The Clash
This is The Clash's late, embittered self-portrait of Thatcher-era Britain, stitching together images of unemployment, racist…
national decline unemployment and social decay racist violence
Minutemen
A brief, blunt piece of political arithmetic disguised as a song. Minutemen reduce the Vietnam War to numbers, bureaucratic…
war and bureaucracy dehumanization by statistics imperialism
David Bowie
A jittery industrial-rock sketch of a generic American everyman named Johnny, whose consumerist appetites and hollow…
cultural imperialism consumerism paranoia and dread
A terse, two-minute political sketch that moves from a stark statement about poverty and inherited injustice to a small, almost…
economic inequality inherited guilt survival
Randy Newman
Randy Newman adopts the voice of a wounded, petulant American nationalist who responds to global disapproval by proposing…
American exceptionalism imperial arrogance nuclear anxiety
Bill Callahan
Bill Callahan turns the word "America" into a chant, a mantra, and eventually an indictment, roll-calling country singers who…
national identity military service and myth American exceptionalism vs. its violent history
The Fall
This is The Fall's 1988 cover of the Kinks' 1969 song, a mock-anthem that impersonates Victorian-era patriotic sentiment so…
empire and nationalism class and inequality irony and pastiche