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“Dissent’s not treason, but they talk like it’s the same”: Revisiting Post-September 11 Protest Songs in the Current Moment
For most people, the music of their youth defines them. They stick, in many ways, to the albums and songs that made them who they are today. It becomes an ever-present soundtrack. While this may be true for a most individuals, I find myself constantly seeking out new music that I have never heard just as much as I revisit albums I love. In the process of doing this, I come across countless songs that speak to the moment in which they were written, warning us about impending fascism and authoritarianism, and to our present moment where we come face-to-face with fascism and authoritarianism. I see this clearly now as I look back on a lot of the music that arose post September 11 and in protest of the War on Terror: the lies told about Iraq, the government overreach into our privacy, and more.
I didn’t really listen to Sleater-Kinney in the early 2000s. In fact, I only started listening to them when they reformed and released No Cities to Love in 2015.I never even went back and listened to their older stuff before that. If I didn’t teach Carrie Brownstein’s memoir Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl in a class this semester, it would have taken me longer to dig into their back catalogue. Thankfully, it didn’t take me any longer because their 2002…
