When he emerged from the nightclubs of Greenwich Village, Bob Dylan was often identified as a protest singer. As early as 1962, however, Dylan was already protesting the label: I don’t write no protest songs, he told his audience on the night he debuted Blowin’ in the Wind.
Protest music is largely perceived as an unsubtle art form, a topical brand of songwriting that preaches to the converted. But popular music of all types has long given listeners food for thought. Fifty years before Vietnam, before the United States entered World War I, some of the most popular sheet music in the country featured anti-war tunes. The labor movement of the early decades of the century was fueled by its communal songbook. The Civil Rights movement was soundtracked not just by the gorgeous melodies of Strange Fruit and A Change Is Gonna Come, but hundreds of other gospel-tinged ballads and blues. In Which Side Are You On?, author James Sullivan delivers a lively anecdotal history of the progressive movements that have shaped the growth of the United States, and the songs that have accompanied and defined them. Covering one hundred years of social conflict and progress across the twentieth century and into the early years of the twenty-first, this book reveals how protest songs have given voice to the needs and challenges of a nation and asked its citizens to take a stand–asking the question Which side are you on?