It’s hard communicating vegan ethics when the very word has become so synonymous with negative attitudes.
We’ve collected some of the best songs about veganism, each delving into the pros and cons of the vegan lifestyle, crossing the genres and drawing needed attention whether you agree with veganism or not. From animal cruelty to vegetarian cooking, our playlist covers it all.
Songs About Veganism
1. Macka B – Wha Me Eat
Macka B’s reggae track Wha Me Eat is infectiously uptempo, his positive energy radiating through every beat.
Macka’s addictive sound is as pure and natural as his vegan ideals, detailed profusely through his lyrics, “I eat from the earth and leave the animals to give birth, no dead flesh, no fur, no feathers, when I tell people I don’t eat meat, fish or dairy, they look at me strangely, they don’t realise I eat a very wide variety.”
Wha Me Eat’s verses are devoted to astoundingly long lists of natural foods blended with the medicinal theory of nutrition, all delivered with a refreshing Rastafarian energy.
Crowning this track’s anti-meat message is the clever line, “You can’t eat it raw, you have to cook it complete, and put on vegetable seasoning to make it taste sweet.”
2. Cro-Mags – Death Camps
This classic metal track has a lush, sleazy leather-clad ambience, its rhythm murderously fast and dread-inducing. Clear vocals layer this alluringly dark and nostalgic track, exposing a morbid comparison between factory farming and genocidal death camps;
“Execution without a trial, think about that for a while, the day they’re doomed they’re doomed to be killed, so your foul desires can be fulfilled … Execution without a trial, no regret for life at all, meat hooked conveyor belts line the walls, don’t it remind you of Buchenwald.”
Cro-Mags’ thunderous lyrics and harmonic energy are as ruthless as the animal massacre they illustrate, adorned with warm, searing guitar solos and an irresistible bass sound.
3. Feet – Vegetarian Christmas
FEET’s 2019 single Vegetarian Christmas is a retro-inspired track with a crisp modern message.
Their first verse’s serene imagery of a traditional white Christmas gives way to a chorus exalting the free choice of free-from dishes despite the disapproval of family members blind to the positive effect of vegan ideals;
“Wholesome at heart, playing your part, nothing’s a tradition until it starts, they ain’t got a voice, it’s your choice to make the right one, vegetarian Christmas – that’s what I want for me, vegetarian Christmas, alternatives to meat.”
4. Nausea – Butchers
Nausea’s 1990 punk track Butchers carries a hair-raising energy, harbouring only one lyrical verse which cycles incessantly, echoing the horrific truth of animal testing which is often drowned out or shut down;
“The gruesome way in which these animals die, makes you wonder what’s in the products that you buy, from dogs forced to smoke your cigarettes, to the monkeys that suffer electrical shocks.”
This is a track for anyone fuelled by rage at the iniquitous system which favours killing and consumerism over equilibrium with nature.
5. Tonya G – The Voiceless
This 90s style R&B/pop track carries a nostalgic sound beneath its message of ceaseless suffering.
This vegan anthem details the horrors of both animal cruelty and human ignorance alike, anchoring its message firmly in the act of “speaking up for the voiceless,” i.e. giving a voice to the animals who can’t fight or condemn their own torture.
Tonya G’s lyrics expose the needless punishment faced by farmed animals, using heartbreaking sentiments from the very first verse, crafting an eye-opening track about vegan ethics and the immorality of eating meat;
“Trapped in the cage, they ain’t got no space, torn from their mother at an early age, and all that you say is ‘What about bacon?’ … And I know that you are a good person, you don’t mean any harm, just remember when you pay for it you pay for a slit throat.”
6. Zak Abel – Vegan
This quirky indie pop track by Zak Abel is a comedy piece about a vegan who realises his ‘vegan’ girlfriend only adopted his dietary choices in order to win his love, and has been secretly eating meat and dairy behind his back.
Using cute and clever wordplay such as, “When she had a margarita trying to be discreet, she said it was a drink but I saw the receipt,” Zak’s obscure vegan track is perfect for anyone with a partner sweetly conforming to your vegan lifestyle whilst in your presence, but pigging out any time they think the coast is clear.
7. Grace Petrie & The PC Brigade – The Vegan Song
Grace Petrie’s indie pop track The Vegan Song is a sweet and comical love letter to a vegan from a carnivore.
Against a cutely acoustic, ukelele based soundscape, this track details all the ways a partner can make substitutions in their own life to help support their vegan partner and show their love, without giving up their own carnivorous habits entirely;
“It’s true that I’m a barbecue enjoyer, and I slag off nut roasts sometimes, just to annoy you, but if the only milk I ever got to drink was soya, it would be worth it all to share your fridge … And I’ll learn to live without artificial additives … If I could be the one who brings you tea in the morning then I’ll make it dairy free.”
8. Fresco Trey – Vegan
Fresco Trey’s 2022 rap/hip-hop track, Vegan, embeds the line, ‘I don’t beef, I never did, I’m basically vegan’ into its chorus lyrics, twisting a phrase about avoiding drama into a clever wordplay about meat-free diets.
This song harnesses a clean atmosphere within its hip-hop sound, crafting a song for anyone putting beef behind them.
9. DDG – Vegan
DDG’s track, Vegan, takes a similar lyrical approach to Fresco Trey’s track, instead laying his metaphor of no beef, no drama veganism against an enchantingly dreamy R&B/hip-hop soundscape, matching the lust of his lyrics.
DDG’s Vegan is about being stretched between multiple relationships and FWBs, adopting a magnificently relaxed, honest and subtly melancholic approach to the stresses of multi-layered romance;
“I wanna get up, I wanna get high, she ask for the truth, I tell her a lie, she says she like girls, and she said that she bi’, then, let’s have a threesome, let’s f****** get high … So many women that’s hittin’ me up, I don’t know who to link, I don’t know who to trust, s***, I don’t know who to lust.”