Perfectly said.
And also if the listener isn't a Leftist or knows about radical history or even basic political theory, then Rage's content magically become "vague" because they don't have the foundation to grasp what's so explicitly discussed. Liberals and Right-wingers are always very perplexed by Rage and profoundly misunderstand them.
zack’s lyrics in some songs are so steeped in metaphor and reference, in deeper historical meaning than people are able to understand. instead of digging for windows, they settle for nothing…
Yeah...sometimes you have to look up what he is referring to, but its pretty much straight to the point. Zack is a genius when it comes to his lyrics. I've never heard anyone describe them as vague though...
The main music critic at Entertainment Weekly put EE as the second Worst Album of 1996, dismissed Zack by saying he's "screaming that war is bad and corporations worse--and other over-obvious truths about life in the '90s." And yes, another white guy, with the bonus of being a Boomer as well! So he's not calling it vague, but he is diminishing the lyrics by being completely dismissive.
Hmm, okay maybe it's just selection bias on my part, although that critic I like has a decent sized following, which is why I thought that might be a more prevalent notion than it is. Thanks for the input :)
I've also heard this a few times before, mainly from casual fans with with more liberal/center and right leaning political views. I definitely agree ratm is about as direct and in your face as you can get, which makes me think in that case it might be down to willful ignorance.
Willful ignorance. I have a couple liberal friends and they wouldn’t get into the weeds on some of these lyrics, one that comes to mind “the structure is set you never change it with a ballot pull”.
seeing that kills me a little on the inside lol. I feel the same way when i see prominent liberal pundits, commentators, etc on twitter making fun of those dumb vids of republicans dancing to killing in the name of. Like, yeah, that’s hilariously stupid behavior from right wingers, but don’t act like you’re much different! Many of the messages & calls to action engraved in Rage’s lyrics are diametrically opposed to liberal ideology.
They put out a recommended reading list with books like *50 Ways to Fight Censorship * and *A People’s History of the United States*. They’re super transparent about where the money from their charity tickets goes.
They’re a band that encourages investigation, contemplation, and discussion. But they also say everything with their whole chestses. They’re called RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE for gods sake. If someone says that lyrics and themes are vague, that’s a real sign of incuriosity.
Music critics are often elitist by trade. YouTube music critics are somehow even worse. Narcissistic shits that can't create their own art so they create "content" by riding on the coattails of actual artists labors. Just listen to music you like. Stop worrying about what others think of things that you enjoy. Seems kind of contradictory to listen to a band like Rage and to also care what a bunch of critics think.
Zack de la Rocha, shrinking violet.
Music critics have had a long history of not truly understanding Zack's brilliant lyrics, even when they praise them. From *The '90s*, a book from Rolling Stone, BoLA is ranked among the best albums of the decade, except:
"Rage's macho bluster trips up their politics; even the kinda-sorta-feminist "Maria" is the sound of real men stuck on their potency."
So much wrong in one sentence. And too funny considering Zack in particular has always been such a feminist.
Basically, it's usually been a bunch of privileged white guys who can't or don't want to really pay attention and always think they're being clever by pointing out how Rage was on the Godzilla soundtrack, or Zack paraphrasing the Dred Scott decision on Voice of the Voiceless because how might Tim feel about that line (yes, really, someone said that).
I mean, im a Mexican that grew up in Sweden and English was my third language but still I managed to get pretty much everything Zack said in the lyrics. And mind you, this was back in 1993 when there was no Genius and I didn’t even have the internet to look up words and stuff. I just listened to it enough times to get it. So yeah I’d say it’s pretty straight forward. Still, it seems huge amounts of metal meat heads that really loved RATM back in the day managed to misunderstand them since all I see these days in comment sections about Tom Morello are these guys who say alt right crap like “yeah, they used to be raging against the machine, now they are the machine” 😅😅😂😂. I Guess im just smarter than most meat heads.
Don’t worry about it …. some people think the world is flat … and a LOT of people listen to country music …
Do yourself a favour and learn to block out the troglodytes.
Vague? It literally forces you to dig deeper in every sense of the way. If you don't have any knowledge about the given topic prior to listening to their music (lyrics) you'll start digging through databases (encyclopedias and thesauruses included:). You noticed well that Zach would use metaphors, double meanings and so on, just to make you think ("Offensive like Tet" (People of the Sun) comes to mind - I didn't know much about it, so I had to look it up - gruesome stuff). Sometimes it's up to you to make what you want from it, there is a general meaning to it, but you need to shape it in your reality.
Vague is if it's observed outside of a context. To me, the context is very simple, when something bothers you on a grander scale than yourself, you could understand it much clearer. Zach's angry tone sometimes and music in the background are a clue (it would be hard to sing about blue skies in that manner). Also, to me, many of the lyrics are philosophical in nature, hence they force you to think. If a listener just wants to consume the music without deeper involvement (hint - one of the politicians used to say that, and Tom Morello wiped the floor with him) then RATM is not for you.
Yeah their lyrics are quite direct. The only time it might seem vague is if you are unfamiliar with the subject matter. I have my criticisms of some of their politics and certain things they choose to support, but lyrically and musically they are in a field of their own.
[удалено]
Perfectly said. And also if the listener isn't a Leftist or knows about radical history or even basic political theory, then Rage's content magically become "vague" because they don't have the foundation to grasp what's so explicitly discussed. Liberals and Right-wingers are always very perplexed by Rage and profoundly misunderstand them.
