Musicians - Rage Against the Machine

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	Musicians - Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine, also known as Rage or RATM, was an American rock/rapcore band noted both for their diligent political conscience and for their pioneering blend of hard rock and rap which over time would come to be known variously as Rock, Rap Rock or Rap Metal (Both known under Rapcore), Hard Rock, Funk Metal and Alternative Rock or Alternative Metal — as well as their vocal militant leftist beliefs. At the point of their break-up in 2000, Rage Against the Machine had become one of the most popular political hard rock bands of all time, and certainly of the 1990s. Three-quarters of the band, namely Morello, Commerford and Wilk, are now members of Audioslave, featuring former Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell.

Widely regarded as the definitive originators of their genre, Rage drew inspiration from early metallic instrumentation to create an almost totally new style of music. The coalescence of rhyming styles and vocals along with their sound, especially Tom Morello's guitar techniques, made RATM difficult to confine to any one particular musical genre, compelling a new classification.

History

Formation

The duo of Zack de la Rocha and Tim Commerford teamed up in 1990 with Tom Morello and Brad Wilk to form a band. Their name was derived from the unreleased album "Rage Against the Machine" by de la Rocha's former group, Inside Out. Shortly after forming, they gave their first public performance in a living room in Orange County, California and self-produced a 12-song cassette which already included songs like "Bullet in the Head" . Several record labels expressed interest and they eventually signed with Epic Records. Morello said, "Epic agreed to everything we asked--and they've followed through... we never saw a conflict as long as we maintained creative control."

Their debut album, the self-titled Rage Against the Machine was released in late 1992. To promote the album and its core message of social justice and equality, the band went on tour, playing at Lollapalooza II and as support for Suicidal Tendencies in Europe.

Mainstream success

Their second album, Evil Empire entered Billboard Top 200 chart at number one in 1996. Two tracks on that album later won Grammy awards. A live video, also titled Rage Against the Machine followed in 1997. The following release, The Battle of Los Angeles also debuted at number one in 1999, selling 450,000 copies the first week and then going double-platinum.

Renegades, released shortly after the band's dissolution, was a 2000 collection of covers of bands as diverse as Devo, Cypress Hill, Minor Threat, MC5 and even Bob Dylan. The following year saw the release of another live video, The Battle of Mexico City.

A bootleg album of live and rare material fittingly titled Live & Rare from 1997, was followed up by a proper live release, Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in 2003, an edited recording of their last shows, September 12 and 13, 2000 at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. It was accompanied with an expanded DVD release of the concerts.

Political Beliefs

Integral to their identity as a band, the group voiced far left viewpoints highly critical of the domestic and foreign policies of the U.S. Throughout its existence, RATM participated in political protests to advocate these beliefs, including an infamous performance outside the 2000 Democratic National Convention and a performance on Wall Street earlier that same year. In the case of the latter, on January 26th, 2000, filming of their music video "Sleep Now in the Fire" — directed by Michael Moore — shut down the New York Stock Exchange. The NYSE of crowds gathering to watch the filming. Footage of enthusiastic Wall Street employees headbanging to Rage's music was later used in the completed "Sleep Now In The Fire" video.

The band primarily saw its music as a vehicle for social activism. Tom Morello, in a February 1997 interview with Guitar World, said,

:America touts itself as the land of the free, but the number one freedom that you and I have is the freedom to enter into a subservient role in the workplace. Once you exercise this freedom you've lost all control over what you do, what is produced, and how it is produced. And in the end, the product doesn't belong to you. The only way you can avoid bosses and jobs is if you don't care about making a living. Which leads to the second freedom: the freedom to starve.

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Musicians - Rage Against the Machine

History

Formation

Mainstream success

Political Beliefs

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