History Main / WorkingClassAnthem

''That somebody got him in toll\\

--> ''Uptown you cater to a million jerks.\\
Uptown you're messengers and mailroom clerks.\\
Eating all your lunches at the hot-dog carts.\\
The bosses take your money and they break your hearts.\\
And Uptown you cater to a million whores.\\
You disinfect terrazzo on their bathroom floors.\\
The jobs are really menial, you make no bread.
And then at five-o'clock you head\\
By subway\\
Downtown''

* The title song from ''Theatre/TheCradleWillRock'' is about how unions and the working man will eventually prevail no matter how many brutal tactics a CorruptCorporateExecutive like Mr. Mister pulls out.

* "How Bad Can I Be?" from ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax'' is a song sung by the Once-ler once his Thneed business takes off and manages to make a profit. While the song on its surface espouses the virtues of a profit-centric worldview, it's actually a VillainSong that shows the Once-ler [[AcquiredSituationalNarcissism slowly being corrupted by his success]] (and the bad influence of his family). We see in the song that not only is his business causing massive devastation to the environment, but he starts buying into a [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinist]] mindset to justify it and starts "donating" to {{Fake Charit|y}}ies for good PR.

Much like the EarthSong, the Working Class Anthem is the type of song with a political agenda. In this case, it criticizes the economic conditions of the time, usually written and sung for and by the working class at the expense of the rich and powerful. Such topics include: low-wages, terrible working conditions, {{Bad Boss}}es that either abuse or are apathetic to the very laborers that give them their fortune, environmental degradation caused by big industry, wage slavery, debt, the Military-Industrial Complex, private prisons, no bathroom breaks, and a whole host of other problems caused by an exploitative system.

%%* "Working Man" by Music/{{Rush}} qualifies.

* Music/TheRollingStones' "Salt Of The Earth" is about how working-class people and their struggles are overlooked in society.

%%* "Roll On" by Music/TheLivingEnd is specifically about the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Australian_waterfront_dispute 1998 Australian Waterfront Dispute]].

While straight examples are sung by [[WorkingClassHero Working-Class Heroes]], {{Villain Song}}s sung to glorify these societal ills also qualify, as songs that glorify things like income inequality and 20-hour workdays are usually sung by {{Sleazy Politician}}s and [[UpperClassTwit Upper-Class Twits]] who you LoveToHate, thus you associate these terrible things with a {{Very Punchable|Man}} face.

{{Villain Song}}s sung to glorify these societal ills also qualify, as songs that glorify things like income inequality and 20-hour workdays are usually sung by {{Sleazy Politician}}s and [[UpperClassTwit Upper-Class Twits]] who you LoveToHate, thus you associate these terrible things with a {{Very Punchable|Man}} face.

* ''Theatre/InTheHeights'': Sonny's verse in "96,000" involves him dreaming of using the lottery money to improve conditions in the barrio and protest against the status quo.

* "The Chemical Workers' Song" by Music/GreatBigSea is sung by laborers in a chemical plant, and focuses primarily on the hellish conditions of their work, the injuries and health problems that they receive as a result, and the exploitative, manipulative bosses to whom they report.

* Music/{{DropkickMurphys}}' "Worker's Song" is about how workers never live to see the fruits of their labour and when it comes to defending their country and what they've built, they're the first to be sent to die in a war.

* ''Theatre/SweetCharity'': "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This" shows Charity and her friends resolving to find a way out of their dead-end taxi dancer jobs. [[spoiler: Sadly, Charity is the only one who comes close to succeeding by marrying up, but her fiance backs out at the last minute when he realizes he can't handle her past.]]

Much like the EarthSong, the Working Class Anthem is the type of song with a political agenda. In this case, it criticizes the economic conditions of the time, usually written and sung for and by the working class at the expense of the rich and powerful. Such topics include: low-wages, terrible working conditions, {{Bad Boss}}es that either abuse or are apathetic to the very laborers that give them their fortune, environmental degradation caused by big industry, wage-slavery, debt, the Military-Industrial Complex, private prisons, no bathroom breaks and a whole host of other problems caused by an exploitative system.

{{Villain Song}}s sung to glorify these societal ills also qualify, as songs that glorify things like income inequality and 20-hour work days are usually sung by {{Sleazy Politician}}s and [[UpperClassTwit Upper-Class Twits]] who you LoveToHate, thus you associate these terrible things with a {{Very Punchable|Man}} face.

* "How Bad Can I Be?" from ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax'' is a song sung by the Once-ler once his Thneed business takes off and manages to make a profit. While the song on its surface espouses the virtues of a profit-centric worldview, its actually a VillainSong that shows the Once-ler [[AcquiredSituationalNarcissism slowly being corrupted by his success]] (and the bad influence of his family). We see in the song that not only is his business causing massive devastation to the environment, but he starts buying into a [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinist]] mindset to justify it and starts "donating" to {{Fake Charit|y}}ies for good PR.

* Parodied on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' with "[[https://youtu.be/lK0Lp43a8z0 Corporate Nightmare Song]]", where four {{Emo}} employees in an office job start out complaining about the "working stiff" lifestyle, until one by one they're all won over by it.

* "Solidarity Forever" by Ralph Chaplin is a popular trade union anthem sung by various Labour Parties and Unions in the United States, Australia and Canada. "Solidarity Forever" is a ProtestSong that has become synonymous with labor unions, the lyrics written to inspire workers to band together and unionize against their bourgeois overlords.

* "The Chemical Workers' Song" by Music/GreatBigSea is sung by laborers in a chemical plant, and focuses primarily on the hellish conditions of their work, on the injuries and health problems that they receive as a result, and on the exploitative, manipulative bosses to whom they report.
* "The Poverty of Philosophy" by Music/ImmortalTechnique is a rap number pointing out that working to change an inherently broken system -- from the US to various Latin-American countries -- within its own rules is a fruitless endeavor because many of its societal-ills are based around manufactured crisis that those suffering from under it are forced to work under.

* [[Music/DollyParton Dolly Parton's]] "9 to 5" is basically an ode to thankless dead end jobs.

* The TropeCodifier is "Sixteen Tons" by Merle Travis (made popular with the Music/TennesseeErnieFord version), a song about the day-to-day of a working class man in a CompanyTown whose laborious job is a constant cycle of paying of debts and feeding back into the very business they give their lives to.

%%* Perhaps the TropeMaker is "The Internationale", the famous anthem of Communists, Social Democrats, Socialists and Anarchists.

* Music/TheRollingStones' "Salt Of The Earth" is about how working class people and their struggles are overlooked in society.
-->Raise your glass to the hard working people,

* ''Theatre/LesMiserables'': This show is full of them:

* Music/BonJovi's "Living on a Prayer" offers a sort-of optimism to folks in a similar situation (Bon Jovi also being from New Jersey).

* Music/JimCroce released "Workin' at the Car Wash Blues" in May 1974.

* Perhaps the TropeMaker is "The Internationale", the famous anthem of Communists, Social Democrats, Socialists and Anarchists.

* "Working Man" by Music/{{Rush}} qualifies.
* "Roll On" by Music/TheLivingEnd is specifically about the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Australian_waterfront_dispute 1998 Australian Waterfront Dispute]].

* "Working Man" by Rush qualifies.

* "Working Class Hero" by Creator/JohnLennon describes "people who are working class, who are supposed to be processed into the middle classes, or into the machinery."

* Bruce Springsteen's "Jackson Cage" speaks to the disillusionment brought on by dead-end jobs in Jackson, NJ: