Oil

Australia's Midnight Oil brought a new sense of political and social immediacy to pop music: not only did incendiary hits like "Beds Are Burning" and "Blue Sky Mine" bring global attention to the plight of Australia's indigenous people and the working class, but the group also put its money where its mouth was; in addition to mounting benefit performances for groups like Greenpeace and Save the Whales, frontman Peter Garrett later became a member of the Australian House of Representatives on the Labor ticket.