US demonstrations inspire new protest songs
Protest songs are taking place alongside chants of "I can't breathe" and "Hands up, don't shoot".
BERKELEY (AP) Protest songs are taking their place alongside chants of "I can t breathe" and "Hands up, don t shoot" as demonstrators raise their voices to condemn the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police.
The killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown have inspired a musical outpouring perhaps unseen in the U.S. since Pete Seeger helped make "We Shall Overcome" a civil-rights standard in the 1960s. Older songs are being redeployed for a new generation. New compositions are being widely shared. And holiday classics are being rewritten, such as a barbed spin on "White Christmas."
Several professionals have released home-produced tribute songs to Brown and Garner, including Alicia Keys, Long Beach rapper Crooked I and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morelo.
