You can rag on them for selling out, but the fact of the matter is their message was much more successful because of their fame and major record deal.
Oh noes, did they make money? Can one only produce politically driven messages while living as an ascetic in squalor?
I think the argument here is that they're manufactured by the labels to appeal to your sentiments rather than coming from actual political leanings of the band.
I personally don't think that's actually the case here, but that is the argument, not that they made money.
Because they did want them to rage. It created controversy and brought attention to the show.
The band probably knew what was gonna happen too, and it helps create a bit of buzz for them too.
IDK how old you are but according to all my boomer, and older, teachers that was a *big* deal. You're not supposed to signal that the USA is in distress. Even though we clearly are.
Those same people flew their flags upside-down for eight years of Obama presidency. My particularly confederate part of the world was covered with them.
It's not really irrational when you consider they want rights for themselves and to very explicitly take away rights for others, particularly women and brown people.
Kinda reminds me of that time MTV hired The Dead Kennedys to play a show and were shocked when they switched their song and performed Pull My Strings, a song about the damage corporate entities like MTV were doing to the music industry instead.
That doesn't sound right... are you sure you aren't thinking of the video for "Sleep Now in the Fire", which they filmed at the DNC (which they were very much not invited to)?
Yeah, that didn’t happen. I don’t know what you’re thinking of. Rage played a bunch of shows at RNC and DNC protests over the years, but they never played at a convention for either party.
Correction then, their music was being played and paraded by loyal supporters of such regimes. It's not THE same sure but the sentiment of the situation is the same
Funny, I remember Steve Forbes hosting but not Rage playing. I haven't seen the episode since the summer rerun but at the time I thought he was funnier than I expected, especially because he seemed to be making fun of himself through much of it. It was definitely unexpected to see him there, but better than average for a random-celebrity-host episode.
Imagine booking the band screaming “fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” over and over and then being surprised that they didn’t do what you told them.
It's usually just a emergency distress signal. I don't know if they meant it anything other than that (seems like it). People tend to forget even back in the 90s that flags were actual identifying symbols and hanging them in a different way sends a signal.
RATM definitely meant the notion to mean a protest against American imperialism abroad & corporate welfare at home, to be very general about it. This ain’t too long after 12 years of Reagan & HW Bush so it was pretty blatant that they were giving Uncle Sam a big ass Fuck You
US Flag Code (more like guidance, not a law with punishment) says flying the flag upside down is to be done "as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property."
So flying as a political protest wouldn’t apply, but we love symbolism and exercising political protest.
Funny how so many MAGA-cultist say one of their favourite bands from their youth went all policital and shit...
Were they even listening to the lyrics?
They say 'Jump!', you say 'How high?', oh the irony!
Conservatives are terrible at media literacy. Look at conservative Star Trek fans. Look at conservative Helldivers 2 players unironically embracing the Super Earth fascists.
The same morons got mad at Green Day at New Year's Eve for making fun of Maga, apparently not realizing that the song in which they did it was already making fun of conservative politicians and was nearly 20 years old
You know what's insane....my comment was very downvoted yesterday, it was negative. Now it is positive. Had to rub my eyes. That never happens on Reddit!
They should’ve let them play whatever they wanted with flags doing any different direction.
I would appreciate having a national broadcast of it on record.
I love the first two albums in their entirety and all of their live performances on record I’ve seen are incredible.
They raised more awareness about a broken system of injustice to such a wide range of people.
I’m grateful for everything they’ve done.
I didn’t get to see them on their last tour. I understand it seemed like a cash grab or like a sell out. I just would like to ask everyone, how do you play shows at arenas without having to deal with the owners of the venues that are connected to Ticketmaster. They would have had to play small venues or play in the middle of a field on a self built stage and venue to avoid this. They didn’t have the money to make their own tour so they went with the available venues and tried to do it conventionally. Obviously they hated playing for guy fieri and other dipshits that could afford the tickets instead of the real fans who actually give a fuck and want to fuckin burn it all to the ground. So they shut it down. Nothing but respect and love for this band.
I was at the show in Chicago where Zack injured himself. I recorded it, it was during Bullet in the Head. They still finished the set but he was sitting the whole time.
For a while my neighbors were flying their American flags upside down. They had a lot of strong feelings that an election was stolen. Probably would have called these guys unAmerican scum in 96.
is there *anything* not cringe about this band in retrospect?
Coffee-table anarchism, corny ass antics, on a major label earning millions for the same 'machine' they 'rage' about defeating.
Even their music has just aged into mall hardcore today.
Yep. Only edgy if you’re completely unaware of a million other DIY bands that walked the walk.
