Zapatista

I mentioned last week that rapper Zack de la Rocha of RATM had been and even still is supporting the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico. He even in the 1990’s took trips all the way down to the southern most jungles of Mexico to visit the EZLN’s or Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion National. The EZLN want equal opportunities and access to necessities for the native farming minorities of southern Mexico. Why this is such a radical move for an artist to be supporting a movement like this is because the Zapatista movement is a very drastic one.
It got started because the native minorities for a long time in Mexico have been neglected and left at the bottom of the social ladder for many years. The people believe that the neo-liberal government (who RATM believed was backed by USA) has done nothing to help them and has intentionally left them at the bottom as a cheap labor force. The native people in 1994 made non-violent but emotional marches of protest against the government in Chiapas. The protestors were pushed back by the federal authorities who used brute force on the civilians. Later in the jungle the natives got together and created the well armed Zapatista National Liberation Army which is named after Emilio Zapatista who was a famous Mexican revolutionary in the early 20th century and supposedly fought for the native farmers. When the government saw how much of an organized force the Zapatistas had become they began to come to terms with the EZLN’s who still even now are asking for more radical changes. RATM also made a song supporting the movement called the "People of the Sun".

Rage Against the Machine

“Rage Against the Machine” is the perfect example of a rock protest group. They are major advocates in social activist movements in the United States and elsewhere. Their albums like Renegade, The Battle of Los Angeles, and Evil Empire contain songs that stress deep feelings of protest and are magnetic in their message to get people to join their counter-cultural views. The majority of their political views involves making known the wage slavery that is going on in America (Wage slavery is when workers are paid low wage for hard laboring jobs that require long shifts). They too in there songs complain about the corruption in Americas capitalist system that Tom Morello and De la Rocha believe makes this country a still a not free country.

But to me what makes “Rage Against the Machine” a truly perfect protest group is that they are practically anarchists and go against every political system out there. Even though they seem to be leftists they claim they hate the two party systems and don’t associate to either political party. The reason I think most people see them more as leftists is because the band has had a strong hatred for the Fox News network who has criticized the band on several occasions. In their concerts the band has too referred to the Network as bunch of “Fascist *#8*%*@*$#$@^”. Also band member De La Rocha has been active in supporting the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in Mexico which is a very radical move for anyone who is part of the mainstream music world.

Marilyn Manson

In this week’s blog I would like to talk about one of the most bizarre and interesting individuals in all of music history. The artist named himself after a famous actress (Marilyn Monroe) and an infamous murder (Charles Manson) hence Marilyn Manson. This guy has been selling records since the 90’s and has been considered by many to be the man at the center of the darkest genres of the counter-cultural world. He has been criticized for doing obscene things at his concerts, influencing sex and violence, distributing disturbing artwork, and has been accused of being a Priest of Satan. I used think of the guy as just another freak-show in the music world, but as I took a closer look at his personal life it seems that many of the negative assumptions about him and his music are misinterpreted. He does not claim to be a priest of Satan, he grew up with parents who were both Christians and for a time went to a religious school.
What too made think differently about Manson was when he made his appearance on The O’Reilly Factor a few years back. Most people who are asked upon to go on that show get frustrated with O’Reilly because all he does is try to make them look bad. From listening to the lyrics in Marilyn Manson’s songs I thought Manson would have flipped out on O’Reilly, but he did the opposite. He was very out spoken answered all of O’Reilly’s questions without any hesitation, frustration, arguing, or cursing. He was also very polite which totally dumbfounded O’Reilly who seemed to have just wanted to make him look bad. But, what I found most interesting is when Manson talked about how things in music can be misinterpreted which is what we have been talking about in class. Some of his songs have been criticized for promoting suicide yet; he claims his songs are about getting through suicidal situations. He also stated that he uses profanity in his music only to get his message out (which is uniform for most protest music today) and he disapproves of instances (like Columbine) when people use violence to get their message out. So while Manson still is one bizarre dude I don’t think of him as a violent Satanist anymore.

The Who

Sunday 8th 2010 was truly a historical day for both the World of Sports and New Orleans. The Saints, after over 40 years of only mediocre seasons, finally get to the Superbowl and win big for the once devastated city of New Orleans. Saints truly made their mark in history and the halftime show of the game was performed by one of the greatest classic rock bands of all time, The Who who have already made their mark in history.
The Who is most will known for their protest song “My Generation” released in 1965 and that same year it became the number 2 song in the UK. “My Generation”, written by Pete Townshend, is considered to be one the most revolutionary rock songs of its time and a prototype of the punk rock genre. It is one of the first songs to have youthful rebellious lyrics which supported the British Mods scene in the 1960’s. At the Superbowl they performed a 15 song melody that had some awkward transitions but, I thought it was pretty good. However, many critics say the bands performance failed because they were not near as crunk and as energizing as they were in the past. I believe the critics are over criticizing, because the band was too playing without two of its original members and the remaining members are in their sixties, so of course they will sound different. But regardless Saints won the Superbowl and that is all that matters and The Who is still in my opinion one of the greatest classic rock bands of all time.