A dive into our intentions, methods, and preliminary findings – the best place to begin a deeper exploration of our topic

The remarkable inside story of one subversive song, featuring the guest vocals of one Margaret Thatcher...

OSV runs the rule over 1980s punk splinter phenomenon Oi!, its luminaries, its controversies and its approach to protest.

How have the English used song to protest against the ruler in a shifting monarchical system?

What does it mean to ask, does a protest song work? Well, that's a rhetorical question...

The recent publication of Paul McCartney’s two-volume The Lyrics (2021) provides an opportunity to consider whether (and, if so, how) McCartney linked his music with politics.

An introduction to women's protest songwriting before 1900 – from anonymous ballads to subversive hymns

An introduction to one of our running themes – the people and processes that help (and hinder) protest songs in being written and heard.

A delve into the archives of two legendary venues for protest song between the 1950s and ’90s

Focusing on two songs, Matt Worley interrogates the relations between song, religion, and protest

Angela McShane explores the ways in which, for centuries, protest songs were less about roses, and more about bread

Our in-house rhetorician runs the rule over five centuries of songs protesting against the political class

A look at how songwriters have used existing tunes to bear their new lyrics over the centuries

A brief exploration of what motivates writers of protest song – structurally, socially and personally