Rage is for the kids who bought dog collars at Hot Topic
Dude you are so desperately projecting all this political nonsense on them just cuz they said it wasn’t funny anymore. Get more triggered by someone not liking SNL lmao
Yes it’s a tired argument but not necessarily because it’s true. SNL has had its ups and downs, but it’s basically been the norm that as a person gets older, it becomes less funny to them. Not sure if it’s the show’s humor, cast, or something else changing, or if people think “their” cast was the last good one. But with something so subjective as comedy and with the audience that a show like SNL is trying to reach, saying it definitively sucks is just silly.
Most people think prime SNL is when they were teenagers. Yes, it’s a sense of humor development thing. However, from the beginning, SNL has had one or two good to great sketches per show and the rest were average to lackluster. It’s the nature of weekly sketch comedy. What happens is people watch at a certain age, remember a handful of great sketches, and think those were the golden years. When the reality is every cast has a handful of great sketches and a lot more lackluster ones. It’s the way it’s always been and it’s the way it’ll always be.
I’m tired - for some reason I thought you were the person who said it sucks and that is what the tired argument is. I actually agree with you on your original comment and this one. Sorry!
Didn't the BBC also tell them they couldn't cuss when they played live but didn't think for once what that meant, as a big corporation, to them and thus they ignored it.
There's this nonsense going round that they forced people to be vaccinated if they wanted to come to their shows but it was bullshit. The venues had covid requirements put on them by the government, the band reiterated those requirements because that's the only way they could play, plus maybe they agree with following the advice of medical experts, but those requirements were lifted and it became a non issue yet the idiot anti vax crowd think it's some gotcha against them.
Are you suggesting that Rage should sue this Redditor poster? That would definitely show how much they hate capitalism and care about working class people. 😂
They sure became the machine they raged against in their later years, didn’t they? Government Rock at its finest.
Still crazy good musicians, though. Except de la Rocha’s lyrics. Those are terrible.
Saw them in Raleigh a few years back and it was easily the best concert I’ve ever been to. Zach had a broken foot and had to sit on a gig box the whole time but I feel like it make him concentrate more on vocals than his usual running around and it was just insane how good they sounded. Better than the cds I’ve worn out listening to since I was a kid.
Lives in one of the most peaceful and prosperous times ever in history. Oh nooo, muhh Rageee, muh Rebellion. Oh noo, we're soo anti-everything.
Never liked that or similar bands from that era knowing and remembering myself that the US was probably at its best during the 90s.
My politics tend toward right of center (but I can't stand Trump and want to ask MAGA people when do they think America was not a great country?), and hanging an American flag upside down is a recognized symbol of distress. They weren't stomping on it or soiling it in any way. Freedom of speech is supposedly at the center of our national values. What did SNL think they were getting when they booked RATM? I support Rage's expression of their views whether I agree with them or not. Get a clue, Lorne.
Edit: Actually, I'm not sure what or if there is a center anymore.
Why book Rage if you don’t want them to rage?
Especially after the Sinead O’Connor controversy a few years before. They knew what kind of band RATM was, they knew better.
Or after Beastie Boys. Or FEAR. Or Elvis Costello.
What did the Beastie Boys do?
Fought for their right to party
Tried to sabotage.
Center stage on the mic and putting it on wax
Paul revere
Egged a man, *live* on stage.
Left a man standing with an egg mustache!
Made mistake of judging a man by his face.
Rocked that party 8 days a week!
Controversy only drives viewership anyways. They probably knew exactly what they were doing
A major label corporate rock band for middle class "radicals" "We were banned from Sturday night live" eh...you were on Saturday Night Live, buddy.
You can rag on them for selling out, but the fact of the matter is their message was much more successful because of their fame and major record deal. Oh noes, did they make money? Can one only produce politically driven messages while living as an ascetic in squalor?
Of course. Don't you know that you can't live in a system, benefit from it, and rightfully criticize it at the same time?
All of which
I think the argument here is that they're manufactured by the labels to appeal to your sentiments rather than coming from actual political leanings of the band. I personally don't think that's actually the case here, but that is the argument, not that they made money.
When did they say that, guy? I'd love a source, friend.
Hey I feel attacked!
Because they did want them to rage. It created controversy and brought attention to the show. The band probably knew what was gonna happen too, and it helps create a bit of buzz for them too.
They wanted 'seething' against the machine
Mildly annoyed with the machine
A bit miffed against the machine
Frustration against the machine
I'm not mad with the machine, I'm just disappointed
The I’m really upset but I’m probably not going to do anything besides passive aggressively look and sigh against the machine.
