The history and politics of the English protest song

2016

I Wish The Guardian Believed That I Exist

Tune: Original
Lyrics: Grace Petrie
Composer: Grace Petrie

Pitched somewhere in the accessible middle-ground between campfire singalong and Victoria Wood comic ditty, Grace Petrie’s jaunty performance masks a savagely satirical lyric. Backed up with album art deftly parodying a Guardian article, Petrie provides a millennial riposte to the journalistic trope that protest songs went out in the 1980s – a lazy assumption that ‘there’s no such thing as a protest singer’ to which this song itself gives the lie.

Cause: Reformist | Socialist
Theme: Media | Identity | Impact of Change
Addressed to: General Public
Target of Protest: Industry