Top 10 Songs You Didn't Know Were Political

#10: “If I Can’t Dance”

Sophie Ellis-Bextor

While it’s not a completely subtle song, the title and lyric in the main hook of the track is a quote from influential anarchist Emma Goldman. The quote, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution,” is a simplified version of a passage from Goldman’s autobiography. Specifically, Goldman said that she, quote, “did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal [...] should demand the denial of life and joy.” Ellis-Bextor took that widely-remembered quote and turned it into one of the greatest dance songs of all time, which is certainly fitting. If only Goldman could have lived long enough to hear it; she died in 1940, decades before Ellis-Bextor was even born.

#9: “West End Girls”

Pet Shop Boys

The British class system is something that has to be experienced firsthand, for years, to be understood, and many musicians have used our esoteric society as inspiration for their tunes. One popular class critique came from the Pet Shop Boys, in the form of 1984’s “West End Girls”. Much of it is about being lost in the churn of London, anonymous and frustrated by that anonymity, with a music video showing them walking throughout the city – largely featuring shots of the transport network; trains, buses, and roads are frequently seen. It’s a song about escaping the alienating, day-to-day routines of London by indulging in the city’s famous nightlife, all of it inspired by “The Waste Land”, TS Eliot’s famous poem.

#8: “The Eton Rifles”

The Jam

More class critique, the Jam have many political songs in their oeuvre, and this one takes aim at Eton College, the famous – or infamous – private school where the majority of Britain’s prime ministers, and many other senior politicians, have been educated. On the face of it, it’s a very literal song, since Eton at the time was still teaching kids how to shoot guns, something basically no other school in the country does. Out of that, though, comes an angry rock song about Britain’s privileged “Hooray Henrys”, who get into power, decimate the lives of the working class, and then leave those same people to rebuild.

#7: “Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)”

Buzzcocks

This punk-rock classic isn’t just your run-of-the-mill love song. It was actually written with a man in mind, with singer and lyricist Pete Shelley writing it about his flatmate Francis Cookson. Shelley himself was bisexual, and later said that he found it difficult living with Cookson while harbouring those feelings. It certainly shouldn’t be a political statement to fall in love with someone, but it was in the 70s and still is, and it’s also still rare for celebrities to be openly bisexual. The song itself never specifies gender, which – along with its catchiness – is what’s made it so enduring. Anyone and everyone can relate to falling in love with someone you shouldn’t.

#6: “Fashion”

Davie Bowie

Perhaps you think of fashion and political issues as being separate, but they’re certainly intertwined, as David Bowie noticed back in 1980. Bowie, a fashion icon himself in so many ways, didn’t like how fashion had become about conformity and not individuality. Interestingly, Bowie said that the song wasn’t about politics in any way, even though it overtly refers to the “goon squad”, historically hired mercenaries who got involved in labour disputes in the US. He’s definitely criticising the pressure to conform to an idea of what is and isn’t fashionable, mainly in the disco scene. It’s also worth noting that the late 70s had made certain outrageous pieces of clothing fashionable, like the Bromley contingency and their Nazi-inspired regalia.

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#5: “2 Become 1”

Spice Girls

A social song of a different stripe, this iconic Spice Girls hit is actually all about safe sex. Perhaps that’s been forgotten in the years since, but sexual health education remains a pressing social issue. Somewhat bizarrely, they thought the original version of “2 Become 1” was too sappy, which was why they opted to include some educational lyrics about putting on a condom BEFORE two become one. It was actually originally a Christmas song, too, though the lyrics aren’t very Christmassy. Some critics didn’t like the message, though, finding it bizarre that a Spice Girls single even had a message advising people to use condoms in the first place.

#4: “Ghost Town”

The Specials

The 70s were a difficult decade, but improvements were not underway when the Specials put out this song in 1981, only two years into Thatcher’s premiership. It’s since gone on to be one of the best-remembered British songs of the decade, because its vision of urban decay only got more relevant as the years went on. The music video was, however, mostly filmed not in one of London’s more deprived areas, but the City; they just had to film it extremely early in the morning to see it when it was empty. The City would go on to be one of the few areas that saw massive increases of wealth in the eighties, as the financial sector boomed.

#3: “Oliver’s Army”

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Few songs have tackled British imperialism as incisively as “Oliver’s Army”, one of Elvis Costello’s biggest hits. With a completely disconnected music video filmed in the middle of the night while Costello and the Attractions were in Hawaii, it’s easy to overlook the lyrics in this otherwise upbeat tune. It’s largely about the Troubles, with the “Oliver” in the title usually taken to refer to Oliver Cromwell, and the lyrics referring to the violence perpetrated in Northern Ireland. Costello himself lamented the public not understanding the song and not paying attention to the lyrics, which is why it’s on our list despite being relatively overt with what it was trying to say.

#2: “Relax”

Frankie Goes to Hollywood

Another song about sex, “Relax” is in some ways more subtle but in others more obvious than “2 Become 1”. It’s certainly obvious what it’s about if you watch the hedonistic music video, but perhaps less so if you only listen to it. It still got banned from being played on the BBC’s radio stations for a while, after its lyrics were called too sexual, although much of that might have been to do with the marketing campaign behind it. Today, it’s easy to miss the message if you’re not familiar with the song’s wider context, but it was a statement about being openly gay in a decade where that got increasingly difficult.

#1: “(Something Inside) So Strong”

Labi Siffre

If you listen to any of the lines in the song, it soon becomes clear that it’s about oppression. Indeed, Siffre wrote it about apartheid in South Africa, releasing it in 1984 when that was one of the biggest political issues in the world. But it’s on our list because it’s been recently co-opted by someone who definitely didn’t understand the message: Tommy Robinson. Robinson used the song repeatedly at the infamous “Unite the Kingdom” rally in 2025, to such an extent that Siffre hit him with a cease-and-desist. Siffre himself said it was a “joke” for them to use a song written and recorded by a, quote, “atheist, homosexual black artist” to further their far-right cause.

Let us know what political songs we forgot to include in the comments.