"Uprising" Emma, Konstandina

“Uprising” is a song by the English alternative rock band Muse, featured on their fifth album The Resistance.

Context : 2009, two years after the subprime mortgage crisis in August 2007. The growth rate in England is negative : -4,9% and the jobless rate is 7,8%. The reflation policy led by the European Central Bank and the Bank of England is not conclusive.

The households are angry : they suffer the consequences of the risks the US commercial banks have taken.

The lead singer Matt Bellamy explained: “The lead single, ‘Uprising’, was kind of inspired by the G20 protests which took place last year. I was in London at the time and I saw it all going on outside where I live.”

(G20 or Group of Twenty is an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies:USA, UK, France, Germany...etc)

Indeed, in London hundreds of people came to protest against a financial system that they considered unfair.

Muse calls the people to revolt against this injustice “So come on !” , and against that liberal system based, according to them, on the greed. «  Another package lie to keep us trapped in greed»

System which controls the thought by its appearing right-thinking :  « With all the green belts wrapped around our minds ».

(The green belt is a green area around the city to prevent the development of urban sprawl).

The system stultifies us : “Keep us all dumbed down and hope that we will never see the truth around”, and Muse says that we must “flick the switch and open [our] third eye”

Let's « Interchange mind control » !

It is important to indicate that the album The Resistance is based on the dystopian novel 1984 written by George Orwell. This novel has popularized terms such as “big brother,” “doublespeak” or “thought police” to describe our governments and their policies.

The video clip

Colors are very dark, there are just the lights of the fire and the sparks. That is why the atmosphere is nightmarish, that emphasizes the difficult economic situation. The band plays music on the road in a car. They look superior face to the population that is represented in miniature. There are TV screens showing teddy bears with reptilian eyes and fangs. Matthew Bellamy smashes the screens with his guitar It can represent the power of music.

Then a big teddy bear get out of the ground with a threatening face. A group of teddy bears appear and start destroying the city.

The revolution is underway because the band is on the street, Teddy bears destroy all around them. They show the power of the rebellion and set an example to guide the people. They motivate people not only with the lyrics but thanks to the video clip too. Indeed the pictures are also significant and can complete the lyrics. 

 

Uprising, as the name suggests, is a call for revolt : “Come let the revolution take its toll”, “Rise up and take the power back”.

However, the lyrics are a bit simplist and Manichean. On the one hand, there are “The fat cats”, the bad side, and on the other hand“We”, the good side.