Rage Against the Machine is a band that I feel was a part of a new sound of metal and hard rock. It introduced hip-hop elements into a metal sounding song. One example would be the song I have chosen for my podcast Guerrilla Radio. This song along with many of their other pieces of music fall into a category all their own. When you do a quick google search of the band, they fall into the categories of Rap metal, Alternative metal, Rap rock, and Nu-metal. Rage Against the Machine combined two genres that had an influence on two of the main band members. The song Guerrilla Radio is one of the prime examples of this new Rap rock genre at the time of its release. The song includes elements of hip-hop through its politically focused lyrics that were often rapped by lead singer Zach de la Rocha. It also had a metal sound to it which came from guitarist Tom Morello. The song definitely has a big presence of metal with Morellos use of effects and aggressive riffs that give you that headbanging sound. This has the ability to make the song feel more aggressive almost like an attack against certain political situations.

When you pair that with Zach De La Rocha’s use of Rap it takes the words, he speaks and increases the meaning behind it. By having him rap lyrics it gives the song more of a protest feel, by this I mean it sounds almost like he is chanting or yelling these powerful and meaningful lyrics. He also does not rap in the typical style it includes many elements of screaming or yelling most of the lyrics. An example of this would be the chorus of the song where Rocha says,

“Lights out! Guerrilla radio!
Turn that shit up!
Lights out! Guerrilla radio!
Turn that shit up!
Lights out! Guerrilla radio!
Turn that shit up!
Lights out! Guerrilla radio!”

There are also times where he raps in a very low slow tone, so the audience is able to hear the lyrics he is rapping. For example, in the song Guerrilla Radio not only does Rocha lower the tone of his voice but the music also lowers so the lyrics can be heard when Rocha says,

” It has to start somewhere
It has to start sometime
What better place than here?
What better time than now?”

As I have mentioned in my other posts this is the part of the song that I feel is a call to action and the reason behind the choice to speak this part. In other parts of the song, Rocha’s use of rap is more intense than other artists in hip-hop. One other band that comes to mind that may have had an influence on this style of rap could be the Beastie Boys. Each band does not fit the typical style of rap, but instead, the way they chose to rap enhances the delivery of the lyrics by using a more assertive approach. However, something that does resonate with “typical” rap is that Rocha’s use of lyrics and rhyme brings up certain issues that he chooses to bring up. In other hip-hop songs/albums during different eras, there have been many instances of rappers using their lyrics in a similar way to talk about the government or other social issues of the time. The listener can hear the different influences from other artists and genres that helped create Rages style of music. The album which features Guerrilla Radio is known to have other revolutionary songs that take a stance on certain political issues.  Through research, I have found that the overall take away from trying to figure out the different genres that fit this song and band is that the main two influences are hip-hop and metal/hard rock. The song was different than other music that was out during the time and was more focused on bringing certain issues to the surface and it seems that the band was not sugar coating or hiding any of their opinions. I feel that it is able to fit into these two genres because of that aspect because both of these genres offer the artist the ability to be upfront.