EP/45: MUSIC & PROTEST

The Evolution of Music & Protest with James Sullivan

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In 2022, Neil Young left Spotify to protest the platform’s support of podcaster Joe Rogan and his alleged misinformation about COVID, bringing the role of music and protest back into the spotlight. Using music to effect social change is nothing new but much has changed since the days of Bob Dylan and social upheaval of the 60s.  

To help explain this evolution, we reached James Sullivan, a music and culture writer and  journalism teacher at Emerson College. His book “Which Side Are You On? The History of America in 100 Protest Songs” offers a survey of how songs have been embraced by various protest movements over the past century. He joins us from North of Boston. 

About JAMES

James Sullivan is an author, longtime Boston Globe contributor and freelance journalist. From 1995-2004 he was a pop music and culture critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. He has been an editor for Rolling Stone and a consultant for Pandora and SiriusXM. He teaches in the Journalism department at Emerson College.

In his spare time, he is the Program Director and events moderator for the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival and founder of Lit Crawl Boston. He has served as a Library Trustee, an alumni mentor at the University of New Hampshire, and a workshop volunteer at 826 Boston.

Follow James on Twitter @sullivanjames and Instagram @sullivanjamesg. Learn more about his writing and buy his books at: jamessullivanauthor.com/