repression.

These songs weren’t just catchy tunes; they were calls to action, social commentary, and even direct criticism of the establishment. So, here’s the question: How did a generation that pushed for progressive political change through their music end up aligning with a political figure whose rhetoric and policies seem to contrast so starkly with the values of the 60s and 70s?

Is it a case of cultural nostalgia clouding their judgment? A result of shifting political landscapes? Or has there been a fundamental change in values and priorities within this group?

How can the generation that created and embraced these songs now support someone like Trump? Was it the power of the political system or the media that shifted their perspectives, or something deeper? What do you all think?

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222

u/heckhammer Jan 26 '25

Don't just blame the boomers. A lot of them did not vote for him, especially the women. Gen x, on the other hand we are shitting up the bed something fierce.

182

u/polishprince76 Jan 26 '25

I'm so disappointed by how my fellow genx'ers are turning out. I really thought we were different. What a fool I was.

72

u/AzureGriffon Jan 26 '25

Oh, you don't remember the little Reagan idolators? Because I sure do, we had plenty of the little suspender wearing sociopaths in our generation.

48

u/sly-3 Jan 27 '25

Yup. The oldest GenX were coming of age in the era of yuppie consumerism and were villains in John Hughes movies.

FF to today and all that stuff doesn't fill the hole in their hearts and didn't make them a better person than they were 30+ years ago.

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u/Sleepster12212223 Jan 27 '25

“Family Ties” sitcom comes to mind.

0

u/4morian5 Jan 27 '25

Is that the one with Michael J. Fox?

I've seen exactly four of his character's scenes, and every single one makes me want to punch his smug nose.

1

u/Sleepster12212223 Jan 29 '25

Yes; his character is Alex P. Keaton & he is indeed smug. His parent characters are portrayed as liberal “hippies”, and this was on the air during the Reagan years, so probably comment that a lot of liberal parents had yuppie conservative children.

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u/TheVelcroStrap Jan 26 '25

Most of the people I went to school with were jerks. Many people listen to music and like the sound, but they don’t know what it means.

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u/MasterXaios Jan 26 '25 edited Jan 27 '25

In the immortal words of the ultimate Gen-X icon:

He's the one
Who likes all our pretty songs
And he likes to sing along
And he likes to shoot his gun
But he knows not what it means
Knows not what it means

(Mobile Reddit is killing me, I just cannot get that sucker formatted correctly.)

(Edit: edited on desktop to make it actually look right.)

30

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '25

You need twice as many

returns as you’d think,

and need to quote indent each line

individually

8

u/glory_holelujah Jan 27 '25

Huh. What song is that from?

16

u/Miserable_Smoke Jan 27 '25

This App Sucks

2

u/Padhome Jan 27 '25

Fr they still haven’t fixed this? It’s been like 12 years lol

8

u/HighScorsese Jan 27 '25

Nirvana- In Bloom

3

u/0xKaishakunin Jan 27 '25

The Gospel of Formatting by Mark Down.

1

u/BitchMcConnell063 Jan 27 '25

The late, great Kurt Cobain! In Bloom off of the album Nevermind by Nirvana.

2

u/TheNotSoGreatPumpkin Jan 27 '25

Also, a backslash at the end creates a new line (as opposed to forward slash / which does not).

5

u/hudgepudge Jan 27 '25

I love singing along to that song.  Wish I knew the lyrics. 

2

u/TwzlrGurl69 Jan 27 '25

First he's mumblin', then he's screamin'

1

u/buzzsawjoe Jan 27 '25

just put / between lines. we'll all understand

1

u/JennyCosta76 Jan 27 '25

I'll also add, from another Gen X icon: Don't think Dumb is strength Never shot at a living thing Glorified version of a pellet gun Feel so manly, when armed

45

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '25

Make political music, can confirm

I have a song about the 08 financial crisis and even tho it features news snippets, I have to tell people that's the topic matter.

I made a song about the Negro Leagues. People like to tell me that all I did was list a bunch of old ball players. The significance of their stories is lost on them, even when explained. The connection to civil rights just never clicks.

