Rage Against the Machine

Upon its release in late 1992, Rage Against the Machine’s debut album changed the very rules by which rock & roll could be made. Here was a band capable of fusing funk, punk, metal, and hip-hop with an intensity, intelligence, and inventiveness that rock music had previously neither seen nor heard. Perhaps more importantly, other than Public Enemy’s, no band’s lyrics or videos had so consistently and fiercely addressed the myriad forms of oppression that characterize the activities of both governments and multinational corporations. Rage were equal parts shocking, revelatory, and galvanizing.