Pete Seeger
What’s a protest without music? Even the most passionate rebels, freedom fighters and peace lovers need inspiration from time to time, and they usually find it in song.
A good protest song can serve as a rallying cry or as a voice of support for what is often a long, hard struggle against — well, against whatever it is you’re seeking to overcome.
To accompany TIME’s choice of “the Protester” as the 2011 Person of the Year, we’ve put together a 32-song Spotify playlist of some of the most inspirational protest songs of the past century. Unfortunately, John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” and Gil Scott Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not be Televised” aren’t on Spotify, but the online music program does have Sarah Jones’ screed against misogynist hip-hop lyrics in her Heron-inspired poetic rap, “Your Revolution.”
So take a listen here. And then maybe, if you’re so inclined, take action.
(MORE: TIME’s 2011 Person of the Year: The Protester)
(MORE: TIME’s Top 10 Protest Songs)