dsheinem wrote:CFFJR wrote:dsheinem wrote: Who's the popular industrial/metal/shock rock band or artist of today?
I honestly don't think there is one, which actually kinda bothers me.
If such an artist exists (a popular one that is, shock bands are a dime a dozen) I don't know about them.
A few years ago I would've suggested Linkin Park, but they weren't about shock (at all) so much as making "depressed" teenagers be more depressed.
CRAAAWWWLING IIIINNN MY SKIIINN....
Ugh. Yeah, LP is crap. With Sabbath, Cooper, Manson, etc. there was some genuine innovation and talent, some real interesting political/religious/sexual undertones (or overtones), and just the right tinge of angst (something generally missing from a band like RATM or Metallica, for example). If we really have no popular shock rocker, then we live in boring times.
And yeah, obviously shock rock exists en masse in certain niche genres, but I am trying to figure out if there's any that could be considered popular enough to make FOX News fall all over themselves to denounce it.
minus the "sexual" under/overtones, i'd say Metallica had (read: HAD) just as much of those qualities as sabbath, cooper, and manson, if not moreso. see tracks like "disposable heroes," "creeping death," or "the four horsemen." they're total bullshit now though, and we all know that, so yeah...
RATM had a lot of political/religious undertones, but where they failed was in their inaction. they played here several years ago when i was just getting into punk and hardcore (i think i was like 14 or 15). i had been listening to them for several years, because they're one of those "mainstream political" bands that interested me not just for the music but for the lyrical content also. when i started going to hardcore shows, i'd see people talk between songs about issues in the world, injustices against women and animals, speaking out and becoming more active in their communities; really it just felt like a call to action. it was inspiring. then they're playing this awesome heavy music to coincide with this message and it all seemed so fitting.
so when i went to go see RATM, i assumed that there'd be a similar exchange, but on a much larger, stadium-level scale. i was excited to see what these guys (Zack de la Rocha and Tom Morello) had to say about political ideologies that mattered to me, and seemingly mattered to them, through reading their lyrics and the "recommended reading" list they always had in their liner notes.
but they didn't say shit. not one thing in between any song. it was just like listening to the radio.
it was really disconcerting to me at the time because i guess i just expected more from this band that i thought was such an essential politically charged backbone in the otherwise spineless music industry. i'm going to see these bands in these shitty basements and garages, and these guys are talking about going to protests, talking about spending time in jail, talking about writing letters, demonstrating, passing out literature, actually getting involved; and RATM couldn't be bothered to say one word in support of a single one of their lyrics. it bothered me because i looked around at the people that were there, and none of them really gave a shit either. in a way i can see that as a kind of segue into the way things are now. there's not a real good politically charged motivator in popular music because popular music won't allow there to be, unless they're a bit of a caricature of themselves, like RATM eventually became.
it's especially frustrating because of this right here:
