Rage is one of my favorite bands ever... and i have always been curious how they blew up so big.

Most of the time a stritcly polital band does not sell a lot and Rage Against The Machine is as politcal as they come.

But someone the band managed to have lots of airplay despite never having a top 40 single, having 2 number 1 albums and one even beat Mariah Carey for number 1 and they all are multi-plantinum.

What do you think it is that made the band so big?

Gunsnhalen said:

Rage is one of my favorite bands ever... and i have always been curious how they blew up so big.

Most of the time a stritcly polital band does not sell a lot and Rage Against The Machine is as politcal as they come.

But someone the band managed to have lots of airplay despite never having a top 40 single, having 2 number 1 albums and one even beat Mariah Carey for number 1 and they all are multi-plantinum.

What do you think it is that made the band so big?

my cents on this is as follows. i found it rather funny that they "raged" against a coperations and yet belonged to a coporate record label. De la rocha claims that even Chomsky has to even sell in Barnes And Nobel as if the two are comporable. I mean the music is entertaining but the message is pretty weak. I think RATM was popular to teens because the message while being weak and somewhat informative still was produced in a sophmoric and teenage angstt ype of view. I mean no tea no shade. But according to some heavy metal guy they are the Led Zeppelin of their genre. I did like his punk band thought.

[Edited 1/8/13 19:19pm]

Rococo said:

Gunsnhalen said:

Rage is one of my favorite bands ever... and i have always been curious how they blew up so big.

Most of the time a stritcly polital band does not sell a lot and Rage Against The Machine is as politcal as they come.

But someone the band managed to have lots of airplay despite never having a top 40 single, having 2 number 1 albums and one even beat Mariah Carey for number 1 and they all are multi-plantinum.

What do you think it is that made the band so big?

my cents on this is as follows. i found it rather funny that they "raged" against a coperations and yet belonged to a coporate record label. De la rocha claims that even Chomsky has to even sell in Barnes And Nobel as if the two are comporable. I mean the music is entertaining but the message is pretty weak. I think RATM was popular to teens because the message while being weak and somewhat informative still was produced in a sophmoric and teenage angstt ype of view. I mean no tea no shade. But according to some heavy metal guy they are the Led Zeppelin of their genre. I did like his punk band thought.

[Edited 1/8/13 19:19pm]

To be fair i think especially on the first album they did it was some great political music. They talked abotu current and past issues a lot of kids and hell adults for that matter never knew of.

And Tom Morello is a great player and his effects on the guitar sound rather cool(Even better solo and in Audioslave imo)

Gunsnhalen said:

Rococo said:

my cents on this is as follows. i found it rather funny that they "raged" against a coperations and yet belonged to a coporate record label. De la rocha claims that even Chomsky has to even sell in Barnes And Nobel as if the two are comporable. I mean the music is entertaining but the message is pretty weak. I think RATM was popular to teens because the message while being weak and somewhat informative still was produced in a sophmoric and teenage angstt ype of view. I mean no tea no shade. But according to some heavy metal guy they are the Led Zeppelin of their genre. I did like his punk band thought.

[Edited 1/8/13 19:19pm]

To be fair i think especially on the first album they did it was some great political music. They talked abotu current and past issues a lot of kids and hell adults for that matter never knew of.

And Tom Morello is a great player and his effects on the guitar sound rather cool(Even better solo and in Audioslave imo)

true dat. great music. never fan of message thought. i like Crass.

Rococo said:

Gunsnhalen said:

To be fair i think especially on the first album they did it was some great political music. They talked abotu current and past issues a lot of kids and hell adults for that matter never knew of.

And Tom Morello is a great player and his effects on the guitar sound rather cool(Even better solo and in Audioslave imo)

true dat. great music. never fan of message thought. i like Crass.

I can respect that

You a fan of the Clash at all?

Maybe I'm just bullshitting but it could've been because of De La Rocha... I don't know... I'm not too big on RATM.

Gunsnhalen said:

Rococo said:

true dat. great music. never fan of message thought. i like Crass.

I can respect that

You a fan of the Clash at all?

the clash rocks!

Timmy84 said:

Maybe I'm just bullshitting but it could've been because of De La Rocha... I don't know... I'm not too big on RATM.

His style is very aggresive and i dig it...

