Rage Against the Machine are an alternative rock band from Los Angeles, California, originally active between 1991-2000, and thereafter had future reunion periods from 2007-2008 and 2019-2024. They are also commonly referred to as ‘RATM’ or, perhaps more fittingly, simply ‘Rage’. For the purposes of this article, I will be referring to them as their acronym.

RATM are an inherently political outfit, famous for commenting on and criticising the handling of various socio-political issues, with a particular focus on their home country of the USA. It is widely speculated that the ‘machine’ they are ‘raging’ against is the oppressive structure of capitalism, and the social and political oppression of the American people (How did Rage Against the Machine get their band name? 2020).

RATM’s music video for ‘Testify’ (2000) is a critical commentary on the US presidential candidates of the 2000 US election and addresses the US population’s attitudes towards voting. These attitudes towards voting are still relevant in the present day, over two decades later. The band’s mission, in general, was to raise political awareness and criticise US politics through politically charged music videos like ‘Testify’, and through the unique, aggressive, and multi-faceted genres of their musical sound.

‘Testify’ is about the misrepresentation of world events by the US media, and the music video (directed by Michael Moore) also aims to depict the lack of choice between US presidential candidates. The song’s music video shows RATM performing the song in a rehearsal studio, and it also includes a variety of overlaid visuals of political and religious figures from across history. These visuals include animations of George W. Bush and Al Gore’s heads physically combining, creating a visual comparison between the sameness of the two presidential candidates’ ethos. ‘Testify’ highlighted the similarities in the presidential candidates’ attitudes towards contemporary issues such as same-sex marriage and the death penalty.

In Railton (2011), Joe Gow explains his theory of ‘popular formulas and emerging genres’ by describing the six central genres of music videos, which are defined by their relationship to performance within the music video. Here, Gow’s sixth genre is music videos which include “enhanced performance – videos which blend performance elements with other visual elements, a blend justified through either associational, narrative or abstract forms of motivation” (p48). This genre of music video is what RATM adopted in ‘Testify’ to visualise the political messages of the song.

At the end of the music video, text appears over an image of the American flag which says, “In November, it is estimated that the majority of Americans – nearly 100 million people – will not vote… simply for a lack of choice on the ballot”. This is reflected in the 2024 US election, as an enormous part of the US population did not vote, which mirrors RATM’s statement about Americans not feeling as if there is a worthy candidate to vote for. According to US News, almost 90 million people out of 245 million eligible voters (36%) in the US did not cast a vote in the 2024 US election. This reinforces the poignancy of RATM’s statement, and highlights the relevancy of the general US population’s political attitudes between now and then.

References

Railton, D. (2011) Music video and the politics of representation. Edinburgh University Press.

Radio X (2020) How did Rage Against the Machine get their band name? Available at: https://www.radiox.co.uk/features/rage-against-the-machine-name-meaning/#:~:text=It’s%20long%20believed%20that%20%22the,his%20punk%20zine%20No%20Answers [Accessed on 13/11/2024]

Kronenberg, A (2024) How Many People Didn’t Vote in the 2024 Election? Available at: https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2024-11-15/how-many-people-didnt-vote-in-the-2024-election. [Accessed on 15/11/2024]

Rage Against the Machine (2000) – Testify [Music Video] Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3dvbM6Pias&list=PLJT_IMCv7TkgGYbXWnEn4UAjRfAdbIkeD&index=27&ab_channel=RATMVEVO [Accessed on 15/11/2024]

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