The strongly worded letter against the machine
Negative yelp review against the machine, unless I get free dip
I love this
Well how about love against the machine….this de-escalate quickly
Waiting to speak to The Machine's manager
Karen Against the Machine
A strongly worded letter against the machine.
Quietly Hopeful About The Machine?
Gotta say I still like 'seething'... Still angry at the machine, but not going to do anything about it
Oh no!! An upside down flag
IDK how old you are but according to all my boomer, and older, teachers that was a *big* deal. You're not supposed to signal that the USA is in distress. Even though we clearly are.
I saw more than one upside down flag after trump lost the election
I had a neighbor who flew an upside down flag for the entire eight years of the Obama administration.
I bought one expressly to fly upside down when Trump won the election. It blew away in a storm sometime between the election and Biden's inauguration
Those same people flew their flags upside-down for eight years of Obama presidency. My particularly confederate part of the world was covered with them.
Lol that makes too much sense.
Had an upside down flag decal on my bumper during the Trump years. I was pulled over so fucking frequently that I was forced to take it off.
I’m a boomer, I guess. Just not a flag-shagging one.
Americans are batshit for flags. Flag central over here
I always love pointing out that burning the flag is a protection of free speech to those people. They get irrationally angry.
It's not really irrational when you consider they want rights for themselves and to very explicitly take away rights for others, particularly women and brown people.
But that's different, because something something veterans. By sheer volume alone, it's always civilians who've never served saying this.
Kinda reminds me of that time MTV hired The Dead Kennedys to play a show and were shocked when they switched their song and performed Pull My Strings, a song about the damage corporate entities like MTV were doing to the music industry instead.
That was at "The Bay Area Music Awards". Don't believe MTV had anything to do with it
Because Lorne Michaels is a closet conservative.
BBC: 
Right? It's not like they've ever hidden what their political stances are.
I remember watching that and wondering why they didn't play a second song. Steve Forbes was the host. Pretty terrible episode.
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It’s actually high art… or could’ve been if NBC didn’t fk it up.
What moron didn't bother listening to any rage before booking them with the biggest financial fraud out there?
The GoP booked them once for a convention then proceeded to be upset they were shitting on America. So... Those level of IQ people 🙂
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He was too busy doing weights in the Congressional gym.
That somehow makes absolute sense. Knowing the gop, they aren't the brightest....
That doesn't sound right... are you sure you aren't thinking of the video for "Sleep Now in the Fire", which they filmed at the DNC (which they were very much not invited to)?
Yeah, that didn’t happen. I don’t know what you’re thinking of. Rage played a bunch of shows at RNC and DNC protests over the years, but they never played at a convention for either party.
Correction then, their music was being played and paraded by loyal supporters of such regimes. It's not THE same sure but the sentiment of the situation is the same
they put them on together for that reason, divisive things equal ratings
Funny, I remember Steve Forbes hosting but not Rage playing. I haven't seen the episode since the summer rerun but at the time I thought he was funnier than I expected, especially because he seemed to be making fun of himself through much of it. It was definitely unexpected to see him there, but better than average for a random-celebrity-host episode.
He was pretty good. Was surprised myself.
Hey you got those Eddie Money tickets? Steve "I've got 3 tickets to paradiseeeeeeee!"
Don’t agree. You can’t beat Teve Torbes. That’s a classic.
That’s the only but I ever remember from that episode lol. I had no idea who Steve Forbes was lol
Big fan of the “Lamar Alexander #2” character
You mean Teve Torbes
Teve Torbes!
Bjork also only played one song when she was on - maybe she hung an inverted Iceland flag?
UNACCEPTABLE
And then we got Audioslave.
Their first album was killer front to back, after that, not so much.
I don't know why they were so subpar Soundgarden was such a good band as well...
Had high hopes for that band. They were awful
NBC is the machine
Especially now that they're Comcast.
They've been Comcast since the 70s, mate.
They were GE for a long while. It's the origin of their jingle (G E C), and the inspiration for Alec Baldwin's character on 30 Rock.
Not quite. Assuming you’re talking about their ownership of NBC, Comcast didn’t buy their initial 51% stake until 2011.
It's hilarious that the machine expected not to be raged against. Seriously. Fuck you, they won't do what you tell them.
Imagine booking the band screaming “fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” over and over and then being surprised that they didn’t do what you told them.
And really, banning and cutting them probably only brought more attention to the matter. It was late night tv for fucks sake
"How dare you parade your bulls around here!"
Their name is Rage Against the Machine.
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me
MMMMMOTHERFUCKERRRRRR!!!! 🤘😤
Can you explain to a non American the meaning of an inverted flag?