But i think Tom Morello is the one most really like from the band. He created Audioslave and a lot of other bands after that were pretty big.

De La Rocha was here and there after 2000

Gunsnhalen said:

Timmy84 said:

Maybe I'm just bullshitting but it could've been because of De La Rocha... I don't know... I'm not too big on RATM.

His style is very aggresive and i dig it...

But i think Tom Morello is the one most really like from the band. He created Audioslave and a lot of other bands after that were pretty big.

De La Rocha was here and there after 2000

Good point about Morello. He wrote all their shit right?

Timmy84 said:

Gunsnhalen said:

His style is very aggresive and i dig it...

But i think Tom Morello is the one most really like from the band. He created Audioslave and a lot of other bands after that were pretty big.

De La Rocha was here and there after 2000

Good point about Morello. He wrote all their shit right?

While on writers you will see it just labeled as ''Rage Against The Machine'' he did write a majority of it.

But every single person got credit on each song so they wouldn't get screwed with royalities.

Gunsnhalen said:

Timmy84 said:

Good point about Morello. He wrote all their shit right?

While on writers you will see it just labeled as ''Rage Against The Machine'' he did write a majority of it.

But every single person got credit on each song so they wouldn't get screwed with royalities.

That sounds like an Isley Brothers move right there.

Timmy84 said:

Gunsnhalen said:

While on writers you will see it just labeled as ''Rage Against The Machine'' he did write a majority of it.

But every single person got credit on each song so they wouldn't get screwed with royalities.

That sounds like an Isley Brothers move right there.

The Ohio Players did the same thing with crediting all the guys in the band as co-writers so they would all get royalties from song publishing, and since they wrote all their songs from jamming when they had band practice.

I think the Chili Peppers do the same thing, having all the band members as co-writers on their songs, too.

One word. Anger.

When i listen to that music, no matter what mood I'm in, by the time the album is over I want to break shit.

When you talk about music in general, people relate with how they feel. It's been that way since there was music (from classical to blues and everything in between).

RATM brought in the political/historic facts (ususally not understood or known by the masses) and were basically the MC5 of their day. POWER + ANGER + GREAT GROOVES, man I love this band!

Gunsnhalen said:

Rage is one of my favorite bands ever... and i have always been curious how they blew up so big.

Most of the time a stritcly polital band does not sell a lot and Rage Against The Machine is as politcal as they come.

But someone the band managed to have lots of airplay despite never having a top 40 single, having 2 number 1 albums and one even beat Mariah Carey for number 1 and they all are multi-plantinum.

What do you think it is that made the band so big?

Rage never had big pop singles. No top 40 station would come near them! They DID (and still do) get airplay on rock stations, though and MTV played their videos (back when MTV showed videos).

I'd say it was more great time and place, they were a bit harsher than Nirvana but not weird like Radiohead or Manson. I have their last proper album, The Battle For Los Angeles because its damn good, they dislpayed anger and frustration quite well.

I've got all of their "proper" albums but I like them more in theory than I do in practice. One big difference between them and many other "political" bands is that they were on a major label and received a fairly big push. Of course being on a major is no guarantee of success but it certainly makes things easier.

Someone else pointed out that it was just the right time for a band like them and that has a lot to do with their success. Would they have made it if they debuted in 1988 or 1996? Maybe, but probably not.

With the possible exception of Nirvana, they are the best example in recent history of a band being in EXACTLY the right place at the right time.

Early nineties = large Rock audiences embracing hip-hop for the first time. It felt like a new sound but had enough that was familiar to people - they were different but not radically so. And it was the Clinton era, post 2 Live Crew/ NWA/ Public Enemy so people really wanted to hear edgy, confrontational, uncensored lyrics. If they had hit four years earlier, they would have been way too radical for commercial radio, but the radio was ready for them in '94.

Plus they truly were an exciting live band. I saw them in a small club opening for Fishbone in 92 or 93 and immediately thought "these guys are going to be BIG." Their slot at Lollapalooza pushed them from nobodies to stars in just a couple of months. They were just cool, and it was cool to be into them.

I liked some of their stuff. I got to attend a gig at De La Rocha's "house" which was actually a storefront where he had set up a stage (guessing that Rage practiced there) as well as set up office equipment for local organizers to come in and do their flyers to boycott Shell and whatever other causes were going on.