This week, I picked up the newest release by famed director Martin Scorsese not only because he is a great director, but because it was a documentary about my one of my favorite musicians, Bob Dylan.

The movie replays Dylan’s journey from a small Minnesota town to Greenwich Village and his rise to fame. Much of the film discusses his musical influences and the artists that shaped him.

But, there was an ongoing theme about his role as the poet laureate of a social rebellion and his title as the voice of a generation. In early interviews, reporters ask Dylan about how he feels being regarded as a topical songwriter and a protest songwriter, which he vehemently denies throughout the film. Dylan was just writing music he wanted to make.

No matter what his intentions were, Dylan’s music no doubt had an effect on the way social commentary was presented in music. He laid the groundwork for other artists to write songs truly meant for protest that could also be played in the mainstream.

Songs such as Buffalo Springfield’s “For What it’s Worth,” The Doors’ “Unknown Soldier,” and Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction” are valued as much for their description of a volatile time in American history as they are for their actual musical nature. These were songs I heard in my high school American history class to help interpret the mood of our country, whether those songs were about the civil rights movement or the Vietnam conflict.

But, something has happened to the music scene since artists like Dylan; much of it has grown apathetic to these sorts of political and social issues.

And, really, how different is America’s situation now than in the 60’s? We are currently engaged in a conflict (it’s not a war anymore, remember?) that a majority of America doesn’t agree with. Citizens’ First Amendment rights are being attacked now through the Patriot Act rather than the government trying to suppress protests. True, we don’t have anything as monumental as the Civil Rights movement, but since the war in Iraq and because of attitudes toward Middle Easterners and Muslims, racism is certainly an issue our nation must address.

Yet nothing in out mainstream music reflects that. Bands out there do speak out against it, but not in pop culture like in the 60’s. On the last studio album from Pearl Jam (my favorite band), they had a song called “Bushleaguer” that featured harsh criticisms of George W. Bush like “Drilling for fear he keeps the job simple … Born on third thinks he got a triple” and “The aristocrat choir sings ‘what’s the ruckus’ … The haves have not a clue.”

Green Day made an effort at some social commentary with “American Idiot,” but it was mostly lost on the hordes of pre-teen girls who went to buy the album.

It seems that what should have been protest songs have been replaced by thinly-veiled attempts at propaganda such as Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.”

While artists like Dave Matthews, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp and the Dixie Chicks all joined up in the Concert for Change to try and get Bush out office in 2004, they have done little beyond that. In fact, the last Dave Matthews Band song I saw was pretty much like all his others-a sappy-ass love song.

And when it comes to rap, Eminem’s “Mosh” video was a great outpouring of disdain for the current administration and the handling of the Iraq War … I mean conflict.

But, outside of that, can you imagine Ludacris releasing something like “Fightin’ All Over the World?”

I think not. Americans would rather hear a whiney song about breaking up with their first love or about pimpin’ all the hoes.