Politics is all the Rage
Although the Beijing Olympic games are only half way complete, there is another major race taking place here in the United States, the Presidential election. As we watch Michael Phelps and Nastia Liukin achieve unprecedented success in Beijing, the latests pieces of political propaganda for Senator Barack Obama and John McCain are ramping up on the television networks. But Barak Obama won’t be the only one hitting the road for the Democratic National Conventions in Denver Colorado. Recently announce, Rage Against the Machine will be shadowing each convention with two free concerts supporting the Music Festival to End the War. Rage as become one of the most renown politically outspoken rap-rock bands of today and will headline the free concerts withDenver Colorado’s recently signed political hip-hop group, The Flobots; as well as The Coup, State Radio and Wayne Kramer. Wayne Kramer was at the epicenter of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago which exploded in riots which clashed with police.
“When the opportunity came up to take our electric guitars and make some unholy noise to try to stop a war, it sounded familiar to me,” Kramer said. “It’s something we did 40 years ago, as
part of a generation that said the war in Vietnam was wrong and needed to stop. We’re part of a generation saying the war in Iraq is wrong and needs to stop.”
Rage is schedule to perform in Denver on August 27th amists the convention scheduled for August 25th through August 28th and will play to a crowd of 8,000 fans who won their admittance via a lottery held at Tent University, a concert sponsor. Rage will also perform during the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis – Saint Paul Missouri on September 3rd.
Finally, Zak De La Roch as openly suggested he plans to vote for Presidential Candidate Senator Barak Obama in November.
Music has long been a tool implemented for non-violent protest. Rage Against the Machine has always had the goal of provoking listeners to choose sides on an issue (ambivalence being the proletariat’s crime).
A presidential election certainly calls for American’s to pick a side, assuming of course the candidates themselves take a clear position. Unfortunately, both McCain and Obama have loosely defined objectives for ending the war, and I can only assume that Rage Against the Machine finds their soft positions inadequate.
Perhaps they can inspire their fans to definitively choose a side on the war and thereby force their representation in government to do the same. This is democracy in its most dynamic (read: idealistic) form.
For further dialogue on music’s ability to impact social norms, check out http://akoma-ntoso.blogspot.com/