Classic 1990s band Rage Against the Machine's hard-rocking protest songs have long been go-to anthems in the fight against injustice.
So when a Canadian radio station was hit with a wave of layoffs in the midst of switching formats, the remaining DJs went for the perfect musical protest: a Rage Against the Machine marathon.
But this wasn't just some programmed marathon tribute to the band playing a block of Rage Against the Machine hits. Rather, it was a single song—the anti-authority, anti-racist, anti-police brutality anthem "Killing In The Name," over and over, for 30 hours.
That's certainly one way to send a message!
\u201cA soft-rock station in Vancouver has been playing "Killing In the Name Of" by Rage Against the Machine for hours on a loop.\n\nWhenever someone calls in for a request, they deny it and replay the Rage song again. \n\nhttps://t.co/r2yhK0qTSi\u201d— Tracey Lindeman (@Tracey Lindeman) 1656531952
As journalist Tracey Lindeman reported in a tweet, seen above, Vancouver’s KISS-FM 104.9 not only played the song over and over and over again, but they denied listeners' called-in requests for other songs and simply played "Killing In the Name" yet again.
As Lindeman detailed in follow-up tweets, some even got in on the joke, calling in to request "Killing In the Name," whereupon the DJs would pretend not to have the song on hand and then play it anyway.\u201cSomeone just called in to request "Killing In the Name." The host said they were only playing vinyls and that he'd have to dig into the crate for it \u2014 then immediately began playing the song.\u201d— Tracey Lindeman (@Tracey Lindeman) 1656531952
The protest grabbed so much attention that even iconic Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello noticed.
Morello, who uses Twitter almost exclusively to "fight the power," as his Twitter bio instructs his followers to do, lent his support by retweeting a fan's post about the stunt.
After a whopping 30 hours of playing the song, one of the station's new DJs confirmed that the Rage tribute was indeed partly a way of announcing the station's change to an alt-rock format.
\u201cso... about the last 30 hours, @ngelavaliant shares what's up\u201d— SONiC (@SONiC) 1656599771
But DJ Angela Valiant also explained that the song was chosen specifically because of its roots as a protest song, "because right now, there are a lot of reasons to protest."
Valiant went on to list everything from the U.S. Supreme Court's overturn of Roe v. Wade to current Canadian environmental and social issues, along with the perennial struggle with police brutality that inspired Rage Against the Machine's song in the first place.
Whatever its motivation, many on Twitter absolutely loved the station's stunt.
\u201c@RollingStone @nycsouthpaw Been listening for the last 10 minutes. The song finished, they played a station promo that ended with "Playing nothing but the hits!" and then Killing in the Name of started anew. \n\nThis is the best thing\u201d— Rolling Stone (@Rolling Stone) 1656539757
\u201c@RollingStone Can\u2019t think of a better song to play on repeat right about now\u2026 @tmorello\u201d— Rolling Stone (@Rolling Stone) 1656539757
\u201cI can\u2019t get over this soft rock radio station in Vancouver playing Killing In The Name by Rage Against The Machine on loop because 2 hosts were laid off. They\u2019ve been going for at least 14 hours now I think and it\u2019s wonderful\u201d— Chris (@Chris) 1656557915
\u201cThe host just took a caller who was sick of it. After a it of banter, she asked what they wanted to hear, caller said "I dunno, anything other than\u2014" and then they cut her off and launched directly into Killing In The Name again\u201d— Aiun, Taking Route (@Aiun, Taking Route) 1656559637
\u201c"are you listening to the c--"\n\n"the canadian radio station that's been playing Killing in the Name for 12 straight hours? yeah, i am"\u201d— hot girl midsommar (@hot girl midsommar) 1656555580
\u201cIt\u2019s 7PM and @kissradiohits still has Killing in the Name by @RATM on repeat.\n\nThis is probably one of the favourite things to happen this year, this was hands down the best interaction of the day though \ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude02\u201d— Mauro Francis for City Council \u6cd5\u99ac\u58eb (@Mauro Francis for City Council \u6cd5\u99ac\u58eb) 1656557099
\u201cSomething about a radio station looping "Killing in the Name," for hours, fills me with such hope for the world.\u201d— Taylour the Terrible (@Taylour the Terrible) 1656549487
\u201cThanks for tuning in to K-RATM, Vancouver\u2019s home for \u201cKilling in the Name.\u201d We only do one thing but we do it better than anyone else on this planet. Here\u2019s \u201dKilling in the Name.\u201d\u201d— Dr. JMac* (@Dr. JMac*) 1656558831
\u201cI love drama that doesn\u2019t involve me in any way: so anyway KissFM fired a bunch of their on air staff and now they\u2019ve been playing Killing in the Name by RATM for 6+ hours straight. \n\nI haven\u2019t listened to the radio in years, but this? This is worth listening to.\u201d— Donnasaurus Fox (@Donnasaurus Fox) 1656525897
\u201cI hope every radio station in the world starts playing Killing in the Name Of" on repeat and nothing else. \n\nThat's called nature healing.\u201d— Thomas Sullivan (@Thomas Sullivan) 1656555211
Almost certainly because of the furor the stunt generated, a Rage Against the Machine fan Twitter account announced that a video of the band performing "Killing In the Name" had racked up more than one million views.
\u201cKilling In The Name has surpassed ONE MILLION views here on Twitter alone.\u201d— Rage Against The Machine \u2605 (@Rage Against The Machine \u2605) 1656928335
It seems that lyrics like "Fu*k you, I won't do what you tell me" are definitely resonating at the moment.
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