Do you think there’s no good protest music these days? So did I, until I started looking for it. Every month, I listen to it all, then select the best that relates to that month’s political news. Here’s the round-up for November 2025.
1. 1,000 UK ARTISTS - IS THIS WHAT WE WANT?
On November 4, Xania Monet became the first pop star made with artificial intelligence to chart on Billboard's airplay rankings and secure a multimillion-dollar record deal. A week later, an AI-generated tune became the No. 1 country song in the US, despite its "weird digital shimmer". A week after that, The Country Music Association of Australia banned AI from its Golden Guitar Awards. Meanwhile, an AI-made tribute to slain right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk with "loudly passionate, dramatic vocals" went viral after a TikTok user posted it, calling it “genuinely the worst song” they'd heard. At the same time, the BBC came under fire making an AI musician its artist of the month. Joining the backlash was former Beatle Paul McCartney, who announced on November 18 he'd recorded a track for Is This What We Want?, a near-silent protest album against AI being trained on musicians' work without paying them. LISTEN>>>
2. AI TSUNO - ARMY OF ROBOTS
On the same day McCartney made his announcement, Canadian protest musician Paul Cargnello launched an anti-AI music campaign calling for "Artistic Integrity - the real AI". Taking the opposite tack was US protest singer David Rovics, who released his fifth AI-generated LP under the name of Ai Tsuno a week earlier. He said he was inspired to start making AI music after hearing an AI-generated pro-Palestine country and western song blasting from a speaker at an Australian rally. Addressing the backlash against AI-generated music, Rovics said "the genie is not going back in the bottle" and "the idea of not using it is like sticking to wax cylinders now that everyone else is using 78s". AI also allowed the already prolific Rovics to become even more topical, releasing a tribute to Democratic Socialist New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, found on this album, shortly after he was elected on November 4. LISTEN>>>
3. AI TSUNO - GAZA RIVIERA
On November 27, Rovics released Ai Tsuno's sixth album, themed around US President Donald Trump's plan to develop the Gaza Strip's rubble into a "riviera" under his supposed ceasefire. In a guide to the LP recorded in Ai Tsuno's voice, Rovics acknowledged that his AI-generated music had angered fans who objected to AI destroying the environment, pushing up people's power bills and stealing artists' work. But, he said, "most musicians are using AI", and are "cagey about admitting to it publicly". (I use "ethically trained" AI to change my own voice for backing vocals, and openly used AI to make a protest album against AI last year). Rovics also said AI had enabled him to come up with better music for his own lyrics that would reach a bigger audience. One track, supporting Starbucks' striking workers, had already gone viral. That would be on Ai Tsuno's next album, out on December 4. LISTEN>>>
4. CIECMATE - RESONANCE
AI may be "amazing" at making music, as Rovics puts it. But workers being forced to use it by AI-obsessed bosses - or "business idiots" as AI-sceptic tech writer Ed Zitron calls them - know it has an infuriating flaw: it gets things wrong half the time. Rather than replacing workers, such "workslop" actually creates more work. Business news outlet Bloomberg reported on November 18 that companies such as Lufthansa and ING may be simply using AI as an excuse to sack workers they wanted to fire anyway. Still, the hype continues, as cited on the new LP by Australian rapper Ciecmate, released on November 11. "The AI's coming in soon and workforces are getting laid off," he raps on "Minor Change", "conversating online now and debating with some fake bots." As AI firms continued to lose billions, ChatGPT owner OpenAI hinted that governments should take on the debt so taxpayers would pick up the bill. LISTEN>>>
5. SUBURBAN DEATH MARCH - DENY DEFEND DEPOSE
When AI isn't accidentally lying, it's being programmed to lie deliberately, as shown by Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok. Seemingly unsatisfied with investors agreeing to pay him US$274 million a day for the next decade, the world's richest person made Grok lie about his abilities, it was reported on November 21. Its fibs included telling users Musk is fitter than basketball star LeBron James, smarter than Leonardo da Vinci, and would rise from the dead faster than Jesus. None of which has stopped the US government awarding it contracts, or Trump affectionately patting Musk on the tummy on November 18. But when Grok began denying the Holocaust, French authorities expanded an investigation into Musk's social media platform, X, on November 19. Likewise, the new LP by US musician Suburban Death March pulls no punches against Musk, with tracks such as "Elon Musk is a Nazi Nepo Baby" and "Rocket Dicks To Mars". LISTEN>>>
6. 84 DAYS - 84 DAYS
