Do you think there's no good protest music these days? So did I, until I started looking for it. Every month, I listen to it all, then select the best that relates to that month鈥檚 political news. Here鈥檚 the round-up for March 2025.
1. MAJELEN - STUCK WITH YOU
Police marched in Gadigal Country/Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade on March 1. The move came despite following multiple revelations of homophobia in the force. Independent MP Lidia Thorpe was among the First Nations people leading the march. Right-wing newspaper after she halted the march in 2023 by laying down in protest in front of the police's float. The parade stressed LGBTQIA+ people's continuing struggle for equality, including and opposing book bans. A week earlier, queer US artist of innovative pop, which reveals the highs and lows of such struggles. 鈥淚 will die waiting, I will die governed,鈥 he sings. Three weeks later, Australian lesbian Malejen released her debut album, which after the country's same-sex marriage ban ended.
2. MUDDY SUMMERS & THE DIRTY FIELD WHORES - ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER听
A week after Mardi Gras, people marched for women's rights worldwide on International Women's Day. Days earlier, British band Muddy Summers & The Dirty Field Whores released their latest folk-punk protest album, which takes aim at notorious misogynist Andrew Tate. On "Tateworm" they sing: "Must be fate how Andrew Tate rhymes with hate and rhymes with rape. And aggravate and subjugate, dominate and discriminate, contaminate and degenerate, suffocate and perpetrate, jailbait and humiliate, and castrate and annihilate." The album came days after when his travel ban was lifted. Hitting back at such abusers is of perfect pop-punk, with its song "I鈥橫 IN THE MARKET TO PLEASE NO ONE". Following that was the new LP by all-male Indian metal band as "something we feel very strongly about".
3. ALIEN WEAPONRY - TE R膧
In Aoteaora/New Zealand, International Women's Day marchers expressed their solidarity with Palestinians. The move came after the United Nations confirmed that nearly in Gaza are women and children. Well aware of the parallels between colonial powers such as Israel and New Zealand are the M膩ori. The country's Indigenous people are suffering the strongest attack in decades under NZ's new right-wing government. Taking a haka-like stand are M膩ori thrash metal band Alien Weaponry with their , released on March 28. On lead single "Mau Moko" they sing in their native tongue about the as trophies during the 1800s, and the such as face tattooing today. But the band also look beyond their borders. The song "Blackened Sky" rails against the threat of World War III.
4. CHARLIE NEEDS BRACES - NYAA WA听
Just beyond Aotearoa's borders on March 8, South Australia's WOMADelaide festival debuted , who formed after听M膩ori musician Te Kahureremoa Taumata told her fellow musos the creation story of Raukatauri, the M膩ori goddess of music. That gig came days after innovative Aboriginal duo Charlie Needs Braces released their new . Its title, "NYAA WA" means "take care" in their Guringai language. On its closing track, "Kariong Lands", they sing against the development of a Guringai meeting place: "By clearing this land, developing buildings, you're killing mob's culture and our country." It came days before loggers moved in to further up the coast. Meanwhile, Australian musicians launched the as the country's campaign kicked off.
5. ICONYX - BLAK ON TRAK听
Over on the other side of the country, West Australian-raised Pintupi and Kukatja musician on March 21. Most media outlets focused on the fact that the blind, 17-year-old RnB and hip-hop prodigy had been given permission to sing the songs of the late, legendary Aboriginal musicians Archie Roach and Gurrumul. "I get to keep spreading the message that they were spreading," she told them. "And keep showing that , we will survive." Yet it is in her own defiant protest songs that she really stands out. On "Justice", she sings: "This is dedicated to my brothers, to my sisters, fathers, mothers, they taken from us too early, they didn't make it till 30. We watching, we standing, we listening, planning, demanding. We take a stand, take back our land, one step at a time. We still out here marching, we still looking for justice."
6. LAST QUOKKA - TAKE THE FIGHT TO THE BASTARDS听
Also in Western Australia, Boorloo/Perth's pugilistic punks on March 14. On "Murujuga (DBH)" they blast energy company Woodside and its huge gas expansion that threatens to destroy Aboriginal rock art on the WA coastline, urging listeners to "take the fight to Woodside". The day before the album's release, an activist shareholder group asked Woodside investors to vote against the re-election of the firm's directors because of their failure to manage climate risks. That move came after a huge, climate change-induced cyclone threatened the city of Magan-djin/Brisbane on the east coast a week earlier, forcing the and of US protest music punks . As it loomed off the coast on March 7, Magan-djin political punks , which rails against global warming in the song "Paris, Texas, Queensland". 听
7. DAVID ROVICS - MAKE THE PLANET EARTH GREAT AGAIN听
Just managing to dodge the cyclone were Irish republican . The band got a "record" crowd of more than at their on March 10. They announced the complimentary concert after many fans, no doubt inspired by the , missed out on tickets to their paid gig that evening. As the band went on to play a St Patrick's Day festival in Gadigal Country, US protest musician , where his song "St Patrick Battalion" has made him something of a household name. The only other time he's been made to feel like such a celebrity, he said, was when he toured Palestine. Days later, he , which opens with a pro-Palestine song. "The apocalypse will be televised," he sings. "I鈥檓 watching it on this screen, live on camera 鈥 the holocaust of Falasteen."
8. JESSE WELLES - UNDER THE POWERLINES (APRIL 24-SEPTEMBER 24)听
Rovics' latest album followed the new, Gaza-themed , who is the brother of Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire. On it, Jones pulls no punches in describing what he saw when he also toured Palestine. Equally unvarnished is US anti-war musician Jesse Welles, who on March 21 followed up his "less political" album from a month earlier with a of his recordings that have gone viral. Listening to it in one go is surprisingly enjoyable, but that is not Welles' intention. He wanted fans to more easily stream any one of his viral songs, but also stop thieves who have been making money off his anti-capitalist screeds by uploading his videos' audio to platforms such as Spotify. Also going viral was US singer , released on March 1, includes his days earlier.
9. REG MEUROSS - FIRE & DUST: A WOODY GUTHRIE STORY听
Trump's reminiscent of the Great Depression nearly a century ago, US media reported on March 6. A week later, English folk singer Reg Meuross released his new album, which draws similar parallels. "Highlighting racism, bigotry, corruption and inequality, this incredible new song-cycle is focused on the life and times of the 鈥楧ust Bowl鈥 American folk musician and political activist Woody Guthrie - whose work remains so influential today," say . "Drawing important parallels between Guthrie鈥檚 time and our own, each song shows Meuross at his absolute best - sharing stories from social history that are still highly relevant today." The album was funded and , who said the LP's brilliance lies in the fact it shows that "Woody was a man with faults - just like me and most men I know". 听
10. MARIE DAVIDSON - CITY OF CLOWNS听
Trying to rectify such "faults" was electronic music pioneer for millionaires like himself on March 18. Asked about the notion that money corrupts, he said: "Well, there's a lot of evidence for that. I mean, look at the joy and abandon with which [Elon] Musk and [Jeff] Bezos and [Mark] Zuckerberg have jumped into fascism." A fortnight earlier, US electronic musician Marie Davidson released her new LP, inspired by Shoshana Zuboff鈥檚 book , which looks at how such tech billionaires profit by mining people's data. The initiatives continues a long tradition of promising non-whites rights, then taking them away. That is reflected on the new blues , on which Bobby Rush sings that he's still waiting for his "40 acres and a mule" promised to freed slaves in 1865. 听
[Mat Ward has been writing for听麻豆传媒听since 2009. He also wrote听听and听makes听political music.听]
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