History Music / BadReligion

The band is known for its particulary clever use of metaphor, style and vocabulary in the lyrics, as well as their peculiar vocal harmonies. Lyrics are often about philosophical, social or political concerns and tend to be critical, sarcastic, and often times harsh. Song writing is usually done between Graffin and Gurewitz, except for the period of time when the band left Epitaph for the major label Atlantic Records (1993-2001). During this period, Graffin took on sole song writing duties (excluding their major label debut ''Stranger than Fiction'', which was the last album Guerwitz appeared on until 2002). For the album ''No Substance'', generally considered among the band's weakest entries, song writing responsibilities were shared among the other band members. Since Gurewitz's return, he and Graffin have resumed their original song writing duties.

Bad Religion is a very influential punk rock band from the United States of America, founded in 1979 in Southern California. The original members were Jay Bentley (bass), Greg Graffin (vocals), Brett Gurewitz (guitars), and Jay Ziskrout, who was quickly replaced by Peter Finestone (drums). In the spirit of the Do-It-Yourself ethic held by the punk scene at the time, Gurewitz created Epitaph Records soon after their formation, and most of the band's albums have since been released through this label.

** At least two song titles on ''The Empire Strikes First'' are this. "Let Them Eat War" is a variation on not actually UsefulNotes/MarieAntoinette's "Let them eat cakes" and "Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever" is the second half of a quote found in Literature/NineteenEightyFour by GeorgeOrwell.

* InternalizedCategorism: The song "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVWNDR9gM2E Broken]]" brings up the danger of putting people down, that they might start believing it themselves.
* LongRunnerLineUp: From 2001 to 2013: Greg Graffin, Brett Gurewitz, Jay Bentley, Greg Hetson, Brian Baker and Brooks Wackerman.
* LongTitle: "The Positive Aspect of Negative Thinking", "The Biggest Killer in American History", "The State of the End of the Millenium Address", "Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever", "The Voracious March of Godliness".
* LyricalColdOpen: "Voice of God Is Government", "The Positive Aspect of Negative Thinking", "Come Join Us", "The Day That the Earth Stalled", "Won't Somebody", "To Another Abyss" and a couple other.
* TheManIsStickingItToTheMan: Subverted by guitarist/main songwriter Mr. Brett, who owns the record label the band is signed to, but refused multiple offers to sell to a major record label. He even left the band during their years with Atlantic Records. Of course, given that Music/TheOffspring were making Epitaph Records tons of money during this time, he probably didn't need to.
* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Generally a 5 or 6. With a couple songs (such as "Slumber" and "Sorrow") being a 4.

** "Materialist" is essentially an AuthorFillibuster in favor of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materialism materialism]] (the belief that matter is the fundamental substance of all phenomena, including consciousness)

** "Come Join Us," which isabout the way that organized religion preys on lonely people and the uneducated.

** "21st Century (Digital Boy)" references "21st Century Schizoid Man" by KingCrimson.

* CallBack: ''How Could Hell Be Any Worse?'' is Title Dropped in "Los Angeles is Burning", over two decades later.

* GodIsEvil: ''And what I'm frightened of is that they call it "God's Love"...''

* GodIsInept: "Better Off Dead", which is basically God apologizing for creating such a CrapsackWorld.

* NewSoundAlbum: ''[[SomethingCompletelyDifferent Into the Unknown]]'' is a ProgressiveRock album. According to Mr. Brett, "not much thought" was put into the album's recording, and the change of style was due to the fact that the band didn't take itself seriously and thought it wouldn't last for very long, so they decided to try and explore some other styles. Two of the members, drummer Pete Finestone and bass player Jay Bentley, quit before the album was recorded because of the change, and the album was met with a great deal of negativity from the fans who embraced the band's previous HardcorePunk sound; only 12 people showed up to see the band introduce the new material. As a result of the poor reception of this material by fans, this album is somewhat considered OldShame by the band members, who named their next release (which returned to HardcorePunk) ''[[DiscontinuityNod Back to the Known]]''. Despite the commercial failure and fan backlash of the album, it actually got positive reviews from critics, and is pretty good music coming from a bunch of 19-year-olds with no experience in that particular genre. It was reissued on vinyl as part of the ''30 Years of Bad Religion'' box set, although it's never been released on CD.

