LP’s CDs #5: Rage Against The Machine, Rage Against The Machine, 1992. Or: the soundtrack to teenage rebellion
Seeing this tweet prompted me to review Rage Against The Machine’s debut album next:
The subsequent thread vividly reminded me of the time when I listened to it the most and the things it sparked for me.
I’d love to say I bought this when I was nine and was a fervent anti-capitalist before my 10th birthday, but that would be a lie. From what I remember, I got into RATM in about 1999, when The Battle of Los Angeles came out.
I listened to this album on the way to school most days, skipping back to ‘Killing In The Name’ and turning up the volume as I walked in the door. It felt transgressive and rebellious. (I’m cringing writing this.)
In the thread above, there’s a comment about how many people say RATM radicalised them. It would be an exaggeration to say their music radicalised me, but they politicised me — along with Naomi Klein’s No Logo. I bought and read that at the same time in 1999, and the two are synonymous for me. (Still cringing.)
Together, these things made me hyper-aware that my privilege was built of the suffering of others. I started a patchy attempt at redressing structural inequality by rejecting labels and big chains and finding ethical clothing. This led to a lot of eye-rolling from friends and family, a few rows, and a lot of hungry waiting outside/in the cars while everyone else went to McDonald’s. I also constructed elaborate plots to sneak out and go to the May Day march in London. This failed because:
- I lived in a tiny rural village with no buses.
- My babysitting job paid £2 an hour.
- I had (still have — hi Mum) the world’s most vigilant mother.
(I’m cringing so hard right now.)
On the positive side, Rage and Naomi got me reading. (Someone has put the RATM reading list on Good Reads btw.) I tried Noam Chomsky and Karl Marx and failed, but had more success with George Orwell (thank you local library).
As the tweet above mentions, listening again it struck me all over again at just how radical the lyrics are on this album. This album is such a strong takedown of nationalism, police brutality, capitalism, US foreign policy… it’s sad how relevant it still feels.
It made me wonder who makes music as political as this now? I could only think of Solange’s A Seat At The Table, and Nadine Shah. This is a genuine question, not a ‘kids these days’ statement — I’m sure someone’s making it, and I want to hear it, so hit me up with recommendations.
My favourite song? Killing In The Name, but we’ve all heard that enough times. It’s a hard choice, because it’s a great album, I’m going with Know Your Enemy for it’s brilliant aggression and the lyrics.
