They're right outside your door.
Written: Nov 17 '00 (Updated Nov 26 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A body of work with this many contradictions must be art.
Cons: We're not all screaming anarcho-communists, are we?
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| ruff's Full Review: Rage Against The Machine |
On January 16, 1991, a US-lead Allied coalition launched an air strike against Iraq. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (by all accounts a tyrant, and by some accounts, a product of US foreign policy) had just violated the UN Security Council's order to withdraw his troops from the nation of Kuwait, which sits on an estimated 10% of the global oil supply. Despite the popular cry by Allied forces that the conflict was intended to protect Kuwaiti sovereignty from Hussein, it is widely recognized that Kuwait's position as an oil power, not its helplessness, was the motivating force behind its defense. In short, our oil companies would suffer from Kuwait's takeover.
The war ended with the cease fire of February 27, and the "liberation" of Kuwait. The immediate casualties numbered in the tens of thousands.
As the first conflict of the multimedia era, the Persian Gulf War was covered by every media outlet on the planet, yet this coverage was later the target of scathing criticisms. In order to gain "behind the scenes" access to the war, many critics assert, the media was only too eager to send war reports biased in favor of the US Defense Department. These one sided reports, which often emphasized impersonal movie-style explosions, lead to the war's characterization as a chronically dissociative "videogame war." Despite the widespread bombings of Iraqi cities (that continue[d] years after the war), most Americans were lead to believe that the conflict was essentially bloodless.
It is partly for this reason, in my opinion, that most Americans continue to take their oil supply for granted, driving environmentally negligent oversized cars and bickering over the smallest price increase at the pump, painfully unaware of the hundreds of thousands who've since died for it.
Equally clueless are the millions of young Americans, my best friend included, who listen to this very complicated story every day on the radio, and don't recognize it.
The movie, ran through me.
The glamour, subdue me
The tabloid, untie me
I'm empty, please fill me
Mister anchor, assure me
that Baghdad is burning
your voice, it is so soothing
that cunning mantra of killing
I need you, my witness
to dress this up so bloodless
to numb me, and purge me now
of thoughts of blaming you
Yes, the car is our wheelchair
my witness: your coughing
oily silence mocks the legless ones
who travel now in coffins
On the corner, the jury's sleepless
We've found your weakness
and it's right outside your door.
Now testify.
So begin Zach de la Rocha's lyrics, in Rage Against the Machine's hit single, "Testify."
Hearing Rage Against the Machine's earlier albums, I recognized the pounding beats, the bizarre guitar work, and felt a hint of the politically charged lyrics they contained. But, like many listeners, I was turned off by lead singer de la Rocha's screaming vocals. It was not until their last album, "The Battle of Los Angeles" that I caught onto the group. Interestingly, "The Battle of Los Angeles" received less praise than their self-titled debut album, but that's of no concern to me. Although it is musically derivative of their earlier work, I find it more polished and easier on the ears. From "Battle" as a starting point, I embarked on a journey into sound and controversy that I couldn't have enjoyed more.
It is Rage's sound that first strikes the listener. Most RATM tracks are, basically, heavy metal tracks of the action movie soundtrack genre. This does not, however, denigrate the tracks to audio-filler status--Tom Morello, the band's lead guitarist, is widely praised for his groundbreaking electric guitar work. A quick listen to his breaks in "Born as Ghosts," which features synthesizer-like riffs, or the unpredictability of "Ashes in the Fall," or the more conventional rapid fire assault in "Bombtrack" reveals a young genius at work. But aside from Morello, Rage's most acoustically distinctive feature is the high pitched rage of singer-rapper-screamer Zach De La Rocha. Zach's work has shaped the current wave of rap-metal, rap-rocking, rack, hip-hocking (or whatever you want to call it when guitars mix with flows) artists. As the band's song writer, he is also partly responsible for the controversy that plagued the band.
Calling themselves Marxists, and singing about the oppression of America's consumer culture, the military that protects it, and its effects on the third world, Rage Against the Machine has understandably ruffled plenty of feathers. Their biggest criticism--you'll see it repeated over and over here on Epinions--is their affiliation with a major record label (Epic Records). Their response: You have to infiltrate a system in order to change it. Their label, they say, gives them a voice with which to affect our culture. Many people don't buy that explanation. Some do. My personal opinion is somewhere in the center. Zach's recent decision to leave the band in order to preserve his "political and artistic ideal[s]" makes me look more favorably on him. Then again, maybe he just wants to go solo.
In any case, it is sometimes necessary to divorce artists from their work (I can enjoy Hendrix riffs without agreeing with his drug use), and RATM's body of work deserves to stand on its own. De La Rocha's lyrics, while sometimes sadly inane, as in the Mumia Abu Jamal protest song, "Guerilla Radio," also have their moments of brilliance. For example, his lyrics about military propaganda can capture history's vilest dictators, while, somehow, striking uncomfortably close to home.
Listen to the fascist sing,
"Take hope here.
War is elsewhere.
You were chosen.
This is God's land.
Soon we'll be free
of blot and mixture.
Seeds planted by our
forefathers' hands"
Other times, Zach's words can be downright haunting. Consider his devil's advocate look at the way advertising is targeted at kids:
Crawl with me into tomorrow
I'll drag you to your grave
I'm deep inside your children
They'll betray you in my name
Again, it may seem funny that this anti-consumerism message is being mass-marketed by a division of Sony Music, and targeted at rebellious teens. The irony isn't lost on the band, either. A live version of "Testify" in my collection features a melancholy Zach satirizing his own audience's "grandiose gestures, postures, and platforms of romanticism," accusing them of "creating more noise than answers," but nevertheless continuing his song with the patience of a monk trying to instruct a classroom of ADHD students.
What makes this band so intriguing, I think, is their willingness to sell out, martyr themselves--to buy into the system they criticize--perhaps in hopes that some kid, somewhere, will hear beyond the bass to their message and, maybe, rage against the machine.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
ruff
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Reviews written: 69
Trusted by: 46 members
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