By David Brooks on June 2, 2026
“The Boss” Bruce Springsteen, on tour with “Land of Dreams and Hopes,” photo: AP
Music has always accompanied social movements and struggles in the United States; in fact, it is difficult to think of the rebellious episodes in this country without mentioning their musical traditions.
Musical resistance and its dances have indigenous origins, whose drums later merged with the African percussion of the enslaved people. It is no coincidence that the rulers and “masters” of the new country banned the music and dancing of indigenous peoples and Africans.
It is worth remembering that one of the bloodiest incidents in the history of repression against Native peoples took place at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, against the Sioux. They continued their music and dancing in secret at night, but when federal troops arrived in 1890, some 300 Indigenous people—mostly women and children—confronted the military and, in an act of defiance and rebellion, dared to dance. Almost all of them were massacred. Meanwhile, African slaves and their descendants were forbidden to play drums. However, their percussion could now be heard through their hands and feet and their a cappella singing. From this, in part, the blues, gospel, and later jazz were born.
Former slaves who migrated north met other immigrant workers, and although theaters, nightclubs, and bars were initially segregated, in a corner of Manhattan called Five Points stood one of the few theaters that allowed both whites and Blacks to enter. As the great Irish-American journalist Pete Hamill recounts, it was there that tap dancing was born, from the meeting of foot percussion by African Americans with the traditional dance of Irish immigrants in 1844.
In New Orleans, indigenous music met African American music, with a touch of the Caribbean combined with the French exodus to Louisiana, and that musical melting pot can be heard every day in a city that was partly saved from its natural and human hurricanes by its musicians (please watch the series Trem).
In the great strikes and workers’ struggles of this country, there are countless songs—ballads, laments, rock, and even Broadway musicals.
These songs include those sung by the great anarcho-syndicalist organizers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—one of the most famous organizers, Joe Hill, a Swedish immigrant, was a singer-songwriter and musician (in 1911 he was in Tijuana with other rebels seeking to contribute to the overthrow of Porfirio Díaz). That music was composed of harmonic traditions from various parts of the world brought by Irish, Italian, Jewish, German, Scottish, Scandinavian, Caribbean, Chinese, Mexican, and other Latin American immigrants.
The civil rights movement and others led by women, gay people, and others have their own musical traditions.
The successful effort to halt the opening of the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999 was achieved through dance (every access route to the convention center was occupied by thousands of protesters dancing to rock, punk, reggae, and more).
All of this can be heard today, and not just in museums and libraries, but on the streets and even with some of the biggest stars. They remain present, sometimes in their original forms, other times transformed into new expressions. They are sung in the streets of Minneapolis when facing federal forces, in nurses’ strikes, in the struggles to defend immigrants.
Some famous artists incorporate them into their concerts or invent new ones. For example, Bruce Springsteen continues to draw on this long tradition and has just concluded his national tour, which he described as a call to resistance against the regime in Washington. He began his concerts by shouting, “If you’re feeling helpless, if you’re feeling hopeless, if you’re feeling betrayed, if you’re feeling frustrated, if you’re feeling angry, I get it—that’s why we’re here tonight.”
At another point, he told his audience: “This American tragedy can only be stopped by the American people: you. No one is coming to save us; we have to do it ourselves.”
Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English