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RATM - using capitalism to sell communism


bernorange

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There is a lot of stuff going on in this article.  I found parts of it interesting.  It's long, so I'll just quote a small bit for a taste;

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This November, rock's most successful and pugnacious communists will be inducted, six years after they became eligible, to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Rage Against the Machine, a band that kicked the doors down on the 1990s with a then-novel mix of brutally heavy guitars and hip-hop vocals, also blended in unlikely tandem two other disparate traditions of American life.
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RATM's actual lyrics tend more toward domestic denunciations—against racism, cops, public education, mass media, misogyny, American exceptionalism, and the oppression of non-elite classes. Most of all, the group proclaimed itself from the rooftops as being devoutly anti-capitalist.

But therein lies a paradox deeper than the familiar charges of hypocrisy that greet millionaire Marxists the world over. Immediately prior to their meteoric rise, and one decade before technology toppled the music industry decisively in the direction of the consuming proletariat, Rage Against the Machine signed a deal for the release and, most importantly, ownership of their music with one of the world's largest corporate entertainment conglomerates, Sony, via their subsidiary label Epic.
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https://reason.com/2023/09/01/how-rage-against-the-machine-used-capitalism-to-sell-communism/

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Article author seems to think that being able to make money from your job, and being against corporate control of government, are somehow mutually exclusive.

Not saying that RATM are smart enough to recognize the distinction themselves. Or most folks, for that matter. People seem to think that socialism and capitalism are a pair of extremes that can't ever have anything to do with each other, when the reality is that every country blends the two together out of necessity.

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13 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

Article author seems to think that being able to make money from your job, and being against corporate control of government, are somehow mutually exclusive.

Not saying that RATM are smart enough to recognize the distinction themselves. Or most folks, for that matter. People seem to think that socialism and capitalism are a pair of extremes that can't ever have anything to do with each other, when the reality is that every country blends the two together out of necessity.

mister-gotcha-4-9faefa-1.jpg

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1 hour ago, Rimbo said:

Article author seems to think that being able to make money from your job, and being against corporate control of government, are somehow mutually exclusive.

Not saying that RATM are smart enough to recognize the distinction themselves. Or most folks, for that matter. People seem to think that socialism and capitalism are a pair of extremes that can't ever have anything to do with each other, when the reality is that every country blends the two together out of necessity.

note the source

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Millionaire rock stars utilizing Che Guevara to help market their music will always be cringy. 

That said, one of my most vivid drug memories was tripping and watching my friend's roommate play Killing in the Name of in his apartment on Riverside at 18 years old. That's peak Rage age of course.

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1 hour ago, Rimbo said:

Ah. Libertarians. Say no more.

A few years ago my BIL was at some kind of campus area grad school party he was talking to a girl, and this skinny-fat blond guy with bad posture and kind of a weak chin kept trying to get a word in.
When she wasn't having it, he glances over at the bookshelf, reaches over and pulls out a book and says "Gravity's Rainbow? That's my favorite book, behind The Fountainhead."

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31 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

A few years ago my BIL was at some kind of campus area grad school party he was talking to a girl, and this skinny-fat blond guy with bad posture and kind of a weak chin kept trying to get a word in.
When she wasn't having it, he glances over at the bookshelf, reaches over and pulls out a book and says "Gravity's Rainbow? That's my favorite book, behind The Fountainhead."

Now, I've been outta the game a few decades, and didn't have much game when I did, but that doesn't seem like a top notch pickup line to me. It's up there with "Would you like to come over to my place and clean my dishes for me?" and "I'm friends with Steven Seagal."

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I just like the music I like for the music. I couldn't give two shits for their political beliefs. If they express themselves in a musical way I can enjoy I can dig it. About 99% of great popular musicians aren't particularly good lyric writers anyway, and the ones that are often aren't particularly good musicians. The verbal part of the song is more like another musical instrument to me. If the lyrics are great, that's a bonus. 

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