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Comment by james_marks | Hacker News Reader

"Land of the free? Whoever told you that is your enemy" -Zakk DeLaRoche

"Rage Against the Machine? Let's do 9 figures of highly profitable revenue for a large multinational, that'll show them!" - Zakk DeLaRoche, probably

You're glossing over the part where this approach brought their message into mainstream culture. If they took the money and dropped the message, sure. The history doesn't really support the narrative, though.

Yes, it would have been harder for them not to be major hypocrites and still get their message across.

But the idea that they needed to stay with the Sony owned music label and not move to an independent one is kind of silly.

Your mind seems made up, but it’s hard to imagine we’d even be having this conversation if, say, Zack had stayed on Victory putting out hardcore records.

He just wouldn’t be a part of the zeitgeist in the same way. There’s an argument that a lot of what we’re experiencing now is a backlash against how well it worked. “the machine” is defending itself.

Can you imagine the president of the US using the term “Woke”, without RATM, and RATM without Sony behind them? They didn’t coin it obviously, but certainly gave it a huge boost.

It’s like a startup, the same product with a better distribution mechanic often wins.

I love indie labels, btw. But the judgment and indictment of someone that chooses a different path is unnecessary.

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