Why are all of their songs still relevant 30 years later?
Because the problems they raged about are systemic, and the system didn’t change.
“The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose above the great mountainous island of Tremalking. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.”
The problems are systemic and the humans in the system are incentivized to perpetuate the system.
Its not stupidity.
Because nobody actually listened to and took seriously what they were saying 30 years ago.
Fun fact: After 9/11, various songs evoking 9/11, such as ‘Learning to Fly’ by Tom Petty, ‘Stairway to Heaven’ by Led Zeppelin, ‘It’s the End of the World as we Know it’ by REM … all banned from airing for about 120 days.
Oh.
And literally everything from Rage Against the Machine.
Other fun fact about this?
This censorship wasn’t done by the FCC.
It was done by ClearChannel, aka iHeartRadio, aka, the corporation that now owns or controls basically all terrestrial radio stations.
https://www.kerrang.com/here-are-the-164-songs-that-were-banned-from-american-radio-after-9-11
Drove all the way to NYC to see them with Run the Jewels after the pandemic. 100% worth it, one of the best shows I’ve ever been to.
Tim Commorford is weird to watch though. He kinda hops awkwardly from foot to foot.
It’s so disappointing to hear Killer Mike spit revolutionary lyrics like in ‘close your eyes’ only to find out IRL he’s into lame shit like black capitalism.
Yeah. The music still slaps though.
RATM’s bassist is into some weird fringe right-libertarian stuff too if I recall
Nobody’s perfect 🤷♂️
or they changed. 30 years is a long time.
their debut was released
- 3 years after the fall of Berlin wall
- a year after the dissolution of USSR
- 9 years before the September 11 attacks
- 15 years before iPhone
- 24 years before the election of a reality tv entertainer/real estate conman as POTUS
- China wasn’t a superpower back then
- EU didn’t exist in its current form
- Apartheid was still an actuality
- internet wasn’t omnipresent
I saw them in Cleveland on that tour. Zach had hurt his foot so he sat on the monitor speaker the whole time, but the rest of the guys made up for it.
I paid a LOT of money to get good tickets, and it was 10000% worth it. I’d never seen rage live and figured I might not get to again, so spend the money. Also I’m an rtj fan.
I was at the Chicago show where he hurt himself going pretty hard.
Actually got it on video too
After he sat down for the rest of the set he sounded amazing. Great show.
We cannot accurately judge your dedication until you tell us from where you drove to NYC. New Jersey and Anchorage have very different weights here.
I preferred them when they weren’t so political.
/S obviously haha. I’m currently cutting a stencil that says “Nazi lives don’t matter” to make some shirts.
30 years later and more relevant than ever… That’s not a good thing. Continue to rage.
