Hip-hop has, meanwhile, continued processing the world with its inherently political lens. Kendrick Lamar’s new album is partly a clapback at Fox News types who condemn the genre, but it’s also a document of Trump-era liberal self-doubt and complicity. Snoop Dogg’s cartoonish video with a Trump-esque clown did what it seems pop culture can accomplish with this president more than any other: provoke a response. Another rap video, Kodak Black’s “Tunnel Vision,” one of the most popular of the year, made an even more unflinching statement: In it, a white man in a “Make America Hate Again” hat attacks a black man, who then starts to strangle him with an American flag.

The older icons of political music haven’t been silent either. Bruce Springsteen showed up on Joe Grushecky’s “That’s What Makes Us Great,” delivering the straightforward rallying call that some pundits have craved: “Love conquers hate,” Springsteen and Grushecky bellow over galloping guitar and drums that could easily slot after “Born in the USA” in an arena set. Joan Baez, too, attempted to provide the great protest song she says is still needed. Her new track “Nasty Man” is wistful in mood but blistering in its condemnation of “a man gone wrong,” “a future dictator,” with “dangerous pathological disorders.” Four million people have viewed it on Facebook.

But have any of these efforts broken through in a significant way? Are any reshaping discourse, inspiring new marches, getting widely bumper-stickered? These might be the wrong questions. Now as much as ever, music is tribal; now as much as ever, music is best suited for expressing that which can’t be said. Bandcamp-users perhaps aren’t being persuaded toward a new viewpoint by “Trump’s Talkin’ Nukes” but they could be getting some solace and, perhaps, energy from it. Kodak Black’s video isn’t meant to get Trump’s base to think again—it’s meant to get across the musician’s viewpoint to his listeners, and it does so effectively. To the extent that concrete gains that activists might desire can be achieved through music, it is happening through efforts like the “7-Inches for Planned Parenthood” series, which is enlisting musicians, comedians, and visual artists to raise money for an organization threatened by Trump’s agenda.