History YMMV / SystemOfADown

* FunnyMoments: The album version of "Prison Song" gets off one note, stops for a few seconds, then properly gets started. The band essentially started their most famous album with [[FingerPokeOfDoom a boop on the nose]].

** "Thetawaves" is also very creepy, with some of the lyrics diving into ConspiracyTheory territory.

* SignatureSong: "Music/Chop Suey" is the leading candidate for SOAD's best-known song, being the first heavy metal music video to reach one billion views on Platform/YouTube. The major runner-up candidates are "B.Y.O.B." and "Toxicity".

* SignatureSong: "Chop Suey!", "B.Y.O.B.", "Soldier Side" and "Toxicity". And to a lesser extent, "War?" and "Fuck the System".

** "Chop Suey!" is often played over videos of one character violently shaking another character awake.

** Also, that weird intro riff to "Suite Pee".

** "Sad Statue" in itself has continued its relevance into TheNewTens. With the line about "a generation that didn't agree" being less about an [[WeHaveBecomeComplacent apathetic generation]] and more about a generation that has had peaceful protests reacted to with violence by the dominant powers. The lyrics are ever relevant twelve years later.
** The video for "Boom" shows a the "scary" factoid that the war could cost $200 billion. The total cost is estimated to be [[http://costofwar.com/ in]] [[http://threetrilliondollarwar.org/ the]] ''trillions''.

%% (ZCE) ** "Roulette".

%% ** "Streamline", due to it's lyrics being about not being there for a loved one on their dead bed.

%% (ZCE) ** "Lonely Day"

** Go on a Youtube video of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI8KacxPovo "Radio/Video"]], hear the lyrics about "Danny and Lisa", check the comments, and count the ''Film/{{The Room|2003}}'' references.

%% (ZCE) ** "Lonely Day" is this when considering what happened fifteen years later.

* FaceOfTheBand: Serj Tankian, and to an extent Daron Malakian.

** "VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda" was never performed by System of a Down. It doesn't really even sound like them. Of course, a whole lot of people THINK it's System of a Down (or just Serj, their lead singer). It's actually by Joe Pleiman, from an album called ''The Rabbit Joint''; and is toplisted on the Website/TVTropes MisattributedSong page.

** Go on a Youtube video of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI8KacxPovo "Radio/Video"]], hear the lyrics about "Danny and Lisa", check the comments, and count the ''Film/TheRoom'' references.

* {{Anvilicious}}: The band are quite political, [[DontShootTheMessage though even fans who agreed with them had their patience tested when they started doing long rants during shows, best example being Serj's rant before Holy Mountains during their Rock in Rio 2011 concert.]] "Prison Song", a song about the prison system and how it incarcerates people for minor drug offenses, features heavily hamfisted ([[ShownTheirWork but well-researched]]) stats about the prison system that barely fit in with the rest of the song, even compared to the schizophrenic lyricism the band usually exhibits.

* {{Anvilicious}}: The band are quite political, [[DontShootTheMessage though even fans who agreed with them had their patience tested when they started doing long rants during shows.]] "Prison Song", a song about the prison system and how it incarcerates people for minor drug offenses, features heavily hamfisted ([[ShownTheirWork but well-researched]]) stats about the prison system that barely fit in with the rest of the song, even compared to the schizophrenic lyricism the band usually exhibits.

%% (ZCE) ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKHF-5nPcOs "Dam"]] in its entirety.

%% (ZCE) ** "Streamline". Enough said.

* OvershadowedByControversy: The band has become known for the squabbles between members and, as of 2020, John Dolmayan's outspoken support of President Trump and increasingly overt far-right sympathies to the point where they threaten to eclipse their actual music, and many fans have openly begun to wonder why Dolmayan has not been fired yet. This ''slowly'' began to dwindle following the drop of two new songs right smack in the 2020 Elections, also helped by the band's reasoning was to donate reliefs to the genocidal actions in Artsakh and Armenia.

** "VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda" was never performed by System of a Down. It doesn't really even sound like them. Of course, a whole lot of people THINK it's System of a Down (or just Serj, their lead singer). It's actually by Joe Pleiman, from an album called ''The Rabbit Joint''; and is toplisted on the Wiki/TVTropes MisattributedSong page.

* OvershadowedByControversy: The band has become known for the squabbles between members and, as of 2020, John Dolmayan's outspoken support of President Trump and increasingly overt far-right sympathies to the point where they threaten to eclipse their actual music, and many fans have openly begun to wonder why Dolmayan has not been fired yet. This ''slowly'' began to dwindle following the drop of two new songs right smack in the 2020 Elections, also helped by the band's reasoning was to donate reliefs to the recent genocidal actions in Artsakh and Armenia.

%% (ZCE) ** "Soldier Side"

** The inner sleeve artwork of their self titled album... *shudder*

%% (ZCE) ** The inner sleeve artwork of their self titled album... *shudder*

* CrazyAwesome: Is their music insane? Yes. Is it also awesome? Also yes.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: They are one of the few NuMetal bands (if you consider them such, at any rate) that many metalheads will admit to liking (Music/{{Deftones}} perhaps being their main company here). This is likely due in no small part to their [[CrazyAwesome quirkiness]] and [[GenreBusting willingness to experiment with their sound]]; they don't in fact fit cleanly into any one genre of metal and their sound remains all but impossible to pigeonhole.

* AmericansHateTingle: Aside from the fact they have never scheduled a show in Turkey, their political stances and Armenian roots have resulted in the band gaining a considerable Turkish {{Hatedom}}.

** A good way to determine which of their discography you'll like more is to listen to ''Steal This Album!''. If you like the first half more, you'll enjoy their first two albums more. If you like the second half more, you'll like the ''Mezmerize/Hypnotize'' albums more. If you like both halves, you will like all their material.