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de la rocha splits rage
Rage Against the Machine lead singer Zach De La Rocha announced that he will be leaving the band he has written lyrics for over the past 10 years. In a statement made on Wednesday, October 18 last year De La Rocha said that as a band their “decision making process has completely failed” and their “artistic and political ideals had been undermined.” Despite De La Rocha’s departure from the band, the remaining members plan to rock on and have released a live album, “Renegade.”
The bands decision to break up has come at a time when the style of music that Rage seemed to have pioneered has stepped into the limelight. By the time Rage released their third album, “The Battle of Los Angeles” the band had sold over 10,000,000 albums and with commercial success came the attraction of big record labels; the band singed with Sony music. Maybe it is the relationship between the band and the music business this is responsible for De La Rocha’s feelings that the band’s artistic and political ideals have been undermined. Working for a huge corporation places demands on commercial which might have conflicted with De La Rocha’s intentions for the band in the new millennium.
As far as Rage’s musical history their self-titled debut album came out nine years ago; some of their old fans say that this was their best album. The album that made most people aware of their music was their second album “Evil Empire” that came out in 1996 with hard rocking tunes such as “People of the sun” and “Bulls on Parade.” In their 1999 album “The Battle of Los Angeles” the music and lyrics complement each other very well in songs such as “Born of a Broken Man” and “Testify.” Rage is very consistent in their content of songs, most being about raising political awareness and the fight for social justice. They have also done many benefit concerts for causes such as the appeal of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the free Tibet concert and advocating the release of Leonard Peltier.
Overall I have to say that the influence of Rage Against the Machine has been positive. By adding politically active incendiary music to popular culture the reality of social injustice has been exposed to many young people. The only thing this society needs now is to act upon these injustices and induce change and that may not be too far off.
This article was written by Leon Boychuk-Hunter, a teenager living in Edmonton, Canada.
