Protests Timeline

Here is a very helpful timeline from the Guardian allowing you to keep track of the protest movement across the Middle East and North Africa, beginning with the death of Mohammed Bouazzi in Tunisia on 17 December. The vegetable seller set fire to himself after police confiscated his stall. The subsequent riots, spread by social networking sites, led to the overthrow of the Tunisian government and encouraged other groups to protest across the region.

A History of Protest Songs

Radio 4's Front Row had a discussion tonight about the importance of protest songs, including a discussion about how songs had been written and performed by protesters in Cairo's Tahir Square and downloaded onto YouTube - you can see some examples here and here. It included a contribution from Dorian Lynskey, who has written "33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs", which discusses 33 of the most influential songs, from Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" through to Green Day's "American Idiot". You can see the whole list here and also see his blog where he discusses other influential songs, usually supported by YouTube clips. If you have Spotify, you can download a playlist of 50 of them here.Which songs or musicians do you think have had an important part to play in encouraging protest and political change? Do let us know.