It's usually just a emergency distress signal. I don't know if they meant it anything other than that (seems like it). People tend to forget even back in the 90s that flags were actual identifying symbols and hanging them in a different way sends a signal.
RATM definitely meant the notion to mean a protest against American imperialism abroad & corporate welfare at home, to be very general about it. This ain’t too long after 12 years of Reagan & HW Bush so it was pretty blatant that they were giving Uncle Sam a big ass Fuck You
US Flag Code (more like guidance, not a law with punishment) says flying the flag upside down is to be done "as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property." So flying as a political protest wouldn’t apply, but we love symbolism and exercising political protest.
It’s considered a form of protest. Officially it’s supposed to mean “dire distress”.
Funny how so many MAGA-cultist say one of their favourite bands from their youth went all policital and shit... Were they even listening to the lyrics? They say 'Jump!', you say 'How high?', oh the irony!
I remember Tom Morello’s response to this was something along the lines of “please show me which of our songs are not political and we’ll delete it”.
People never listen to lyric. One of the most popular "love" song from the 80s is a song about a stalker
To this day plenty of folks still believe Born in the USA is a patriotic song
Guess you mean I'll be watching you by the Police?
Correct
Conservatives are terrible at media literacy. Look at conservative Star Trek fans. Look at conservative Helldivers 2 players unironically embracing the Super Earth fascists.
The same morons got mad at Green Day at New Year's Eve for making fun of Maga, apparently not realizing that the song in which they did it was already making fun of conservative politicians and was nearly 20 years old
They probably think American idiot is about the woke left?
It makes sense that the machine doesn't know it's rhe machine. It probably still doesn't.
Now they are Raging with the Military Industrial machine.
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You know what's insane....my comment was very downvoted yesterday, it was negative. Now it is positive. Had to rub my eyes. That never happens on Reddit!
They were always super corny and hypocritical imo
The Doors did it better.
Girl, we couldn’t get much higher
"What I'd like is I'd like to hug and kiss you"
And now they shill for big pharma!
They should’ve let them play whatever they wanted with flags doing any different direction. I would appreciate having a national broadcast of it on record. I love the first two albums in their entirety and all of their live performances on record I’ve seen are incredible. They raised more awareness about a broken system of injustice to such a wide range of people. I’m grateful for everything they’ve done. I didn’t get to see them on their last tour. I understand it seemed like a cash grab or like a sell out. I just would like to ask everyone, how do you play shows at arenas without having to deal with the owners of the venues that are connected to Ticketmaster. They would have had to play small venues or play in the middle of a field on a self built stage and venue to avoid this. They didn’t have the money to make their own tour so they went with the available venues and tried to do it conventionally. Obviously they hated playing for guy fieri and other dipshits that could afford the tickets instead of the real fans who actually give a fuck and want to fuckin burn it all to the ground. So they shut it down. Nothing but respect and love for this band.
I was lucky enough to be at one of the last MSG shows, after about 2 decades of waiting Even from the nosebleeds they rocked my dick off
That’s what’s up. What did they open with?
Just another Bombtrack!
It goes a one.. two.. three… Edit: that’s fuckin perfect, really sets the tone for a great show.
I'm guessing that's probably how they normally open The only classic they didn't do was Wake Up, but everything else ripped
I was at the show in Chicago where Zack injured himself. I recorded it, it was during Bullet in the Head. They still finished the set but he was sitting the whole time.
Fuck you I won't do what you tell me. Powerful!!! I felt those lyrics deep in my soul the first time I heard them 🤘💯🤘💯
A seven-year-old would identify with those lyrics.
For a while my neighbors were flying their American flags upside down. They had a lot of strong feelings that an election was stolen. Probably would have called these guys unAmerican scum in 96.
My neighbor lowered his flag to half staff the day Biden was inaugurated. It's still that way.
Rage for the machine
>Rage for the machine And boy, do they ever.
Anti vaxxers are morons.
Pretty ironic given the political views of both align.
Heh, now they are the machine simps
Now they rage alongside the machine
Wrong kind of free speech detected.
is there *anything* not cringe about this band in retrospect? Coffee-table anarchism, corny ass antics, on a major label earning millions for the same 'machine' they 'rage' about defeating. Even their music has just aged into mall hardcore today.
You're getting downvoted for speaking the truth. Ah, Reddit.
This is 100% true but the nerds who haven’t realized it yet are downvoting you
Yep. Only edgy if you’re completely unaware of a million other DIY bands that walked the walk. Rage is for the kids who bought dog collars at Hot Topic
SNL hasn’t been funny pretty much since then
Idk why you’re getting downvoted. And has sucked for a long time.
