THIS is the most defiant song of all-time.
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What's the ultimate scale, mode or chord progression to score a full-out protest riot? We break down the head-banging music theory of Rage Against The Machine to find out.
That's right, let's examine the... SEVERAL... different tonalities that appear throughout Rage's "Killing In The Name," a hit anthem of the mid-1990's loaded with heavy guitar riffs, dissonant bass intervals, and some hardcore tonal ambiguity. It's almost as if the very essence of "unrest" or "friction" was built right into the music itself... 🤔
In fact, there's so much to explore and love about this iconic song: its embrace of Blues tonality, wild tempo changes, the unabashed defiance of its lyrics.
So, is this the best "protest song" ever written? Well, eat your heart out Woody Guthrie, because Rage is comin' for ya!
*Warning: This video contains brief footage of police violence.
0:00 - Intro
1:30 - Anchored in D, but not really.
3:49 - What is happening here?
5:06 - Blues defiance
6:44 - A pot boiling over
8:53 - The final breakdown
10:21 - Coda: Second life
References
Dr. Ethan Hein's blog post on blues tonality: www.ethanhein.com/wp/2014/blu...
The "Fight Songs" episode of our podcast Themes and Variation: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
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Пікірлер: 28
Listen (ah-ah) I am not a native English speaker and I know (but trying to learn) few of music theory BUT the animation, the explanation makes me understand almost everything I need to justify the feeling I had and still have when I listen to this track. Thank you, you have a new subscriber
@soundfly
10 ай бұрын
Amazing! So glad you enjoyed it.
Omg, thank you for that Phrygian mode warning!
@soundfly
10 ай бұрын
it felt important
Wow thanks for the info... will revisit this. God bless!!!
@soundfly
10 ай бұрын
Awesome! Glad you liked it
Great video, wonderful explanations and context too, congrats! I was waiting for the guitar solo, which was pretty innovative and unique at the time, they had to specify they made use of guitar, bass, drums and vocals only, on every album😅 Now, speaking personally, as a Brazilian communist, I have to say this song talks a lot with us. When it came up Brazil had just took back it's democracy after 22 years of military dictatorship, and we still suffer from police violence on daily basis. Brazilian cops are committing slaughters right now all around the country. So that motherf* at the end of the song roars even stronger. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
@soundfly
10 ай бұрын
I know! It's such a wild solo. We included it in our first draft, but it felt a little long and we didn't have a ton to add other than that it's cool, so ended up cutting it. But yeah, I've always loved it
What a great title for this video as it works for this song on different levels. There is not a bad song on this album. Tom was the reason I wanted to learn guitar (I never did though hah). Thanks for the memories (and lesson!) 🙂
@soundfly
10 ай бұрын
glad you liked it!
@blast3613
10 ай бұрын
So you didn't want to play guitar, you wanted to make stupid noises, like Tommy?
Another great analysis :) Gotta take another listen to Rage Against the Machine. Also I love seeing the Eileen Southern book on the shelf
@soundfly
10 ай бұрын
glad you enjoying it Tyrone! Great to hear from you as always
Pretty interesting video
@soundfly
10 ай бұрын
Thank you! glad you enjoyed it
This video just became the visual definition of passive-aggressive. 👊🏻
My favourite part is the first 5:13 of the song.
@soundfly
10 ай бұрын
fair
RAAAAAGGGGEEEEEE!
And now they are just boot lickers
@evhwolfgang2003
10 ай бұрын
I haven't heard anything about them being pro MAGA. As far as I'm aware, they've always been leftists. Bootlickers are right wingers.
@mickeyrube6623
10 ай бұрын
What? How? You a tankie, bro?
I hate how political ratm has gotten Lol