Music

This is The Dixie Chicks explaining why they are gigging with James Taylor in the swing states during October. Headlined by Bruce Springsteen, REM, Pearl Jam and Jackson Browne, and coordinated by MoveOn.org, big name line-ups will play several areas simultaneously where the votes really count.

Republicans mounted a news offensive after this tour was announced on 4 August, claiming that Springsteen had grown very rich from the American way. This only recruited more acts.

'I oppose the (Nigerian) government passionately because it is evil, man, full of corruption. It stops me living my life.' The above words are taken from an interview I conducted with Fela Kuti backstage at Brixton Academy in 1988.

The first is in fact a 25th anniversary reissue of the seminal Clash album London Calling. This is a must have album for anyone who wishes to get a taste of the raw, angry and unapologetic energy that catapulted punk onto the British music scene at the end of the 1970s.

He went into battle with a Kalashnikov in his hand and an electric guitar strapped to his back.' The man in question, Keddou ag Ossad, is one of the central figures in the history of a band called Tinariwen. It has become one of the most popular acts at festivals such as Glastonbury and Womad, and their albums are now reaching a global audience.

This is not some easy listening 'world music'. Their latest album, Amassakoul, still has the power and lyricism that have made them so popular.

As Socialist Review went to press, Mike Skinner, aka The Streets, was a hotly tipped favourite to capture the Mercury Music Prize, one of the British music industry's most prestigious awards. Either way, Skinner has enjoyed a meteoric rise since he first burst onto the scene in 2002. His first album, Original Pirate Material, also received a Mercury nomination, but was somewhat surprisingly pipped by Ms Dynamite. Subsequently he has been compared to Bob Dylan, Samuel Pepys, Dostoyevsky, Philip Larkin and 'Gil Scot Heron relocated to the [Birmingham] Bullring'.

In the last few months The Others have played a Love Music Hate Racism gig at the London Astoria, been declared 'the most worshipped new band in Britain' by NME, released their first single, 'This is For the Poor', and played a gig in a tube carriage. Alison Philcock talked to singer Dominic Masters.

The single makes a very clear statement. Where do the lyrics come from?

Posing this question is not simply an act of wishful thinking here at Socialist Review. Rather it reflects a genuine debate that is finding an echo in sections of the music press. For example, Mojo magazine's lead feature in April was 'One Hundred Great Protest Songs'. It included a blazing red cover with a picture of a militant looking John Lennon and the headline 'Revolution in his Head'. Elsewhere the Scottish Arts magazine Product ran a cover article entitled 'Protest Pop: How radical music rocks the world'.

A couple of years ago documentary film-maker Ken Burns made a widely acclaimed series entitled Jazz: A History of America's Music. It was part of a trilogy of subjects - the others being the Civil War and baseball - that examined the core elements that contributed to the development of US society. Jazz was chosen as the only authentic art form to originate in the US. However, the series was not without controversy.

Artists such as Jay Z, Nas, Eminem and Missy Elliott have become household names, while the production talents of P Diddy, Dr Dre and Pharrell Williams are in constant demand. Nor has this impact been solely confined to music. The 'uniform' of low-slung jeans, Timberland boots, expensive trainers and designer tracksuits has become de rigueur among youth from Brooklyn to Brixton.

Paris first graced the airwaves in 1990 with his black nationalist, anti-establishment LP The Devil Made Me Do It. Two years later he cemented his name as one of hip-hop's most militant lyricists with Sleeping With the Enemy, which was originally due for release before the presidential election in 1992, but suppressed by the recording establishment until the November after the election. The album was shrouded in controversy, with one song in particular - Bush Killa, a revenge fantasy about the assassination of then-president George Bush Sr - raising ire.