System Of A Down - Chop Suey!

System of a social critic

By: Mateo Amaya

Grade: 11C

System of a social critic

System of a Down is an alternative metal band formed by ethnic Armenians in Glendale, California, in 1995. At first they were used to be called Soil, but then adopted the name System of a Down inspired by the poem Victims of a Down, written by guitarist Daron Malakian. They are very famous for performing songs whose lyrics speak out against child abuse, violence, war, genocide, violent pornography and sexism, the predominance of themes intereted in society, social inequalities, physical and ideological intolerance or discrimination, among others. It is really important the focus of this group now a days, because is practical way to catch people attention and really do something to make this world a better world. Sometimes people just like music because a superficial rhythm, but make they fans or gain followers beginning from a social critic.

In June 1998, the band released their first studio album, System of a Down. The band enjoyed their first success with his first single, Sugar, which became a favorite of U.S. radio and people, all this followed by the single, Spiders. System of a Down made ​​a long tour opening concerts for Slayer and Metallica, which represents a lot for a band because of the importance of these two bands.Their success was more evident in February 2006, System of a Down won the Grammy for "Best hard rock performance' by the simple BYOB. In May of that year, Daron Malakian announced that they will take temporary long break after their participation in the Ozzfest tour. However, this is not a definitive dissolution of the group, which means they can return to the music activity in any moment.

The group's big break arrived when their second album Toxicity debuted at #1 on the American and Canadian radio statistics, despite the events of September 11 of the twin towers, the album eventually achieved multi-platinum certification which really few artists through history had achieve this certification and sold over 12 million copies worldwide. It was still on top in America during the week of the September 11, 2011 terrorist attacks and the political environment caused by the attacks added to the controversy surrounding critics to the album hit ”Chop Suey!" The song (single) was taken off the radio as it contained politically sensitive lyrics at the time such as "I don't think you trust in my self-righteous suicide." These kind of lyrics didn’t help a lot with the war propaganda of the U.S.A, which had and still has now a days as principal objective to make people think the war is worth and that the individual interest are not the priority of U.S.A.

Regardless is the name of the video that gained constant play on MTV, which one of the most important music TV channels in the world, which is the album's second single, "Toxicity" ". Even with the controversy surrounding "Chop Suey!”, which had a Grammy nomination, System of a Down still received constant appearances in the United States radio throughout late 2001 and 2002 with "Toxicity" and "Aerials ". In May 2006, VH1 another important TV music channel in the world, listed Toxicity as the #14 Greatest Metal Song in the history out of 40.

In their five albums they released until today ( System of a Down (1998), Toxicity(2001), Steal This Album!(2002), Mezmerize (2005) and Hypnotize (2005)), System of a Down uses a wide range of instruments, including baritone electric guitars, to an empty bottle that serves as a too, electric mandolins, zithers, 12-stringclassical guitars and other instruments of Asia. Their most notable influences are from bands beginning with the heavy metal. The stylistic variety and level of experimentation in System of a Down's music has made it difficult to describe, but System of a Down has, for the most part, maintained a single style throughout their body of work .In these style they have influences from genres such as jazz fusion, folk, hard rock, psychedelic rock, funk, blues and industrial. This also represents their cultural importance, because taking all this genres as their base for their songs is a symbol of wish for a social integrations and also this combinations also led the group to cover all the themes they wanted to criticize.

Also the band has influences that include Middle Eastern music, Ozzy Osbourne, Dead Kennedys, Frank Zappa, Slayer, The Beatles, and Van Halen. The band's musical style has often been compared to that of Zappa. Malakian has stated that "I'm a fan of music. I'm not necessarily a fan of any one band." Dolmayan stated "I don't think we sound like anybody else. I consider us System of a Down." Odadjian stated "You can compare us to whoever you want. I don't care. Comparisons and labels have no effect on this band. Fact is fact: We are who we are and they are who they are."

It is important to mention that in System of a Down's the previous albums most of the lyrics were written and sung by Tankian and the music was edited by Tankian and Malakian and sometimes Odadjian, also much of the music and lyrics on Mezmerize andHypnotize were written by Malakian who also took on a much more dominant role as vocalist on both albums, often leaving Tankian providing keyboards back stage of the songs and backing vocals.

System of a Down was honored at a University of Southern California game at the Los Angeles Coliseum in Los Angeles, California in 2006. The Trojan Marching Band, along with Dolmayan and Odadjian, performed three System of a Down songs: “Toxicity", "Sugar," and " Hypnotize." This was a thanking event for the social action of the group and that represents their state, leaving a good image through all the world. System of a Down's song "Lonely Day" was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance in the 49th Grammy Awards in 2007, but lost to "Woman" by Wolfmother, which is cataloged in the top ten metal songs of the history by MTV.

Also it is very important to highlight the social work of this group not only with their music, but also out of the stage as they are doing with people who have cancer and have limited resources. But this project is focused on helping children, who by his early detection can get to do more for them; this project has been running successfully for 3 years.

In conclusion this group is has been really important because of their political influence, as reflected in his speeches against the American system, the social unconscious and abuse of power. This social and musical way was reflected since the publication of their first album in 1998, results from the public were really good despite of being a young in terms of time in the musical world, which led ​​System of a Down to achieve a platinum disc. Also they were named best alternative band in 2005 at the MTV Europe Music Awards.