Musical Critique of US Imperialism
LOS ANGELES (USA), “Honestly, I think the MO of major record labels/ companies has transformed from promoting true artists to simply profiting, like any other business nowadays,” said a friend. “Unfortunately, that means promoting mindless music or idolizing toxic lifestyles that in turn influence the listeners and create a vicious cycle for oneself or even a community. Rare it is now to find artists who swim against this stream. And when you do come across them, it’s like a breath of fresh air, and a glimmer of hope.”
The friend was talking about The Strokes’ performance at Coachella, an annual music and arts festival held in California.
Coachella is capitalism’s playground for profit, distraction, and depoliticization. Where many escape into a commercialized bubble, cut off from the harsh realities that built the Western capitalist world. Yet, when The Strokes closed their set with their track “OBLIVIUS,” they refused to play the game. Instead, they turned Coachella into a political protest.
It started with visual footage of the Taj Mahal draped in tacky, flashing Western Christmas lights. It was a metaphor for how Western consumerism flattens global cultures. Later, a fifty-foot screen forced a direct confrontation between the comfortable crowd and violent history. A video montage detailed decades of global interventions. Overthrow of elected leaders, political assassinations, domestic civil rights struggles, and recent military conflicts.
Specifically, it showed the devastating impact of US-Israeli military strikes, noting that over thirty Iranian universities and academic centers were heavily damaged or destroyed. It climaxed at the very end of the song, displaying stark footage of Al-Israa University, the last standing university in Gaza, being bombed and completely leveled in a massive on-screen explosion.
The band transformed a concert into an interactive history lesson.
This performance shows how art can become a political weapon. Some argue that ruling powers maintain control not just through laws, but by making exploitation feel normal. Challenging this requires a cultural struggle from within these very institutions.
Artists are uniquely equipped for this fight because music bypasses our natural defensive barriers. A tired worker or a cynical teenager might tune out a political speech, but they will actively stand in a festival crowd. Art pulls the audience in with melody and energy, dropping harsh truths.
Julian Casablanca, leader of The Strokes, paced the stage in a shirt that twisted the corporate Amazon Prime logo to read “Amazon Crime”. A direct criticism of capitalist monopolies. The lyrics of “OBLIVIUS” carry this same defiance, directly addressing class struggle through their lyrics:
“Act like a fox but think like a sheep (Wall Street)” becomes a jab at financial elites. They see themselves as clever predators, but they are just unthinking, compliant cogs serving a broken economic machine.
“What side you standing on?” is the central question of the track. It strips away excuses and presents a hard choice.
“Don’t wait so long… / You never wait for some / Other generation” is a stark warning against passivity. If the current generation waits too long to act, the system will seamlessly consume the next one in their place.
Critics might point out a contradiction: The Strokes operate deep inside the belly of the beast. They are signed to a major label, funded by corporate sponsors, and play luxury festivals.
Everyone living under global capitalism is forced to participate in the system to survive and communicate. There is no “outside” space. The Strokes use unique tools available to them to throw a wrench into the gears from the inside. By using Coachella’s massive platform to expose corporate greed and historical imperialism, the band proved that even in a hyper-commercialized bubble, the reality of class warfare cannot be silenced.
Read a communist description of imperialism here