Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to Rage) was an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1991. It consisted of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello, and drummer Brad Wilk. They melded heavy metal, rap, punk rock, and funk with anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, and revolutionary lyrics. As of 2010, they had sold over 16 million records worldwide.
Rage Against the Machine released their self-titled debut album in 1992 to acclaim; in 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it number 221 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. They achieved commercial success following their performances at the 1993 Lollapalooza festival. Their next albums, Evil Empire (1996) and The Battle of Los Angeles (1999), topped the Billboard 200 chart.
In 2000, Rage Against the Machine released the cover album Renegades and disbanded after growing creative differences. After pursuing other projects for several years, they reunited to perform at Coachella in 2007. Over the next four years, the band played live venues and festivals around the world before going on hiatus in 2011. In 2019, Rage Against the Machine announced a world tour that was delayed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was ultimately cut short after de la Rocha suffered a leg injury. Wilk confirmed in 2024 that the band had disbanded for the third time.
History
1991–1992: Early years
In 1991, following the break-up of guitarist Tom Morello's former band Lock Up, former Lock Up drummer Jon Knox encouraged Tim Commerford and Zack de la Rocha to jam with Morello as he was looking to start a new group. This lineup named themselves Rage Against the Machine, after a song De la Rocha had written for his former underground hardcore punk band Inside Out (also to be the title of the unrecorded Inside Out full-length album).
While sales were initially slow, the album became a critical and commercial success, driven by heavy radio airplay of the song "Killing in the Name", a heavy, driving track featuring only eight lines of lyrics. The "Fuck You" version, which contains 17 instances of the word fuck, was once accidentally played on the BBC Radio 1 Top 40 singles show on February 21, 1993.
The band's profile soared following a performance at the Lollapalooza festival in mid-1993 tour; sales of Rage Against the Machine in the United States increased from 75,000 before Lollapalooza, to 400,000 by the end of the year. By April 1996, the album had sold over 1 million copies in the United States and 3 million copies worldwide. It appears in every edition of Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, with the most recent being in 2020 at its highest position, 221.