RATM

They should stick to what they're good at & that's music. Nothing I hate more than when ignorant athletes, musicians, actors/actresses, etc talk politics. I buy there CD to hear good music, or I go to see a baseball game to see them play. If I want to learn about politics I'll go elsewhere.

hiatus wrote:

They should stick to what they're good at & that's music. Nothing I hate more than when ignorant athletes, musicians, actors/actresses, etc talk politics. I buy there CD to hear good music, or I go to see a baseball game to see them play. If I want to learn about politics I'll go elsewhere.

I agree to a degree. However, with RATM what you are getting with their music is a political voice. That is why they rock, because they have viewpoints and express them, and so many other bands are horrible.

the same could be said about you. i come to a running message board to get your opinion on running, not why you "hate" athletes/musicians/actors/actresses for expressing their politics. why shouldn't anyone who wants to be involved in the political process, whether it's voting, speaking their mind, etc. who do you think should be allowed to express their beliefs? only politicians?

So, for example if the winner of the next track 5k comes out and wears on the back of his jersey in big black letters anti-abortion & then after his race he gives a speech on how wrong abortion is, that'd be fine with you?

or

If an athlete came out and ran his/her race in a rainbow colored jersey, and afterwards spoke on how important it is to promote gay rights, that'd be fine with you?

Let the athlete/musicians/actors/actresses do there own thing, and leave politics up to the others. Some people are dumb enough to listen to these people speak, and the media doesn't help because they puff up these people and anything that comes out of there mouths.

I don't have a problem with that. It's their right to use the "microphone" they have been given through their ability to voice whatever they would like. We have the choice whether to listen or not.

When I found out that all of RATM's music was a huge political rant, it ruined their music for me.

I used to listen to RATM to get pumped up and angry before racing, but now that I know it's just a bunch of Anti-america bullshit, I can't listen to it without thinking about politics. Honestly, political opinions aren't a creative way to write lyrics. If I want to hear an educated debate, I'll turn on C-SPAN rather than listen to a bunch of high school dropouts tell me what to think about the government. They say the media is brainwashing the urban public and RATM is contributing to that problem.

again, same question to you (still unanswered by hiatus). who is allowed to speak out about politics? only politicians? if you're truly an american, than you respect the fact that we allow (and in fact encourage) everyone to take part in the political process. i have a lot more respect for RATM because they are involved, and not just writing "creative" lyrics about doing drugs, or doing chicks.

Politics has always been part of art. Art is about expression, including expressing political views. If you don't like their views, don't listen, it wasn't meant for you anyway.

what...perhaps you'd prefer to hear love songs, or some songs about doing heroin? Honestly I don't know how anyone could have listened to RATM for any period of time and not realized that the music was political.

As far as high school dropouts...where does that generalization comes from? I don't know all of their backgrounds, but Morello went to Harvard.

You have a point about musicians, what else are they going to sing about. With athletes/actors it's different. Mainly I'd like to hear politics from talk radio, CNN, Fox news, C-span etc rather than the Dixie Chicks.

xfghfgsh wrote:

When I found out that all of RATM's music was a huge political rant, it ruined their music for me.

I used to listen to RATM to get pumped up and angry before racing, but now that I know it's just a bunch of Anti-america bullshit, I can't listen to it without thinking about politics. Honestly, political opinions aren't a creative way to write lyrics. If I want to hear an educated debate, I'll turn on C-SPAN rather than listen to a bunch of high school dropouts tell me what to think about the government. They say the media is brainwashing the urban public and RATM is contributing to that problem.

If you didn't know rage was a political band prior to I believe there are more issues at hand. AND they're not ALWAYS celebrating their political voice if you've heard such covers as Renegades of Funk and How I Could Just Kill A Man. All in all, I'm stoked for the show Aug. 24th at Alpine Valley, hope to see some of you there. Take care

You guys are not true RATM fans of course they're political they've always been and if it took you awhile to figure that I out maybe you should do use a favor and hang yourself. The world right now needs a band/people like RATM. And if you can't handle it go back to listing to nickleback.

To be honest, I think they're just "weak." As in not particularly substantive or thoughtful. The problem with rock music, and other popular genres, is that it's not meant to convey complex messages. Music is mainly just that, music: in the case of rock, the lyrics just seem to be filler for disillusioned teens.

The problem is when people take rock lyrics too seriously. I personally cannot understand how anyone can take RATM's, or any other rock band's, lyrics seriously at all. But that's just my opinion, which you asked for.

Postmodern Fatigue wrote:

To be honest, I think they're just "weak." As in not particularly substantive or thoughtful.

The problem is when people take rock lyrics too seriously.

Ummm, doesn't this seem like a bit of a contradiction to you?

Sorry, it's the middle of the afternoon and I'm having a difficult time thinking. What did I miss? The point I was trying to make was that people tend to take unthoughtful lyrics too seriously and substitute them for real political discourse.

Tom Morello went to Harvard and graduated with honors in political science.

Is that right? Good for him. I still think the lyrics are weak.

xfghfgsh wrote:

When I found out that all of RATM's music was a huge political rant, it ruined their music for me.

I used to listen to RATM to get pumped up and angry before racing, but now that I know it's just a bunch of Anti-america bullshit, I can't listen to it without thinking about politics. Honestly, political opinions aren't a creative way to write lyrics. If I want to hear an educated debate, I'll turn on C-SPAN rather than listen to a bunch of high school dropouts tell me what to think about the government. They say the media is brainwashing the urban public and RATM is contributing to that problem.

actually, I believe that all the members of RATM have degrees from Harvard, or somewhere of that nature

Wait a second, listen to the name of the band: Rage Against the Machine.

This is a band that has had political lyrics since their first album.

What should really upset you is when some band out there just starts going off on political tirades during concerts when no one cares to begin with. When we went to U2 concerts, none of us wanted to hear Bono go on an 8 minute tirade about Bush. Whether you agreed with it or not.

With Rage, it's different. You know you're going to listen to politically inspired music. The weird thing with them is that I've never heard Morello go into a 10 minute discourse during either Rage or Audioslave concerts.

And I'm certainly willing to take Tom Morello's viewpoints seriously regardless of whether he is on stage or just speaking out publicly. I don't agree with all of his statements, but I do respect how smart the man is.