Who Is Making Irresistible Resistance Music?

On July 18, 2025, nine-time Grammy Award winner Sheryl Crow released the single, “The New Normal.” Crow sings, “Is it science fiction of prediction wrapped in George Orwell? If the news is fake and fear is hate, and nothing’s immoral to the leader of the free world, then welcome to the new normal.”

Listen to the Voices of This Decennium

Editorial cartoonists and animators are often the first artists to step up when the stakes are high. But it’s usually the musicians who follow soon after, lending melody and memory to socio-political movements.

Since November 5, 2024, I’ve been watching and listening, waiting to see which singers, songwriters and sonic disruptors would raise their voices in this precarious despotic moment.

Maybe I was impatient.

Maybe I’ve simply felt a deep urgency, an ache for the troubadours who will define this decade.

Our wait is over.

You helped surface these emerging and established artists — musicians who are refusing silence and pushing back through sound.

Let me know who else belongs here, especially if they’re working in musical genres we haven’t yet heard from.

Eight Voices Refusing Silence

Jesse Welles

Americana Rock

With a gritty voice and a raw edge, Welles sings for those standing at the edge of despair and defiance.

Image credit: Hannah Gray Hall

Drumming Bird

Indie Folk

Nashville-born and sharp-eyed, he captures the unease of a generation coming of age under authoritarian drift.

Image credit: Ryan Hartley

Bartees Strange

Indie Rock/Post-Punk/Hip Hop

A genre-bender and race-conscious poet, Strange challenges exclusion and demands space on his own terms.

Jamila Woods

Soul/Poetry/Experimental

With warmth and restraint, Woods channels collective grief and joy into anthems of resistance.

Image credit: Zoe Rain/Whitney Middleton

Tom Morello

Rap Rock/Protest Metal/Political Folk

Morello channels Rage through solo albums, public speeches, and cross-genre collaborations. His guitar screams as clearly as his politics.

Laura Ortman

Experimental/Indigenous/Violin Performance

Ortman’s layered compositions fuse violin, feedback and natural sound to reclaim memory and place.

Terri Lyne Carrington

Jazz/Percussion/Feminist Improvisation

A drummer, composer, and founder of the Jazz and Gender Justice project, she’s rewriting jazz history from the ground up.

Image credit: Erik Jacobs for The Boston Globe

Milck

Feminist Pop/Protest Anthem

California-born pop singer of Hong Kong descent, she creating music that uplifts the immigrant and feminist experience.

Image credit: Jen Rosenstein Photography

Add Your Voice

Let me know who else you feel is making resistance music today.

I’m especially looking for voices in classical, blues, country, and Indigenous traditions — musicians who are singing truth in the face of power.

I’ll add your recommendations to a new Abbetuck gallery of current musical artists that I am building. Its name? The Sound of Defiance.

You can comment on this blog post or send a message through the Abbetuck website.

Randall White
Abbetuck

Tags:

Artist Spotlights-Arts Activism-Music and Resistance-Political Art

August 7, 2025