Taína Asili favors an educational approach, too, spending time performing and in conversation on college campuses. Formerly of the ’90s punk band Anti-Product, Asili is also steeped in Afro-Caribbean sounds. Spurred by #MeToo and the Trump administration’s lackluster response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, Asili’s new album Resiliencia addresses those topics in two languages. “For me, it’s really important to use my bilingual voice, singing and speaking in Spanish and English, to reach as many people as possible,” says Asili, who released the song “No Es Mi Presidente” in 2017.

Though she says the amount of protest music probably hasn’t changed, the way it’s being received by the listening public has shifted. “Because of that reception, that call for protest songs, I do think that there are songwriters who maybe previously might not have felt safe to address certain issues,” Asili says. “If you see certain songs in the mainstream addressing sexism, or homophobia, there is now a place for those songs to go in the mainstream that hasn’t always been there.”