Blatant message in song by ''System of a down'' The prison song.

I was listening to this song tonight and I didn't really pay much interest in the lyrics as I didn't understand what was being said sometimes but after I had a look there seemed to be a message of tyranny and control displayed. Now this was definitely intentional but its hard to tell if they did this just for artistic reasons or if there is a deeper meaning to the song.

Prison song - System of a down

This video has the song lyrics, but I'll post a few interesting quotes from the song.

Utilizing drugs to pay for secret wars around the world,

Drug money is used to rig elections, And train brutal corporate sponsored Dictators around the world

They're trying to build a prison,

You may think, ''there are heaps of songs with messages?''. This band is truly spectacular in the way it presents it songs. Many are filled with political messages so I believe the members of the band are in the know or they they put their opinion and ideas of world political systems into their songs.



Boom. This song if you read the lyrics also talk about the corporatism and commercialism in today's age.

Boom - Systen of a down

A few more interesting songs are

Toxicity
BYOB - This song is one you must check the lyrics out on.

There are definitely heaps more I'm going to have a look at.

From here its your choice whether you have a deep look at more of their songs but I am truly interested. I believe music today is a way of presenting messages subliminally, by those in control. I'm not trying to promote this band. I think a lot of you will agree in the messages presented in these songs though!

Many borderline most of their songs have a political message or reference. Which may I add is friggin awesome for a rather well known mainstream band

reply to post by curiousrb


Their songs are speaking out against governments and the like.

They aren't "part of it".

Seemed pretty obvious I thought?

reply to post by AlphaHawk


It's more about bringing it to light for people who haven't heard of the band so they can have a look at these four activists.

this has always been one of my favorite bands, if you ask them what their
songs mean they will always say that its up to you to decide, as i actually
got to ask them at a concert once, truth is most of it is just strait forward.

if you liked this one listen to areials and my personal favorite, toxicity.
toxicity is the name of a song and one of their albums so make sure its
the right song, if you havent heard it listen to it now, its another strange one
but has a message too, i cant remember where it is they were from but
thier home nation suffered a horrid incident with a psycho that used
gas attacks and killed many people while the world turned a blind eye
more or less and thats what motivated them somewhat. very interesting
people.

also war and spiders are very very good songs, spiders might actually be
their best song lol hard to say with so many good ones, i noticed in the OP
you mentioned the same songs i did, well just shows they do rock! oh and
also serj tarkin, i think thats how its spelled, the lead singer did a short
solo album, one of the songs is angry walls, give that one a listen too,
its a good one.


rammstein also has some very good thought provoking music if you can
get past the language barrier, they are german and most of their songs
are in german but they have allot to say as well.

Ehh they're from the middle east so what do you want.

I don't see that band of misfits making songs to hail the president of the USA in the next 500 years either. Haranguing the leaders you have to have, is all the rage don't you know.

(as if any one of us put in their position would give land rights to gay whales and abolish tyranny in the blink of an eye, solve world hunger and invent disposable hugs to make sure everyone has one...)

(pps, why is this in the Music sub forum? It should be in the hackswithnotalent forum...)

reply to post by winofiend


call them hacks all you like but at the very least they can honestly perform their songs,
they dont lip sync live and they write/make all their own music, to me that says talent,
esp in the sad world that has become pop music now days, hell you dont even have to
have talent anymore. ah well music like all art forms is subjective so no big deal.
but they arent hacks thats for sure.

reply to post by winofiend


Wow a lot of hate from you. Quite frankly they have done very well as a band, and the singer is very gifted, even performing in operas. I guess it depends how you measure their success. E.g Relative to your success - They are very successful. To be honest you can think what you like, complain all you want but I doubt you'll affect their fan base. At least there songs have a meaning deeper than the girl they met on Saturday night like most artists we commonly hear today.

And obviously you are purposely making it impossible to argue with you as you come up with ridiculous feats that would be hard for anyone to achieve. In all honesty I believe it would be impossible for anyone in their position to abolish tyranny and totalitarianism in the blink of an eye.

Originally posted by themadnut
reply to post by winofiend

 

Wow a lot of hate from you. Quite frankly they have done very well as a band, and the singer is very gifted, even performing in operas. I guess it depends how you measure their success. E.g Relative to your success - They are very successful. To be honest you can think what you like, complain all you want but I doubt you'll affect their fan base. At least there songs have a meaning deeper than the girl they met on Saturday night like most artists we commonly hear today.

