10 Perfect Anti Rock Star Songs
Cracking Under Pressure.
From the outsider looking in, being a rock star seems like the single greatest job in the world. You get to make millions of dollars, get to see every part of the world, and all you have to do is just play a little music every now and again to keep your fans happy. It sounds good in theory, but you can start to lose your mind in the process.
Over the years, there have been many songs that have talked about how the celebrity lifestyle isn't really all that it's cracked up to be. While some have been more understanding of what a traveling musician has to do, a lot of these almost seem a little bit bitter about the whole idea of stardom, thinking that it would solve their problems and ending up only making them that much worse.
That's a bit of a one sided argument though, and a lot of these songs also tend to address the relationship between band and audience. As much as they might seem like gods up on the stage, they're still ordinary people trying to live their lives, and these songs get into the struggle that these people go through to maintain any sense of privacy day after day. Compared to the fun party songs, these jams almost act like PSAs. Yes, the rock star life is fun, but just know what you're getting yourself into.
10. Radio/Video - System of a Down
It almost seems like a mistake that a band like System of a Down even became famous in the first place. From their breakthrough on Toxicity, these guys were not the same nu metal we were used to at the time, getting a lot more political and making social commentary that most metalheads and mainstream listeners weren't ready for at the time. That kind of attention would get to anyone, and the guys were feeling a lot more uncomfortable with fame when they finally got around to making Mezmerize.
While the album does have a political streak on the Iraq War on songs like BYOB, a lot of the lyrics are Daron Malakian talking about the superficiality of the rock star life, with songs like Lost in Hollywood showing how shallow things can get. Not every piece of commentary has to be heavy though, and Radio/Video is one of the funnier takes on what happens at the top, as the band ironically talks about how cool it is that they're on TV with Danny and Lisa.
The whole thing sounds pretty sincere in the beginning, but the more you actually listen to the lyrics, the tone of Daron's voice starts to get a bit more sarcastic, almost making a mockery of how up-its-ass some of these TV shows can be. It's easy to just criticize the divas of the world, but this is one of the first times that a metal band has used their fame to make a complete satire of themselves.