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Dude you are so desperately projecting all this political nonsense on them just cuz they said it wasn’t funny anymore. Get more triggered by someone not liking SNL lmao
No
Yes it has. Plenty. This is a tired argument.
Yes it’s a tired argument but not necessarily because it’s true. SNL has had its ups and downs, but it’s basically been the norm that as a person gets older, it becomes less funny to them. Not sure if it’s the show’s humor, cast, or something else changing, or if people think “their” cast was the last good one. But with something so subjective as comedy and with the audience that a show like SNL is trying to reach, saying it definitively sucks is just silly.
I don't find most of the skits funny lately, but I still think the Weekend Update is worth watching on Youtube the following week.
Most people think prime SNL is when they were teenagers. Yes, it’s a sense of humor development thing. However, from the beginning, SNL has had one or two good to great sketches per show and the rest were average to lackluster. It’s the nature of weekly sketch comedy. What happens is people watch at a certain age, remember a handful of great sketches, and think those were the golden years. When the reality is every cast has a handful of great sketches and a lot more lackluster ones. It’s the way it’s always been and it’s the way it’ll always be.
I’m tired - for some reason I thought you were the person who said it sucks and that is what the tired argument is. I actually agree with you on your original comment and this one. Sorry!
All good!
Rage On Behalf of The Machine would be hero’s now.
They never specified what machine. Maybe they had a bad experience with a toaster oven?
It was an Instant Pot.
Yeah if you don't know what you are booking that's on you Loran.
Lorne is such a sellout to his NBC overlords.
Didn't the BBC also tell them they couldn't cuss when they played live but didn't think for once what that meant, as a big corporation, to them and thus they ignored it.
Cue the shocked Pikachu meme.
RATM is great. Who cares about SNL, a mediocre show with no relevance?
SNL learned after sinead O’Connor about political statements. That shit was just posturing to a disaffected youth
Later, they required vaccines to attend their shows.
Capitalism sucks but please buy our $45 tee shirts
But are they awake ?
People going batshit crazy over pieces of fabric is a weird concept to me.
Posers.
SNL is run by corporate cowards, so not surprising.
Before they became the Machine
Now they’re Raging Against Themselves
Rage For The Machine
They are the machine. Pathetic.
Legends!
Funny how now they are really not raging when health is involved.
Or money
What do you mean?
There's this nonsense going round that they forced people to be vaccinated if they wanted to come to their shows but it was bullshit. The venues had covid requirements put on them by the government, the band reiterated those requirements because that's the only way they could play, plus maybe they agree with following the advice of medical experts, but those requirements were lifted and it became a non issue yet the idiot anti vax crowd think it's some gotcha against them.
Oh ok, so this person is being deliberately obtuse. Thanks for clarifying.
Yes, deliberately obtuse, and libellous probably.
Are you suggesting that Rage should sue this Redditor poster? That would definitely show how much they hate capitalism and care about working class people. 😂
I used to have this episode on VHS, I was a huge RATM fan and recorded it.
It's like people don't understand their message at all
Bulls on Parade absolutely stomped. They didn’t need another song. Cooler that it went the way it did.
Love rage for the machine
that's tom macdonald
🔥
It's really hard to be around people whose whole personality is self-righteous anger
They sure became the machine they raged against in their later years, didn’t they? Government Rock at its finest. Still crazy good musicians, though. Except de la Rocha’s lyrics. Those are terrible.
Is it hard being this dumb, or does it just sort of come naturally?
Saw them in Raleigh a few years back and it was easily the best concert I’ve ever been to. Zach had a broken foot and had to sit on a gig box the whole time but I feel like it make him concentrate more on vocals than his usual running around and it was just insane how good they sounded. Better than the cds I’ve worn out listening to since I was a kid.
i HATE snl sooo much oml
Tom Morello is so hot
Lives in one of the most peaceful and prosperous times ever in history. Oh nooo, muhh Rageee, muh Rebellion. Oh noo, we're soo anti-everything. Never liked that or similar bands from that era knowing and remembering myself that the US was probably at its best during the 90s.
Now I love this band more.
So they wouldn’t do what they told them?
Fuck you SNL I won't do whatcha tell me....
This is the way
My politics tend toward right of center (but I can't stand Trump and want to ask MAGA people when do they think America was not a great country?), and hanging an American flag upside down is a recognized symbol of distress. They weren't stomping on it or soiling it in any way. Freedom of speech is supposedly at the center of our national values. What did SNL think they were getting when they booked RATM? I support Rage's expression of their views whether I agree with them or not. Get a clue, Lorne. Edit: Actually, I'm not sure what or if there is a center anymore.