Serj Tankian Questions If System of a Down Fans Listen to Their Lyrics: ‘You’re Not Really Getting the Message?”

Daniel Kohn
·2 min read

The past few weeks in the U.S. have seen many people’s opinions crystallized, including musicians. System of a Down’s Serj Tankian and John Dolmayan shared completely contrasting opinions on the protests and Donald Trump in the past few days, with the former in support of protests and the latter approving of the president.

On the Side Jams With Bryan Reesman podcast, Tankian wondered how System of a Down’s fans could not understand the message of the band’s lyrics after hearing it for 20 years. He said that while he understood how fans could like the tunes if they like heavy music, the message in the words is laid out clearly for them.

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“So when I get people on my socials that are, ‘I love your music, but I don’t wanna hear your political ideas,’ that’s fair enough — if they’re nice enough, it’s fair enough, but sometimes they’re really mean,” Tankian said. “But what I don’t understand, and a lot of other people that follow the music say the same thing,” he continued. “They’re, like, ‘Have you not listened to the fucking words in 20 years? He’s been saying all this stuff through his music all this time. What are you, just dancing to it because it’s groovy? You’re not really getting the message?'”

In our recent interview with him, Tankian outlined his views on corruption.

“Your average person is not dealing with that type of corruption. But on the top, we’re talking billions of dollars for running for president. So we need a peaceful revolution like the one in Armenia in the U.S. to topple this type of stupidity,” he said, adding that “There is no fucking normal.”

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