The Musical Dissonance in Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Testify’ Creates a Sense of Both Despair and Hope

Cory Arnold of 12Tone, the fast-talking, artistic music theorist, examined the musical composition of the Rage Against the Machine anthem “Testify”. He notes how the use of different dissonance techniques (harmonic, timbral, process) within every instrument (including vocals) and unresolved musical phrases rocks the song between a message of despair and a message of hope.

The call to testify is a call to reject indoctrination and speak the unvarnished truth, but the lyrics of the verses are begging to be mollified, to be told that everything is alright and you don’t have to worry. The layers of musical dissonance, then, symbolize the cognitive dissonance of seeing injustice and choosing to ignore it, staying silent out of a practiced  loyalty to convenience and the established social order. 

Arnold also talked about why he chose this particular song to analyze.

I wanted to talk about Testify because, like I said at the beginning, I find it really useful to remember that anger  has a purpose. Rage Against The Machine is, to me, a really hopeful band. Not the naive  kind of hope that says everything will always  work out for the best, but the mature, realistic hope that even when it doesn’t, a better world is still worth  fighting for. The machine, if you’ll pardon the turn of phrase, is worth raging against.