And obviously you are purposely making it impossible to argue with you as you come up with ridiculous feats that would be hard for anyone to achieve. In all honesty I believe it would be impossible for anyone in their position to abolish tyranny and totalitarianism in the blink of an eye.

edit on 7-9-2012 by themadnut because: (no reason given)

Yeah but when people sit at their desk, beer or wine on the side, ciggy in the ashtray and they click "Connect" they do it with all the knowledge of what NOT to do as the POTUS and they come around and berate, deride, accuse, attack and denigrate the status quo with the fervour of someone with all the answers....

Reminds me of the image "I'm so angry, I made a sign!"

Now I know it's not a bad thing to see a problem and mention it. But you get the likes of half the population of ATS who make it their lifes work to shout at the top of their lungs, yet if they were ever put to task, they'd fail as miserably as those they think are the devil in a suit. They want to be 9 volt batteries trying to work in a aaa battery compartment.

Just sayin...

And SOAD.. well, haha.. it makes my ears bleed and I like carcass.. so, yeah.. rambling monotone inanity.

Also the problem with SOADs fanbase.. is they are fans.. lol. Never try to tell a fan they're wrong. Firstly because you can't and secondly because why?

Originally posted by bloodreviara
reply to post by winofiend

 

call them hacks all you like but at the very least they can honestly perform their songs,
they dont lip sync live and they write/make all their own music, to me that says talent,
esp in the sad world that has become pop music now days, hell you dont even have to
have talent anymore. ah well music like all art forms is subjective so no big deal.
but they arent hacks thats for sure.

Fair enough I guess, I'll take that given todays standard of music. Auto tuned, vocoded and that's if they're trying to be real and not some fabricated wannabe contestant band from some obscure one direction of the world..

People used to tell me meshuggah was crap. I knew better. So swings and roundabouts.

SOAD still stink musically tho

wow! ... most of you must be completely inept at doing any sort of research ... SOAD are armenian ... and they were all actually born in los angeles in one of the largest armenian communities outside of the land ... and yes serj does perform opera ... how do i know all of this ... because my arabic professor holds a Ph.D in ... wait for it ... armenian opera ... and who has she gotten to interview and write an article on ... you guessed it SOAD ... they are an EXTREMELY intelligent group of individuals who understand fully the political undertones of the world ... oh and by the way their grandparents and parents respectively immigrated due to the turkish goverment massacrering the armenians in 1910-1923 ... thats why the armenians and the kurds are such close allies ... bc we all know what the turks have done to the kurds ... and also they are so musically gifted its ridiculous ... anyone who can listen to them and claim otherwise has had their mind completely melted by the subliminal tones of modern music ... they have melded so perfectly the ancient art of armenian chanting with modern day orchestration and it is a beautiful combination ... dont hate

peace

A lot of people cant get past SOAD's style. The information they convey is amazing. Listen to the words of "BYOB". They really do have a very firm grasp on the current geopolitical environment. Some people do not like their music. I can understand and accept that, but I think they should look up the lyrics of their songs and read them. Their message is sound.

reply to post by subject1145


I second that about BYOB.

One of the quotes in that son being ''Why do they always send the poor''. This is especially relevant to the likes of Vietnam where many of the soldiers were people who had no other way of getting money.

Well I think their most politically charged song is the Legend of Zelda theme.

Any one else seen when Serj and the Foo fighters covered Holiday in Cambodia on MTV.......

Like 90% of the MTV generation knows who Pol Pot was.

Rage Against The Machine and Immortal Technique also have politically driven songs and messages in bedded in them.

Oh wow! I was 21 when this song came out. I was studying journalism at University and so many things were happening in US policy both at home and overseas. Bush had started his war on the middle east after 9/11 and the US economy had just started to tank. And this band came along and pointed out that more and more Americans are being thrown in jail over pretty much nothing. It was a tense time in the states for all us radicals in University during those days.

Originally posted by xxKINGFSUxx
Rage Against The Machine and Immortal Technique also have politically driven songs and messages in bedded in them.

Immortal Technique sucks. It doesnt have any "politically driven songs", Rage Against the Machine kicks their ass.