As we come to the end of 2024, we remember the people who have shuffled off this mortal coil and now live in our collective imaginations. This modest list of musicians, composers, and singers are just a fraction of the many people we lost this year, but are being highlighted for their willingness to speak up in favor of human rights in the face of intolerance.
Quincy Jones
The iconic composer, producer, and musician, famous for his involvement in popular music for decades with greats from Ray Charles to Michael Jackson to Celine Dion, passed away in 2024 at the age of 91. Jones’ tireless work on music was only matched by the work he did in order to highlight Black artists’ contributions to American culture, and create spaces for Black artists that were previously unavailable. He not only produced and conducted the humanist anthem “We Are the World,” but he also described Donald Trump as a “crazy motherfucker. Limited mentally—a megalomaniac, narcissistic. I can’t stand him.”
He will be missed.
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Johnny Canales
Born in Mexico during World War II, Canales’ family moved to Texas where he was raised. The Tejano singer started a TV variety show creating a space for Mexican music and artists to flourish in front of a wider audience. It introduced television audiences to music and culture that has since permeated the popular musical landscape.
Liam Payne
The former One Direction popstar died tragically this year after accidentally falling from a hotel balcony. While boybands and their members are not known for wading much into politics, Payne made it clear where he stood on women’s rights.
I don’t usually comment on politics but this one got me and is so important#AbortionIsAWomansRight pic.twitter.com/abB3iN8vuN— Liam (@LiamPayne) May 16, 2019
DJ Clark Kent
DJ Clark Kent was a legendary figure in hip-hop, with deep roots to New York City, and Brooklyn in particular. He fundraised for Democratic politicians, was an ambassador for hip-hop, and was openly hostile to Donald Trump.
Wayne Kramer
He was the cofounder of the Detroit-based MC5, whose original lineup had a brief and influential run in the late 1960s into the early ’70s. The band influenced what would become legions of punk musicians and fans for decades. The MC5 was unabashedly left-wing in their political views, something that never left Kramer. “We have a wretched grifter in the Oval Office, who has utter contempt for the rule of law and tries to manipulate the political process to his own ends, very much like Richard Nixon,” Kramer told Salon when describing Trump in 2018.
Ken Page
Best known for starring in the long-running musical “Cats,” and as Oogie Boogie in the animated movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” Page was openly gay at a time when that was far less common. During the COVID-19 pandemic he was vocal in supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, and making ties to the LGBTQ+ battles of his youth, promoting a message of hope for young progressives everywhere.
Kris Kristofferson
Kristofferson did it all. He was a military veteran and an anti-war activist. He fought for workers rights, always defending others in the face of small-mindedness.
“I’ve been a radical for a long time. I guess it’s too bad. I’d be more marketable as a right-wing redneck,” Kristofferson told Esquire magazine in 2006. “But I got into this to tell the truth as I saw it.”
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Steve Albini
Albini produced albums for dozens of bands, including legendary acts like Nirvana, the Pixies, The Breeders, Urge Overkill, and PJ Harvey. He was a walk-the-walk politically conscious punk from Chicago. He updated his beliefs and apologized for his past mistakes with an integrity worth learning from.
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Reagon cofounded the a cappella group the Freedom Singers who were part of the 1960s civil rights protest group the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee. She was a cultural historian and a curator at the Smithsonian Institution, chronicling the American experience reactionaries on the right would like us to forget about.
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