In the second episode of our "music and politics" miniseries, Tami Gadir talks to John Street, Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of East Anglia (UK), about his AHRC project "Our subversive voice: the history and politics of the English protest song". After discussing this 400-year history, John also addresses to what extent culture has political utility, and whether the cultural turn was a reasonable or reactionary response to the as-yet-unfulfilled promise of revolution.