I think Midnight Oil were very good at promoting Aboriginal rights, about them losing their land and self respect. The lead singer is now a politician, go figure.

Troof

Godspeed You! Black Emperor, simply because when I rarely listen to them I don't have to listen to lyrics about social protest.

Ah yes! How could I forget Midnight Oil? Definitely one of the top social protest bands IMO.

...but unfortunately Peter Garrett should have stuck to music :(

Unfortunately it seems that rock and roll has lost its roots in this regard. There are no really good anti-establishment, rebel rock bands any more. They've all been swallowed up and turned into corporate whores.
Underground hip hop has some dope people like Immortal Technique (highly recommend checking him out if you like your music political)

The closest thing I've seen lately is these kids

youtube search "The Bank Dogs"

But they've only got one song that I know of, so they're hardly an item you can even check out much. But yeah, I think the modern state of music is pretty sad. I watched some old footage of Bob Dylan the other day, holy ****, was it ever intense and socially critical stuff. It made me ashamed of my generation, and sad I didn't live during his. This is by far the worst musical era in decades

Oh, and some of the less popular K'Naan tracks are really gut wrenching stuff about his life in Somalia during the war. Very solid social commentary there. But alas, still no sign of decent rock any where in the future.

Who knew we'd ever be begging for the 80's to return?!?!

You're alone on that one, buddy.

I'm kind of a dumbass, you'll get used to it eventaully.

And did the racist guy really use PUNKS as an insult? That just made my life.

I think a more appropriate place for his posts would be here: http://www.musicbanter.com/lounge/33...hate-mail.html

Well, he was kind of a bitch.