Just North of Something Important

Rage’s deployment of symbols of generalized rebellion against authority, which gave them such wide success in the ’90s, was ultimately out of date. By calling back to ’60s notions of protest, they aligned themselves with a sense of resentment common to both the contemporary left and the right; Paul Ryan did not accidentally get something out of the band that wasn’t legitimately there. Pussy Riot read the culture more astutely. By looking like a riot grrrl band, they communicated not only the desire to protest but what the protest was about. Their lyrics had almost nothing to do with it, because they didn’t have to.