page_title: Rage Against the Machine
section_title: 1991–1992: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Rage Against the Machine / History / 1991–1992: Early years
caption_attribution_description: English: Rage Against the Machine Logo
context_page_description: Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello, and drummer Brad Wilk. Their songs express revolutionary political views. As of 2010, they had sold over 16 million records worldwide. The band was nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility in 2017 and 2018, although both bids failed.
  Rage Against the Machine released its eponymous debut album in 1992 to commercial and critical success, leading to a slot in the 1993 Lollapalooza festival; in 2003, the album was ranked number 368 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The follow-up albums, Evil Empire and The Battle of Los Angeles, were also successful; both albums topped the Billboard 200 chart. During their initial nine-year run, Rage Against the Machine became one of the most popular and influential bands in music history, and had a large influence on the nu metal genre which came to prominence during the second half of the 1990s.
context_section_description: 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 Tom Morello as he was looking to start a new group. Morello soon contacted Brad Wilk, who had unsuccessful auditions for both Lock Up and the band that would later become Pearl Jam. 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). Kent McClard, with whom Inside Out were associated, had coined the phrase "rage against the machine" in a 1989 article in his zine No Answers.
  Shortly after forming, they gave their first public performance on October 23, 1991, at the Quad of California State University, Northridge. The blueprint for the group's major-label debut album, demo tape Rage Against the Machine, was laid on a twelve-song self-released cassette, the cover image of which featured newspaper clippings of the stockmarket section with a single match taped to the inlay card. Not all 12 songs made it onto the final album—two were eventually included as B-sides, while three others never saw an official release. Several record labels expressed interest, and the band eventually signed with Epic Records. Morello said, "Epic agreed to everything we asked—and they've followed through ... We never saw a[n] [ideological] conflict as long as we maintained creative control."
caption: Logo from the band's first album.
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