* TheManIsStickingItToTheMan: Subverted by guitarist/main songwriter Mr. Brett, who owns the record label the band is signed to, but refused multiple offers to sell to a major record label. He even left the band during their years with Atlantic Records. Of course, given that TheOffspring were making Epitaph Records tons of money during this time, he probably didn't need to.

* ReligionRantSong: They have lots of these, [[SarcasmMode which comes as a total surprise, given the band's name]].

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Lots of songs, but "Germs of Perfection" is the most blatant example.

* [[SingerNameDrop Band Name Drop]]: Aside from [[TitleDrop an obvious one]] on "Bad Religion", there is also one in "No Direction".

** At least two song titles on ''The Empire Strikes First'' are this. "Let Them Eat War" is a variation on [[{{BeamMeUpScotty}} not actually]] [[UsefulNotes/MarieAntoinette MarieAntoinette's]] "Let them eat cakes" and "Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever" is the second half of a quote found in [[NineteenEightyFour 1984]] by GeorgeOrwell.

--> ''Punk Rock with a thesaurus.''

*** Apparently, sometime after Mr. Brett left the band, he'd mock the band for being "the rotting corpse of thesaurus rock" (which was definitely classier than Greg Graffin changing a lyric in Mr. Brett's song Stranger than Fiction to make fun of Gurewitz's struggle with drug addiction whenever it was performed live).

As of 2001, Bad Religion's lineup consisted of Graffin (vocals), Gurewitz (guitars), Bentley (bass), Greg Hetson--formerly of The Circle Jerks (guitars), Brian Baker (guitars), and Brooks Wackerman (drums). Bobby Schayer was their drummer for much of their 1990s period, but left the band after suffering a shoulder injury. In 2013 Hetson left due to personal problems (divorce) and was replaced by Mike Dimkich.

* '''Brooks Wackerman''' - drums (2001-present)

* ChristmasSongs: Title of their latest EP, which features [[CoverVersion covers]] of [[CaptainObvious various Christmas songs]] (and a remix of "American Jesus").

* NewSoundAlbum: ''[[SomethingCompletelyDifferent Into the Unknown]]'' is a ProgressiveRock album. According to Mr. Brett, "not much thought" was put into the album's recording, and the change of style was due to the fact that the band didn't take itself seriously and thought it wouldn't last for very long, so they decided to try and explore some other styles. Two of the members, drummer Pete Finestone and bass player Jay Bentley, quit before the album was recorded because of the change, and the album was met with a great deal of negativity from the fans who embraced the band's previous HardcorePunk sound; only 12 people showed up to see the band introduce the new material. As a result of the poor reception of this material by fans, this album is somewhat considered OldShame by the band members, who named their next release (which returned to HardcorePunk) ''[[DiscontinuityNod Back to the Known]]''. Despite the commercial failure and fan backlash of the album, it actually got positive reviews from critics, and was reissued on vinyl as part of the ''30 Years of Bad Religion'' box set, although it's never been released on CD.

** At least two song titles on ''The Empire Strikes First'' are this. "Let Them Eat War" is a variation on [[BeamMeUpScotty not actually]] [[UsefulNotes/MarieAntoinette MarieAntoinette's]] "Let them eat cakes" and "Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever" is the second half of a quote found in [[NineteenEightyFour 1984]] by GeorgeOrwell.

--> Innocence raped with napalm fire

--> Innocence raped with napalm fire

** After this, on ''Against the Grain'' version (the booklet of which even blatantly states "Outro lyrics to Digital Boy stolen from 21st Century Schizoid Man"), Greg sings "21st century schizoid boy...".

** Some of their song feature excerpts from various poems, often varied.

* ShoutOut: Lots of them. For example, in the song "You", the line "there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend" is taken from "[[Music/TheBeatles We Can Work It Out]]".

* TakeThat: "Hate You" by Gurewitz's brief solo project Daredevils is sometimes considered to be about Jay Bentley.

As of 2001, Bad Religion's lineup consisted of Graffin (vocals), Gurewitz (guitars), Bentley (bass), Greg Hetson--formerly of The Circle Jerks (guitars), Brian Baker (guitars), and Brooks Wackerman (drums). Bobby Schayer was their drummer for much of their Atlantic period, but left the band after suffering a shoulder injury. In 2013 Hetson left due to personal problems (divorce) and was replaced by Mike Dimkich.

* TakeThat: "Hate You" by Gurewitz's brief solo project Daredevils is sometimes considered to be about Jay Bentley.

* TheManIsStickingItToTheMan: Subverted by guitarist/main songwriter Mr. Brett, who owns the record label the band is signed to, but refused multiple offers to sell to a major record label. He even left the band during their years with Atlantic Records. Of course, given that TheOffspring were making Epitaph Records tons of money during this time, he probably didn't need to.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Quite literally a case of DependingOnTheWriter. Graffin's lyrics tend to fall more on the cynical side, while Gurewitz's tend to be more on the idealistic side. There are, however, exceptions (with both writers).

* DualMeaningChorus: [[WordOfGod Gurewitz himself]] gives three explanation to "Anesthesia". One particular lyric in that song goes: "I got a little gun, here comes oblivion." It could be about a guy killing his girlfriend, or killing himself but it could also be a metaphore about taking drugs (the little gun here reffering to a syringe).

* ReligionRantSong: They have lots of these, [[SarcasmMode which comes as a total surprise given their band name]].

*** Apparently, sometime after Mr. Brett left the band, he'd mock the band for being "the rotting corpse of thesaurus rock" (which was definitely classier than Greg Graffin changing a lyric in Mr. Brett's song Stranger than Fiction to make fun of Guerwitz's struggle with drug addiction whenever it was performed live).
* ShoutOut: Lots of them. For example, in the song "You," the line "there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend" is taken from "[[Music/TheBeatles We Can Work It Out]]".

!!Tropes:

Bad Religion is a very influential punk rock band from the United States of America, founded in 1980 in Southern California. The original members were Jay Bentley (bass), Greg Graffin (vocals), Brett Gurewitz (guitars), and Jay Ziskrout, who was quickly replaced by Peter Finestone (drums). In the spirit of the Do-It-Yourself ethic held by the punk scene at the time, Gurewitz created Epitaph Records soon after their formation, and most of the band's albums have since been released through this label.

The band is known for its particulary clever use of metaphor, style and vocabulary in the lyrics, as well as their peculiar vocal harmonies. Lyrics are often about philosophical, social or political concerns and tend to be critical, sarcastic, and often times harsh. Song writing is usually done between Graffin and Gurewitz, except for the period of time when the band left Epitaph for the major label Atlantic Records (1993 - 2001). During this period, Graffin took on sole song writing duties (excluding their major label debut ''Stranger than Fiction'', which was the last album Guerwitz appeared on until 2002). For the album ''No Substance'', generally considered among the band's weakest entries, song writing responsibilities were shared among the other band members. Since Gurewitz's return, he and Graffin have resumed their original song writing duties.

* DualMeaningChorus: [[WordOfGod Gurewitz himself]] gives two explanation to "Anesthesia". One particular lyric in that song goes: "I got a little gun, here comes oblivion." It could be about a guy killing his girlfriend named Anesthesia, but it could also be a metaphore about taking drugs (the little gun here reffering to a syringe).