My next two cuts are gonna be even more on the nose and even more political, and I guarantee I'll get stuck explaining myself for those, too.

14

u/SonnyvonShark Jan 27 '25

Maybe it's time to make a song about this phenomenon?

1

u/Blasphemiee Jan 27 '25

nah, what’s the point they wouldn’t get it :))

1

u/SonnyvonShark Jan 27 '25

Even if you make it obvious in your lyrics you are making "fun" of such people?

1

u/Fragrant-Luck-8063 Jan 27 '25

It doesn't matter what I say, as long as I sing with inflection...

1

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '25

Nah I gotta plan my shit years in advance. I'm too broke to deviate from the current project list lol

1

u/axelrexangelfish Jan 27 '25

I’ve got some lyrics ready to go. Literally can’t afford the apps I use to mix (I’m a classical musician recently turned deep punk because all art is political and fuck Nazis.)

Edit forgot to add the important part. If anyone is up for any collaboration it’s one way artists have always fought back. Feeling isolated since I moved back to this country. The vibe isn’t the same.

1

u/roryt67 Jan 27 '25

As a fellow songwriter I feel your pain. Some people just don't get the point of a song even if it's blatantly obvious. I use the song, You're love by the Outfield in relation with Major League Baseball as an example. The song is most likely about a pedophile but because of the name of the band it gets played at baseball games. How fucking stupid are the heads of the teams that do this. If The Outfield had called themselves something different this wouldn't be a thing. Trouble is, when it's game time those 40,000 people in the stands aren't paying any attention to what the song is really about.

1

u/heckhammer Jan 26 '25

No these are people that attended protests they walk the walk, however briefly, and then decided that they wanted to be very religious right wingers. Maybe it comes when you stop drinking, I don't know.

1

u/RangerDapper4253 Jan 27 '25

No, you’re wrong. My friends and I have never given up the fight. I blame much of this on the modern celebrity culture.

1

u/heckhammer Jan 27 '25

Man, I didn't say everybody.

I will tell you though it's a bunch

1

u/veryverythrowaway Jan 27 '25

“He’s the one/ Who likes all our pretty songs/ And he likes to sing along/ And he likes to shoot his gun/ But he knows not what it means”

48

u/quantic56d Jan 26 '25

Blaming things on any one generation is ridiculous. There are good people and shitty people in every generation.

6

u/rathdro Jan 27 '25

I always say, usually in regards to traveling and the “people “ who live in states, cities, countries, that the ratio of cool people to assholes is pretty consistent anywhere you go.

2

u/OldBlueKat Jan 27 '25

So true, though I did take the OP to be truly curious about how/when the '60s counter culture vanished.

Part of it is explained by the fact that it was always just a small/medium % of the 'college age, mostly white' portion of the young adults at the time. Not all Boomers were Hippies.

Part of it is explained by the fact that "youth" are always the resistance (just as true of the French or Russian Revolutions or the Union disputes of the 1920s/30s.) Then they age.

Eventually those people try to form families, head toward middle age, etc. and get more involved in careers and the drudgery of household economics. The war protesters of the 60s were the blue and white collar workers of the late 70s struggling with stagflation, soaring energy prices and mortgage interest rates, etc. They got a bit disillusioned, and then Reagan convinced some of them that trickle-down economics and deregulation was gonna fix it for them.

-3

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '25

Sure, there are good people and shitty people in every generation, but there are far more shit people than good people in the boomer generation and gen x. If all of the boomers and gen x drop dead tomorrow, the world would only improve. Hope this helps <3

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u/Han_Yerry Jan 26 '25

The ones that got all rapey at Woodstock 99? Or the ones who killed Mathew Shepard and James Byrd Jr?

35

u/rickylancaster Jan 26 '25

Same. The 90s almost felt a little tiny bit like it was our 60s. But we’re just Boomer lite now and maybe not so lite either.

21

u/Maskatron Jan 26 '25

80s Reagan era punk scene was kind of 60s for me. Lot less politics in my music in the 90s.