Even Musk slammed Trump's "big, beautiful bill" for the rich, saying the legislation would "destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm". Yet just days after a court blocked Trump's attempt to limit food aid to impoverished Americans on November 10, Trump tried to claim he and New York mayor Zohran Mamdani were both on the side of the poor. "I expect to be helping him, not hurting him," said Trump alongside Mamdani on November 21. "A big help, because I want New York City to be great." The new album by pop-punk supergroup 84 Days, released on November 7, suggested no one should be taken in by Trump's usual lies about the poor. On "Don't Trust The Government", they sneer: “Doesn’t matter what side you’re on, 'cause they’ll all be telling lies. You can argue with anyone, But you’re both on losing sides. No one from the government is coming to save you - you have to save yourself.” LISTEN>>>
7. ROB HIRST, JIM MOGINIE, HAMISH STUART - A HUNDRED YEARS OR MORE
Also taking a jab at Musk is the new EP from Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst, released on November 14. "You may be a billionaire with 1000 satellites," he sings on its opening track. "But first, do no harm." Discussing the EP, Hirst said the LP Midnight Oil did to support the Indigenous Voice for Parliament is the one he's most proud of, despite writing some of the group's biggest hits. "Makarrata was my favourite thing we ever did," he said. “Those of us in Midnight Oil go very quiet when we think about the fact a lot of the subject matter of our songs are even more relevant now, and not in a good way.” His comments came days after protests against Aboriginal deaths in custody, and as Australia geared up to build environmentally damaging AI data centres. "All the clues are out there in the bush, waiting for us," said Hirst. "We must protect it, for our own sakes and for the Earth.” LISTEN>>>
8. DYAN TAI - SUPREME
Drew Hutton, who co-founded the Australian Greens to protect Australia's bush, was reinstated to the party on November 20 after being expelled from it for criticising its pro-transgender policies. "The veteran activist immediately ramped up pressure on the Greens to rein in the 'transgender and queer cult'," reported The Australian. Thumbing their nose at such sentiments is Gadigal Country/Sydney drag artist Dyan Tai, with their new EP. Discussing its hit “Let’s Get Bubble Tea!” on November 10, they said: "That’s the first song I ever released that people actually cared about and it introduced me to a new audience. A lot of them are really young queer and trans kids who either relate to the coming out story or just massive boba fans. Either way I’m just really grateful that people love that silly hyperpop song." Their comments came as people rallied across the country for trans rights. LISTEN>>>
9. ECOWAR - ECOCIDE
Just as the prejudice continued against trans people, so the war raged on against women. On November 24, a day before the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, MPs read out the names of the 74 women killed in domestic violence incidents in Australia in the previous 12 months. Ten days earlier, Australian punks Ecowar released their new LP, which opens with the words: "Tell us statistics of assaults on women. Why do we never ask how many men do violence to women?" A week later, US artist Moor Mother released her new LP, which laments: "A million missing women wept. It was the husband. How many this year? How many in fear?" One solution comes on the new LP from Australian punks Worm Girlz: "Don't stare at my tits," it says. "I'll punch you in the dick." Meanwhile, the main theme of Ecowar's LP, ecocide, continued as the COP30 environment summit refused to ban fossil fuels. LISTEN>>>
10. THEIA - GIRL, IN A SAVAGE WORLD
Well aware of that ecocide is Māori musician Theia, who released her incendiary new album on November 7 "at a time when Aotearoa is ruled by the most conservative government in her lifetime", as Rolling Stone put it. On “Hoki Whenua Mai (Return the Land)”, she sings: “You wield your guns, you shot our sons, you made us rot in all you’ve done, cut down our trees, brought your disease, you will not bring us to our knees.” Discussing her LP, she said: “I really don’t care if people like it or don’t like it. [As] soon as you have Indigenous women speaking candidly about misogyny or colonisation or whatever, you get so much praise and comradery from fellow Indigenous folks, but you also get [people] spewing hatred." The album came three days after the government removed a requirement ensuring school policies, plans and local curriculums reflect local Māori customs, knowledge and world views. LISTEN>>>
This column is taking a break and will return at the end of January.
[Mat Ward has been writing for Green Left since 2009. He also wrote the book Real Talk: Aboriginal Rappers Talk About Their Music And Country and makes political music. This year, Mat Ward released his 11th album, In Our Blood.]
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Read about more political albums.
Stream our new “Best protest songs of 2025” playlist. This replaces the previous “Political albums” playlist, that was getting too big at more than 700 albums.