From the National Mall to the streets of Minneapolis to TikTok screens across the country, harmonizing has become a tool of resistance.
The big picture: Protest anthems have punctuated tense moments in American history, rallying demonstrators during the early labor movement and again during the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam upheavals of the 1960s.
Driving the news: Bruce Springsteen, an outspoken Trump critic, is among the artists releasing anti-administration anthems.
- He slammed "King Trump's private army" in his new song, "Streets Of Minneapolis," singing: "In chants of 'ICE out now' / Our city's heart and soul persists / Through broken glass and bloody tears / On the streets of Minneapolis."
- Protest comes naturally to punk-inspired artists like the Dropkick Murphys or Green Day.
- Others take a more tongue-in-cheek approach like Grammy-nominated singer Jesse Welles, who has racked up more than 26.6 million TikTok likes with biting folk songs that have earned him comparisons to Woody Guthrie.
- "If you're lackin' control and authority / Come with me and hunt down minorities / Join ICE," Welles sings.
The latest: "Before I say thanks to God, I'm going to say ICE out," said Bad Bunny, this year's Super Bowl halftime performer, as he accepted an award at Sunday's Grammys show.
- "We're not savage. We're not animals. We're not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans."
Between the lines: The awards ceremony was filled with political statements as some of music's biggest stars used the platform to advocate for immigrants — and shared choice words for the federal government's aggressive crackdown.
But modern protest music also comes in the voices of people who receive no fame or royalties and whose pitch isn't always perfect.
- The a cappella voices and wailing horns of groups like Singing Resistance and Brass Solidarity are the live playlists of protests in the Twin Cities.
- A Singing Resistance organizer told CNN's Anderson Cooper that music is a vehicle for demonstrators' grief, rage and strength.
- "It's a way to gather our courage," the organizer said.
Noriko Manabe, a professor of music theory at Indiana University who analyzes the sounds of resistance, says she's observed a surge in protest singing at the Minneapolis demonstrations.
- She says "it makes a lot of sense" for people to come together in song at this moment, noting music was a key element of demonstrations during the U.S. Civil Rights movement. It "can be diffusing," Manabe says.
- "Everybody's got a right to live / Everybody's got a right to dream," faith leaders and peaceful demonstrators recently sang at a Minneapolis airport protest, pulling from one of many Poor People's Campaign anthems.
Flashback: Protest movements throughout American history have tied lyrics to their causes — but those songs aren't always written for the fight. Sometimes, they're adopted later by resisters as the soundtrack to their campaign.
- That's why experts say so-called "protest music" can be difficult to define.
- Kendrick Lamar's "Alright" became a modern anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement, though the album's co-producer never expected it to be a protest song.
- And in Hong Kong and beyond, Les Misérables' "Do You Hear the People Sing?" has gone from the stage to the streets as a protest anthem.
Yes, but: Music is just one subset of the myriad ways sound is used as a force of resistance, says Stony Brook University critical music studies professor Benjamin Tausig.
- In U.S. cities pushing back against immigration enforcement, he tells Axios, one instrument has emerged as a tool of protest against the "silent presence" of ICE: the whistle.
- Sound is not only an accessible tool, he says, it's one that's unequivocally human: "People singing together or shouting ... captures something very deep within us."
The bottom line: Through the chants in the streets, the original songs on our screens, and the historic hymns that never age, the resistance record still spins in 2026.
Go deeper: "We will be ungovernable": Resistance 2.0 pivots to disruption
Editor's note: This story has been updated with news from the Grammy's.
