System Switch

System Switch

In 1991, an interviewer from the music magazine Rolling Stone asked rock/folk legend Bob Dylan if he was happy after all of his successes in the music industry. The aged singer replied, “Happy is a Yuppie Word”. This is the premise for the alternate-inspirational band Switchfoot’s newest album Nothing is Sound. This San Diego originated band came from a largely surfing culture, thus their name is a surfing term. To a surfer, when you switch your feet on your board, you have a new perspective on the wave, and have a slightly different way of surfing when your feet are switched. The band took this to show how they have a slightly different outlook on life than most bands and artists in the music industry. Responsible for earlier hits such as “Meant to Live, Dare You to Move, and the Beautiful Letdown”, this band has risen to incorporate a much broader audience. Recorded mainly on the road on their seemingly never ending tours, Nothing is Sound has a more improvised feel to most of their other albums such as Learning to Breathe, New Way to be Human and the Beautiful Letdown. The lead singer of Switchfoot, Jon Foreman, ran with this Dylan quote, even writing a song by the same name to have this new album revolve around this thoughtful statement. From this originating seed, an album grew. Attempting to debunk all the normal accepted values of our western American society, Switchfoot talks about how cookie cutter our society has become, from commercialization to the corruption of politicians in our day and age. Even though this usually progressive band attempts to progress their music to a more global level, I believe their music does not progress very much from when their last album, the Beautiful Letdown. While their lyrics may stray from Letdown, their vocals and instrumental portions still sound very similar to their previous album. A few songs progress their musical style, such as the vocal and acoustic Blues and edgy rock single Stars, however only Daisy comes close to their usual standard on this album. The things that make these songs stand out is oftentimes their lyrics, which talk about the members of Switchfoot and their spiritual lives, it is also created to make people think about their lives and introspect. The music, especially Politicians in this album, is also to make people think about the world that surround them and the ways in which they can improve it.
Another new rock album that discusses in their music the hypocrisy our society is System of a Down’s new album, Mezmerize. This heavier rock band’s previous album, Toxicity, also discussed this theme, however many believe Mezmerize does this to greater and more profound effect. Songs about the never-ending scandal slideshow that is the televised media song, Violent Pornography uses a gratuitous metaphor to get across System’s views on how the media has become sensationalist. Anti-war songs such as B.Y.O.B. and Sad Statue compliment the rest of the album, adding to the anti-societal gist of Mezmerize. Lost in Hollywood also adds to this theme, however it is more analyzing the Hollywood and music industry of our age and how it has the tendency to corrupt people, both artists and audiences.
Both these alternate-Rock bands add a slightly different slant to the normal boundaries of what rock has evolved into today. Though vastly different in vocal and instrumental styles, both offer a different view of life than many other bands on the modern music industry.