[JohnFen]

The mainstream pop music scene is largely (but not entirely) devoid of authenticity, and you need authenticity to make protest music. Mostly what gets made is optimized for commercialization rather than actual communication.

To a degree, this has always been true. Even in the days when protest music got mainstream attention, most of the music wasn't of that sort. I do think it's much worse now, though.

However, there is a lot more protest music being made than you may think. You just have to look past the big names and -- even better -- go see small artists performing live.