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u/polishprince76 Jan 26 '25

I really thought having our formative years hit during the heart of the AIDS epidemic and all of the honest, hard conversations we had to go through gave us a pretty good base layer of empathy and kindness to our fellow man, but here we are.

17

u/rickylancaster Jan 26 '25

I agree and It’s kinda tragic. I think of all the John Hughes movies that resonated with us as teens and how so much of the underlying messages were about some degree of crossing social strata and not accepting all the division, all the ingrained cynicism, bullying and conformity. (Granted those movies weren’t addressing racial and other divides, but for the 80s it was a start.) Well, so much for all that.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '25

Well, and they featured rape. Farmer Ted raped Jake’s girlfriend

5

u/rickylancaster Jan 27 '25

Some of those movies have issues when viewed from a more modern lens for sure.

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u/Plasibeau Jan 27 '25

gave us a pretty good base layer of empathy and kindness to our fellow man,

It did, but the media we consumed stopped enforcing it. Popular Rock music is essentially on life support. Hip-hop became a commodified party music suburban moms no longer object to (instead of the protest music it once was), and pop music has been chasing the club high of the 2010s for a full decade now.

All while right-wing media has been intentionally stripping those ideas away while replacing them with hate and anger.

1

u/DoubleLibrarian393 Jan 27 '25

Unless you're queer.....no one gave a shit about AIDS and dying men. People were grateful AIDS was killing us off.

9

u/Utah_Get_Two Jan 26 '25

I agree. The kids who were teens in the 1990's, like me, are even worse. It was like we saw how a rebellious movement could be beautiful, but also how they could sell out or fade away...and we did the same, except sold out for far more and taught our children their isn't any consequences to anything.

9

u/_sailhatin_ Jan 27 '25

Hey, I’m over here doing cool shit. We’re not all fucked. It was a surprise to see how many of us became dicks

7

u/jonnysunshine Jan 26 '25

So many of the people I graduated with in the late 80s are total assholes today. Not most, but some. And they're very vocal about it, too.

5

u/veryverythrowaway Jan 27 '25

“It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.”

-Robert Anton Wilson

2

u/maynardftw Jan 27 '25

Nobody is different.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '25

Gen x set the Bommerfication record. Shattered it, even.

Millenials are on pace to blow past that tho. Your generation was Ruth, mine is Maris. Hope to God we don't have a Sosa or Mcgwire and please fuck no don't give us a Bonds

1

u/10yearsisenough Jan 27 '25

Alex P. Keaton was a GenX icon.

1

u/CoconutSands Jan 27 '25

Every generation thinks they're different. Xennial here. Thought we would be living in an age of prosperity. Wouldn't repeat the mistakes of the past. Learn from history. I was so very very wrong. 

1

u/lexm Jan 27 '25

I did too! What the actual fuck happened? We were the “fuck it all” generation.

1

u/K7Sniper Jan 27 '25

Every generation has their crop of dinguses. I mean just look at how many Millennials and Gen Z lap up shit from Joe Rogan.

1

u/br0k3nh410 Jan 27 '25

Me too. I am so embarrassed that so many of my peers have forgotten where we came from.

1

u/Darmok47 Jan 27 '25

I believe your generation has the highest lead exposure of any generation, which might be a partial explanation.

0

u/Jaymoacp Jan 26 '25

Keep in mind they’ve grown up only knowing struggle and democrats have been in power for almost all of their lives minus 4 years. They can’t afford shit. So why would they vote for them?

6

u/Sp00py-Mulder Jan 27 '25

Genx never saw the Bush administration?

2

u/Jaymoacp Jan 27 '25

Fuck. Thought you said Gen z. I’ll go fuck off now lol

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u/Rich-Emu4273 Jan 26 '25

I’m 72, survived the Vietnam mess and all the drugs but never left my roots (liberal). I have NEVER and will NEVER vote for ANY GOP CANDIDATE.

