Where is the protest music for 2010?

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The last few months have proved one thing beyond doubt: that British teens and twentysomethings are far from apolitical. Some questions do, however, linger: as students go on the march and hostility to the cuts spreads, where are the musical voices channelling this new mood? If past generations of protestors were assisted by your Dylans, Strummers and Braggs, might they have any contemporary equivalents?

Early last month, I wrote a piece for the Guardian bemoaning the lack of musical protest, and appealing for clues about anyone who might fill the gap. Messages from possible candidates duly began arriving. Many were of a certain age, and had seemingly cut their teeth in the far-off days when every leftfield musician had to have a song about Margaret Thatcher – but one email stuck out. It drew my attention to a young band calling themselves the Agitator, fronted by 24-year-old Derek Meins.

Meins and his two compadres, who are both drummers and co-vocalists, make music that undoubtedly chimes with the moment: fantastically impassioned stuff, full of a scattershot kind of dissent. Back in May, they released an admirably prescient first single entitled Let's Get Marching; it's now been followed by a glimpse of life in hard times called Give Me All That You Got. By way of proof that they are on to something, they lately performed at a run of protests – most notably, doing what Meins thinks may be the best gig of the Agitator's brief career, in front of the students involved in a recent occupation of University College, London.

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/dec/14/agitator-protest-music-2010