Like its close relative, satire, protest singing sort of lost its point when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. (Apologies to Tom Lehrer, my hero as both protest singer and satirist.)

In the 60s, the student was in the vanguard demanding social change, justice and peace. Students today are a pusillanimous lot, all more worried about grades than protesting issues. Even if they give space to "Folk" music, it's most likely to be a comfortable invocation of a traditional rural idyll that never existed, or sanitised diddly-eye Celtic tunes. Don't bother my conscience, they seem to say, I'm more interested in material success.

Writing protest songs these days is a waste of time, anyway, 90% of the population never listens to the lyrics.

As to Kosovo, the nearest I've heard is Tom Paxton's "On the Road to Srbrenica". It's hard to sing about what you can neither spell nor pronounce.

The chickens are coming home to roost in flocks at present, perhaps that will jolt singers, songwriters and the world in general out of our comfortable impotent lethargy.

"But I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody outside of a small circle of friends."

Pass the prozac, switch off the Muzak!