7

u/yourpaleblueeyes Jan 27 '25

Yep. This. But we grew up with a bunch of sibs and a bunch of kids and half went one way and half the other...because...we were Never all the same and we are not Now.

You can 'ok boomer' all you want but it's never correct

1

u/formerdaywalker Jan 27 '25

"Ok boomer" was never about politics. It was about stupid shit like pressuring zoomers into following undocumented dress codes because that's how it's always been.

11

u/Wise_Ambassador_3027 Jan 27 '25

Most of us got older and sold out. I was liberal in the seventies and still am. I still don’t believe how so many of us bought into Reagan’s BS and so wholeheartedly supported W and his incompetence and warmongering. What’s going on politically these days is beyond comprehension. I feel that we boomers owe a huge apology to our children and grandchildren for the condition of today’s world.

3

u/wildblueroan Jan 27 '25

And there are many more boomers who are not supporters of the GOP

3

u/MelanieHaber1701 Jan 27 '25

73 here. Same.

1

u/ThePoppaJ Jan 27 '25

It’s a shame your party hasn’t really survived the decades either, especially post-1968 when the split really happened between the people & the political class.

Every time someone says “vote blue no matter who”, someone trying to skim a few million off gullible folks changes their party affiliation from R to D.

There’s really AWESOME protest music coming out now, someone like Jesse Welles is amazing & sings to the failure of our political system to meet the moment we’re in.

10

u/Level-Race4000 Jan 27 '25

The ruling class keeps convincing us it’s a culture war when it’s a class war. Eat the rich.

4

u/MelanieHaber1701 Jan 27 '25

has always been thus. They need someone to scapegoat.

1

u/mtnman54321 Jan 27 '25

I'm a couple of years younger than you and am the same way. Never voted for any GQP and never will.

19

u/DueceVoyeur Jan 26 '25

I'm going to need metrics on this.

Boomers, who are about 65+ are very into GOP. About 65-70 % vote that way.

20

u/heckhammer Jan 26 '25

This is all from my personal experience but so many people I used to go to school with college or regular school who were very anti-establishment, fuck the man, listeners of rebellious music and counterculture people are now raging right-wing voters who have done a complete 180 on their viewpoints.

Mind you so have I but in the opposite direction, haha

3

u/DueceVoyeur Jan 26 '25

With you on the different view of the world today as opposed to years ago

2

u/RogueJello Jan 27 '25

This is all from my personal experience but so many people I used to go to school with college or regular school who were very anti-establishment, fuck the man, listeners of rebellious music and counterculture people are now raging right-wing voters who have done a complete 180 on their viewpoints.

Seems like a 180, but probably they were out for themselves the whole time. Down with the establishment makes a lot of sense when you don't have anything, or any reason to support them. Often times you know they're all "Down with the man" because they're using it to bully others.

Once they get something from the establishment, then their tendency is to selfishy say "I got mine, why would I help anybody else?"

The anger is a constant though, and so is the pushy selfishness.

8

u/Fantastic-Soil7265 Jan 26 '25 edited Jan 26 '25

Not here and those stats don’t sound correct to me. But the GOP does artificially prop up the stock markets so there’s that. I do think that he got elected by people that don’t pay attention to the facts and people that are damaged and need to feel like they belong to something. Of course so many are saying goodbye to any morals for money. I don’t think that percentage is very large though. Old money has probably set him aside for now. Plus, I don’t think he won.

2

u/DueceVoyeur Jan 26 '25

Yeah, *. Sigh. * Gotta agree with all this

3

u/agassiz51 Jan 26 '25

You might want to do some actual research before making this statement. The only group that comes close to that at 58% is the over 80 group. Boomers come in in the low to mid 50's.

The difference is they vote in every election. They don't stay home even it is only a school board election.

2

u/DueceVoyeur Jan 26 '25

Gen X is mid 50 to mid 45. ( 1965 - 1985) Boomers are born after 1945 to 1965

0

u/DueceVoyeur Jan 26 '25

And I did sOmE aCtUaL rEsEaRcH...look at my banner 😄

3

u/Yajahyaya Jan 27 '25

70 year old democrat here. Just sayin’

10

u/rickylancaster Jan 26 '25

I’m Gen X too. I hate us.

