Exhibition on history of protest songs to be held in Norwich

The project includes an exhibition of 250 songs that focuses on issues ranging from hunger, environmentalism and war, dating from 1603

Author: Tom ClabonPublished 13th Jan 2022

The University of East Anglia is leading a free event tonight on the history of English protest songs at Norwich Arts Centre.

It's a new project that includes an exhibition of 250 songs which focus on issues ranging from hunger, environmentalism and war, dating from 1603.

Professor John Street is from the University and says the reasons for making one of these songs has largely stayed the same: "The first song we have on our list is from 1603. It's a complaint about the rich people buying knighthoods and you think that's what people complain about today.

"Those songs where people register complaint about who rules them and how they are ruled have lasted for at least 400 years".

He also told us that the popularity of the music seems to come in waves: "Sometimes there seems to be nothing but protest songs and you even find chart hits that are protest songs. But other times they don't seem to be in existence at all.

"But actually what we found is that the protest song has lasted for over 400 years in England. It's very difficult to tell if there were more in 1780 than there were in 1940".

He went on to say that the event will feature a whole range of different aspects: "We picked out particular songs that we think over that period have been important, interesting or different from what we you might have expected.

"We've also got an occasion where Steve Ignorant who was in a band called 'Crass', one of the leading politics and music band, talks about the business of writing political songs".

He concluded by saying that history shows this type of music can make a change: "They bring people to sing together and that's very important and has a very powerful effect. You think of songs like Tom Robinson's 'Glad to be gay' and people singing together that sentiment must make some sort of difference to how some people think about themselves and think about others".

A website for the project – Our Subversive Voice: the history and politics of the English protest song – goes live this morning.

The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and based on research conducted at UEA and elsewhere.

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