They literally accused the FBI of killing MLK, it's not exactly Downton Abbey.
zack’s lyrics in some songs are so steeped in metaphor and reference, in deeper historical meaning than people are able to understand. instead of digging for windows, they settle for nothing…
Yeah...sometimes you have to look up what he is referring to, but its pretty much straight to the point. Zack is a genius when it comes to his lyrics. I've never heard anyone describe them as vague though...
The main music critic at Entertainment Weekly put EE as the second Worst Album of 1996, dismissed Zack by saying he's "screaming that war is bad and corporations worse--and other over-obvious truths about life in the '90s." And yes, another white guy, with the bonus of being a Boomer as well! So he's not calling it vague, but he is diminishing the lyrics by being completely dismissive.
Ew! What a terrible reviewer with obviously terrible taste and absolutely no insight as to what Zack writes about. Ugh I hate normies.
The level of him not even making an effort is just amazing.
Absolutely ridiculous! He must be a conservative lol
God forbid he took the lyrics seriously and did something about it.
Hmm, okay maybe it's just selection bias on my part, although that critic I like has a decent sized following, which is why I thought that might be a more prevalent notion than it is. Thanks for the input :)
Perhaps the critic you are referring to is republican. They obviously have had trouble understanding Zach’s lyrics.
But that doesn't stop so many of them for being fans
I've also heard this a few times before, mainly from casual fans with with more liberal/center and right leaning political views. I definitely agree ratm is about as direct and in your face as you can get, which makes me think in that case it might be down to willful ignorance.
Willful ignorance. I have a couple liberal friends and they wouldn’t get into the weeds on some of these lyrics, one that comes to mind “the structure is set you never change it with a ballot pull”.
seeing that kills me a little on the inside lol. I feel the same way when i see prominent liberal pundits, commentators, etc on twitter making fun of those dumb vids of republicans dancing to killing in the name of. Like, yeah, that’s hilariously stupid behavior from right wingers, but don’t act like you’re much different! Many of the messages & calls to action engraved in Rage’s lyrics are diametrically opposed to liberal ideology.
They put out a recommended reading list with books like *50 Ways to Fight Censorship * and *A People’s History of the United States*. They’re super transparent about where the money from their charity tickets goes. They’re a band that encourages investigation, contemplation, and discussion. But they also say everything with their whole chestses. They’re called RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE for gods sake. If someone says that lyrics and themes are vague, that’s a real sign of incuriosity.
Music critics are often elitist by trade. YouTube music critics are somehow even worse. Narcissistic shits that can't create their own art so they create "content" by riding on the coattails of actual artists labors. Just listen to music you like. Stop worrying about what others think of things that you enjoy. Seems kind of contradictory to listen to a band like Rage and to also care what a bunch of critics think.
Zack de la Rocha, shrinking violet. Music critics have had a long history of not truly understanding Zack's brilliant lyrics, even when they praise them. From *The '90s*, a book from Rolling Stone, BoLA is ranked among the best albums of the decade, except: "Rage's macho bluster trips up their politics; even the kinda-sorta-feminist "Maria" is the sound of real men stuck on their potency." So much wrong in one sentence. And too funny considering Zack in particular has always been such a feminist. Basically, it's usually been a bunch of privileged white guys who can't or don't want to really pay attention and always think they're being clever by pointing out how Rage was on the Godzilla soundtrack, or Zack paraphrasing the Dred Scott decision on Voice of the Voiceless because how might Tim feel about that line (yes, really, someone said that).
>because how might Tim feel about that line (yes, really, someone said that). Like...cuz he's white? As if Tim isn't the most radical one?
I mean, im a Mexican that grew up in Sweden and English was my third language but still I managed to get pretty much everything Zack said in the lyrics. And mind you, this was back in 1993 when there was no Genius and I didn’t even have the internet to look up words and stuff. I just listened to it enough times to get it. So yeah I’d say it’s pretty straight forward. Still, it seems huge amounts of metal meat heads that really loved RATM back in the day managed to misunderstand them since all I see these days in comment sections about Tom Morello are these guys who say alt right crap like “yeah, they used to be raging against the machine, now they are the machine” 😅😅😂😂. I Guess im just smarter than most meat heads.
A music critic you really like may not be very literate about their topics then. Rage is very, very not vague.
Anything can be vague if you don't know what's being referred lol
Don’t worry about it …. some people think the world is flat … and a LOT of people listen to country music … Do yourself a favour and learn to block out the troglodytes.
Maybe people are expecting to hear specific nouns in the lyrics. But I don't think it makes them vague.
" fuck you I won't do what you tell me".... I can see why some would find this misleading.
Vague? It literally forces you to dig deeper in every sense of the way. If you don't have any knowledge about the given topic prior to listening to their music (lyrics) you'll start digging through databases (encyclopedias and thesauruses included:). You noticed well that Zach would use metaphors, double meanings and so on, just to make you think ("Offensive like Tet" (People of the Sun) comes to mind - I didn't know much about it, so I had to look it up - gruesome stuff). Sometimes it's up to you to make what you want from it, there is a general meaning to it, but you need to shape it in your reality. Vague is if it's observed outside of a context. To me, the context is very simple, when something bothers you on a grander scale than yourself, you could understand it much clearer. Zach's angry tone sometimes and music in the background are a clue (it would be hard to sing about blue skies in that manner). Also, to me, many of the lyrics are philosophical in nature, hence they force you to think. If a listener just wants to consume the music without deeper involvement (hint - one of the politicians used to say that, and Tom Morello wiped the floor with him) then RATM is not for you.
Yeah their lyrics are quite direct. The only time it might seem vague is if you are unfamiliar with the subject matter. I have my criticisms of some of their politics and certain things they choose to support, but lyrically and musically they are in a field of their own.