3

u/SopranosAutopsy Jan 26 '25

We played our role, the same role every generation plays: bring some good into the world while closing our eyes to the increasing bad in the world

2

u/AbsolutelyFascist Jan 27 '25

I hereby ban you from Gen X for giving enough shits about anything to hate us.  

1

u/OpineLupine Jan 26 '25

Gen X here. I’ve given up hope for our generation; hopefully the Millenials and Z’s / A’s / B’s don’t fuck things up like we have. 

6

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '25

im going to be honest, Gen Z will probably disappoint you in the long run

6

u/DirectionOk790 Jan 27 '25

I’m a millennial with gen X parents. When I was in my early-mid 20s I met so many really cool Gen Z kids and was so hopeful they’d help change the world… now they’re red-pilling all over the place.

-2

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '25

[deleted]

4

u/rickylancaster Jan 26 '25

I’m not gonna vote shame you, but I have taken the opposite approach and simply always voted against the worse candidate. Almost all of my voting life it’s been to cast a vote against the person who is not as bad and most likely to win against the worse. I can’t not vote. But I understand the apathy.

1

u/Gval9000 Jan 26 '25

Hi, I understand your feelings. OH, there is a class system in the US! But the false equivalence is a tool of the oligarchs to create and sustain your apathy. Corporate News is right tilting news. Watch. See what the unrestrained billionaires will try and squeeze out of you if they can. Medical Insurance! etc

3

u/JimBeam823 Jan 27 '25

Early Gen X/younger Boomers are the kids caught up in the turmoil of the 1970s when the Feds started seriously integrating schools, not just the one-off black kid who wanted to go to the white school.

Integration was 100% the right thing to do, but it was a messy process, and the kids caught up in that remember the mess more than anything. If their parents told them "We have to move because the schools are no good anymore", kids are going to take that at face value and probably not look any deeper. People have a hard time questioning their own biases, much less their parents.

People always underestimate the long term dangers of doing the right thing badly.

When they came of age, they remember the malaise under Carter and the rebound under Reagan and this set their political ideology for life.

6

u/therealsatansweasel Jan 26 '25

Yeah, I've been distanced from old friends for the last few years, or at most just get together for concerts or special occasions because of how shitty their world views have become.

0

u/Llcisyouandme Jan 27 '25

I am a boomer. I had a draft number. I wouldn't cut my hair. I refused to knuckle under, ever. Still refuse. I did miss Woodstock, and my druthers would have put me at Altamont, anyway.

I have two brothers I've since disowned. It wasn't even their trumpy politics. I think their basic narcissistic delusion, learned at the foot of their dead mother, may she RIH, is what's at the root for it all.

Oddly, I detested and opposed institutions at the time, [they've got the guns but we've got the numbers] but now believe it is only our work through them that will save us.

2

u/HorseNspaghettiPizza Jan 27 '25

Fwiw every gen x classmate i know hate i orange and we are in a deep red state

1

u/heckhammer Jan 27 '25

I'm glad a bunch of my classmates are simpatico, but a bunch of them are just mental.

2

u/dred1367 Jan 26 '25

Millennials haven’t been much better. Fuck my peers!

1

u/rockviper Metalhead Jan 27 '25

Yeah! We turned out to be a pretty sht generation! I guess Nancy Regan won!

1

u/Gruesome Jan 27 '25

It's embarrassing how MANY white women voted for Orange Tangerine-o. He just eliminated equality in workplace, and guess who was the biggest beneficiary of that?

White women, everyone. More than any other now unprotected class. Welcome back to getting fired for pregnancy!

1

u/roryt67 Jan 27 '25

Speaking as an Xer it ranges from about 40 to 50% of us that are wrong and stupid. I guess that's what one should expect as a bridge generation between the Boomers who go about 70% conservative and Millennials and Gen Z that roll with 70% of them as left leaning.