Rage Against the Machine Poster Analysis

Rage Against the machine are well known for their political art style tour posters as you can see below:

However this one below stood out the most for me, it is promoting a concert in Sydney and thus is an advertisement. It's such a striking image, the orange brings your eyes toward the centre of the image because it's so bold against the red washed out background. The orange tells the audience that he is an american convict and the straps and the cap of the electric chair. 

The image is no doubt striking and presents the band in a controversial light, especially to those who aren't aware of their political scope and beliefs.  The metal conductor attached to his head as he closes his eyes, presenting the characters peace or even loss of hope, is rather startling to us as the viewer of this advert, presenting the dark laws that hide behind states in America. 

The band are well known for their "killing in the name of" song and eve their name presents anger toward a failing government, the use of the electric chair is used and meant to be a shocking image and create outrage by being a shocking image, that grabs attention because it is enforced by the US Government. 

The deep red and orange colours to me present a theme of distrust toward authority and government figures (as their name implies, the machine) and further the aggression and repression they feel under their command, putting them in the place of the electric chair themselves. 

The colours generally appeal to youth and conform to the rock genre as you can see below: 

With reds and deep orange colours coming to light with other rock bands, it is a conformity to the genre that also presents the passion and boldness that the bands usually tackle, often surrounding teenage issues or political disagreements.