Saying that American rap-metal band Rage Against the Machine is the most political band ever would be a statement many people would tend to agree with. After all, the far-left, anti-capitalist, anti-establishment and anti-imperialist band is known primarily for their politics. Nearly every single Rage Against the Machine song covers a political or social issue from corporate greed, systemic racism, war mongering, exploitation of the lower-class and a wide variety of other topics. Given RATM’s radical political views, it’s no surprise that the band loves political activism and performs stunts to bring attention to their cause. The band’s name itself is a metaphor for rebellion and resistance against the capitalist and unjust system, and the word “rage” in their name hints at their aggressive nature. Many have tried to control Rage Against the Machine in the past, but it’s never ended well for them, so let this article spin some tales about RATM’s activism, disruptive protests and the effectiveness of their actions in bringing attention and discussion to issues like censorship and economic inequality, and you will see why Rage Against the Machine is the uncontrollable band.
Perhaps Rage Against the Machine’s most infamous incident came on April 13 1996 when the band was invited to play on Saturday Night Live, This would’ve been a normal SNL episode. However, this Saturday Night Live was being hosted by Steve Forbes, a billionaire and Republican who had just unsuccessfully finished a run for president shortly before this, which meant that Forbes was just about everything RATM stands against. The SNL showrunnners had literally chosen the worst night to host RATM. The band opened their performance by playing “Bulls On Parade,” a song protesting the military industrial complex and those who profit from war and murder. The band hung upside-down American flags behind them, a symbol outlined in the flag code as a way to show that America is in dire distress, displaying their belief that our democracy had been corrupted and now only serves to enrich the elite and suppress the working class. However, just before the performance, the crew of SNL took the flags down, and after the performance a showrunner informed them in their dressing room that their second song, “Bullet In The Head,” was being cut. Bassist Tim Commerford was incredibly pissed off at this. So Commerford took one of the American flags from the dressing room, ripped it up and tied the shreds into a hard ball. He then walked over to Forbe’s dressing room, kicked in the door in, and unfortunately for him, Forbes was not there at the time. So he launched it as his family instead, however it disintegrated back into shreds midair before it could hit them. But since Forbes was still registered as a presidential candidate, so he was still under Secret Service protection, and Commerford had just attacked his family. The entire hallway outside the room was immediately flooded by Secret Service agents, and the band was escorted out of the building, with them not being included in the credits, but they did later receive a permanent ban from SNL.
In January 2000 the band took to Wall Street in front of the New York Stock Exchange to record a music video of a loud guerilla performance of “Sleep Now In the Fire”, a song about corporate greed and how the proletariat are ignorant of the bourgeoisie’s oppression of them. The band had obtained a permit to perform on the steps of the building, but instead, the band chose to play on the base of the statue of George Washington on the sidewalk, which they didn’t have a permit for. So RATM began their performance and they were immediately accosted by the police. Their director Michael Moore, who was detained by the police during the performance, said to them, “Get up on the steps and play and no matter what happens, don’t stop playing. No matter what happens.”
After the band finished the song, now surrounded by police and confused traders, they walked towards the doors of the stock exchange and all the doors immediately shuttered closed. As Moore put it, “At that moment, someone must have hit the riot button inside the Stock Exchange, because these large steel gates came crashing down in front of the second set of double doors. For the first time that anyone could recall, the New York Stock Exchange went into lockdown an hour before its official closing time.”
When the building entered lockdown, it immediately brought massive attention to the band, and the music video itself brought attention to the wealth divide in America.
In December 2009 Rage Against the Machine was invited onto The BBC’s Radio 5 Live Breakfast Show as a guest performer. However, the showrunners requested RATM not to perform the notorious part of their song “Killing In The Name,” where lead vocalist Zack de la Rocha repeatedly screams the line: “F— you I won’t do what you tell me.” Obviously, telling Rage Against the Machine what to do in the song where they loudly state that they won’t do what you tell them to is a terrible idea. So when the band picked up their instruments and began their performance, it was only a matter of time before they turned against the showrunners and the BBC who were trying to control them. Everything went fine at first, with de la Rocha initially not swearing. However when the refrain came, de la Rocha turned to the camera, stuck out his middle finger, and sang the part. We knew what was going to happen. To add insult to injury, de la Rocha even sung the part with extra passion just to prove the band’s point and rub it in the BBC’s face, who later had to apologize to listeners for their failure to predict that they couldn’t control the uncontrollable band. Thus, RATM made a loud statement against the censorship of British television in the name of “decency.” With the BBC’s apology adding an extra highlight.
Good activism makes noise and grabs attention, which Rage Against the Machine certainly did, when the New York Stock Exchange went into lockdown, or thousands of people heard Zack de la Rocha swear on live television it brought massive attention to the band, thus bringing more attention to their cause and beliefs. For activism to thrive it needs to cause discussion, and RATM certainly achieved that as they frequently made the news for their stunts, which, while it didn’t contribute to the larger political debate in America as it is dominated strictly by the two-party system, it certainly made people aware of their progressive and anti-establishment politics, which at the end of the day is what activism is meant to achieve, attention.
As the evidence has shown, trying to control Rage Against the Machine is like trying to stop a raging bull with a sheet of torn up flag, it’s just not going to work. From shutting down Wall Street to attacking presidential candidates, the rage-filled band truly knows no-bounds to their activism. The band doesn’t perform concerts, they perform stunts of political activism while playing their music, and those who try to control these acts will also be raged against. So I argue we should just accept it as a natural law of the universe that Rage Against the Machine will forever remain rage-filled and uncontrollable.
