The FuCk Yous

Months after the ‘92 Rodney King Riots, Rage Against the Machine released the now legendary “Killing in the Name of”. Perhaps best known for the refrain “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me”, the track comes in at #6 on Rolling Stone’s list of top protest songs of all time and comes up on almost every other list of protest songs I’ve come across. Nearly every song on that album is a protest song in its own right. Its messaging is radical and revolutionary despite the gross irony in the comfortable millions it netted the band of supposed socialists.

Still, I want to take a moment to recognize the immense power an album like Rage Against the Machine had. It is probably the most radical, unapologetically commierock to ever reach the kind of commercial success it did - perhaps a sign of a time when the Zapatistas had taken Chiapas and when unadulterated liberal hegemony was being questioned.

More recently, IDLES has emerged with a radical message In 2019, the iconic British postpunkers took to the stage of the Downs Festival and introduced each track by making it clear that they were “antifascist songs”. In 2023, they were nominated for a Grammy which somehow found its way into Ozzy Osbourne’s 74-year old hands. Still, one of the biggest rockbands of our day have gone on record as “lefty and soft.” protest joyous. Sure, it’s a furious album that takes no prisoners with its pugilistic vocal delivering, pounding drums, and wailing guitar tones, but it’s also pretty far from selfserious or aggrandizing. It is simply a piece of media anyone can put on to help get themselves through their days and it’s made by a couple of British weirdos, jumping around in their underwear