Song · Rage Against the Machine
“People of the Sun” by Rage Against the Machine
From the album Evil Empire (1996)
“People of the Sun” by Rage Against the Machine appears on 19 radio countdowns from 10 stations between 1996 and 2024. It was first released in 1996 on the album Evil Empire. Its best result is #25 on the KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1996. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #86 alternative song of 1996, #1,978 alternative song of all time and #474 of the '90s.
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"People of the Sun" was the second single from Evil Empire, Rage Against the Machine's second album, in 1996, though Zack de la Rocha had written it back in 1992, after a trip to Chiapas in southern Mexico. It's his salute to the Zapatista uprising, and he packs it with history: the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, the torture and killing of Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec emperor, and the Zoot Suit Riots that shook Los Angeles in 1943. Tom Morello's guitar squeals and stutters, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk lay down a thick, bouncing groove, and Brendan O'Brien's production, shared with the band and mixed by Andy Wallace, makes every blow land.
The single's cover used Tina Modotti's 1927 photograph of corn, a sickle and an ammunition belt, and in 1998 the song was up for the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance, losing to the Smashing Pumpkins' "The End Is the Beginning Is the End".
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 25 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1996 | 107 |
| 1996 | 94 | 107.7 The End Seattle, WA | The End Top 107 Songs of 1996 | 107 |
| 1996 | 63 | WBCN Boston, MA | WBCN Top 104 Songs of 1996 | 104 |
| 1996 | 65 | WBER Rochester, NY | WBER Listener Countdown 1996 | 100 |
| 1997 | 81 | 105.7 The Point St. Louis, MO | 105.7 The Point Top 105.7 of 1997 | 106 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 141 | KROQ | KROQ Top 300 Most Requested Songs of the '90s (Labor Day 1999) | 300 |
| 1999 | 339 | WHFS | WHFS Top 500 Songs of the '90s (December 1999) | 500 |
| 1999 | 193 | 107.7 The End | The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1077 |
| 2004 | 221 | Q101 | Q101 Top 300 Party Songs of All-Time (July 2004) | 300 |
| 2004 | 144 | 107.7 The End | The End Original Alternative 500 (May 2004) | 500 |
| 2005 | 513 | 99X | 99X Freedom of Choice 1000 (2005) | 1000 |
| 2006 | 476 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 2006) | 500 |
| 2007 | 136 | KROQ | KROQ Top 500 Most Requested Songs of the '90s (Labor Day 2007) | 500 |
| 2008 | 242 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 2008) | 500 |
| 2020 | 201 | 105.9 The X | 105.9 The X July 420 (2020) | 420 |
| 2021 | 215 | 105.9 The X | 105.9 The X July 420 (2021) | 420 |
| 2022 | 214 | 105.9 The X | 105.9 The X July 420 (2022) | 420 |
| 2023 | 222 | 105.9 The X | 105.9 The X July 420 (2023) | 420 |
| 2024 | 325 | KEXP | The Best Opening Tracks of All Time | 738 |
Also listed as: People Of The Sun.
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