Been thinking a bit about this, popular music (the ones that hit top 100 charts or whatever) never has lyrics that point out real problems or point to culprits and how they’re fucking our shit, which is very easy to find in punk rock and some variations, as well as rap.
Of course, part of the problem are the record labels themselves, which often hold artists “hostage” in order to profit off them. Bigger ones will obviously prefer to avoid having such lyrics become popular.
Still, there seems to be absolute zero songs in certain genres that even come within 10 meters of talking/singing/teaching/bringing awareness about situations that affect a LOT of listeners, even from far away, and would be extremely helpful in spreading some knowledge.
Granted, doing so is easier said than done, a catchy tune that calls out big oil’s many attempts to burn the world, or big pharma’s frequent price gouging, aren’t things “any idiot” can come up with. But that nobody outside “angry” genres seems to be doing it is what saddens me.
Maybe not as much anymore, but up through the 2010s, many, many, many artists put out various messages against the establishment/atrocities/social issues/etc. You just have to actually pay attention to some of them because they use colorful/poetic language and/or metaphors. You also need to listen to more than one type of music— you’ll be hard pressed to find bubblegum pop with a serious message. That being said, even Taylor Swift has a song or two about social issues. That “you need to calm down” song comes to mind. I mean it’s very obviously aimed at the MAGA troll assholes and supporting LGBTQ. Just because it doesn’t inherently sound angry, doesn’t mean it’s not.