“The Pretender” is a song published by the rock band Foo Fighters, formed by Dave Grohl (Warren, Ohio, 1969), Nate Mendel (Richland, Washington, 1968), Taylor Hawkins (Fort Worth, Texas, 1972), Pat Smear (West Los Angeles, California, 1959), Rami Jaffee (Los Angeles, California, 1969) and Chris Shiflett (Santa Bárbara, California, 1971). However, only Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Chris Shiflett and Nate Mendel were part of the band when this song was released. “The Pretender”, the first single of the album Echoes, Sillence, Patience & Grace (2007), became a chart-topping single on release and continues to be one of the most widely known singles of the group. Beginning with a quiet guitar solo followed by Grohl’s almost whispering voice, the song goes in crescendo after the first verse until the drums mark the beginning of the most energetic part of the song: the chorus. The lyrics adopt a rebellious tone against the addressee, the pretender of the title. Although this addressee is not explicitly mentioned, it seems to be a powerful entity that has subordinated the singer. Nonetheless, he is ready to rise up against it. When Grohl was asked to reveal the meaning of the song he affirmed “that’s the thing with lyrics, you never want to give away specifics, because it’s nice for people to have their own idea or interpretation of the song. But, you know, everyone’s been fucked over before and I think a lot of people feel fucked over right now and they’re not getting what they were promised, and so something to do with that” (Grohl, quoted in RadioX). Therefore, although more interpretations would be possible, given the time when the song was released it is probably the case that the mysterious addressee was George Bush’s Government, widely criticized due to what he called “The War on Terror”
against Muslim-majority countries, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001.
Andrea Delgado López, American Music Videos: Lessons about the Nation 22 The music video, directed by Sam Brown, gives a further hint about the meaning of the song. Filmed in a hangar, it begins with the lights switching on and the members of the band taking their places. Grohl tightens the bandage of his hand and the song’s first verse begins. The bright red of an enormous wall behind the group dominates the setting. A sequence of different long and short shots of the band appears as the song advances, in what appears to be just a basic performative video, but when the chorus starts a new element appears: the anti-riot Police. First, one Policeman arrives and stops at a black, thick line on the floor. He prepares his baton and, just before the chorus, he screams and an entourage of more Police officers arrive. Remarkably, this is the anti-riot Police and not any other Police unit. Since their role is usually dissipating social protests, they are sometimes considered part of the governments’ political repression. In the video, all the Police officers stop when they reach the black line and stare at the band with a defiant expression, as if the musicians were street demonstrators. It is not until the end of the bridge, when Grohl insurgently sings “Yeah, who are you?”, that the Police cross the line and charge at the musicians. Then, the chorus comes back with tremendous force and the wall bursts, expelling tons of red paint. The band remains in place while the Police fall due to the force of the paint. The light goes in and out as if there was a storm. Finally, Grohl destroys his guitar and the Police are finally beaten.
Perhaps the most relevant aspect of the video is that, through a very simple plot, it offers a profound reflection concerning Police brutality and subordination. If the pretender in the song is considered to be the Government, it can be claimed that the song emphasizes, on the one hand, that it has always lied to its citizens—that is the
“never ending, same old story” mentioned in the song—and, on the other hand, that some people are tired of blindly believing in it as others do—”what if I say I’m not like the others?/ what if I say I’m not another one of your plays?”, as sung by Grohl—.
Nevertheless, the video lays the stress on the forces that ensure the power of deceptive governments, that is, the Police. Grohl sings “Send in your skeletons/ Sing as their bones go marching in again” implying that those who defend the pretender are nothing more than marionettes. This is stressed in the video, where the Police officers are almost indistinguishable from each other: the only clear way of identifying them is the number of their body armor. The violence they try to exert on the members of the band, whose bodies appear to be much vulnerable in comparison to the Police officers, makes the viewers empathize with the musicians and by extension, with all the demonstrators that, following their right to protest, have suffered the repressive force of the Police.
Nonetheless, since the Police are beaten in this video, “The Pretender” encourages its viewers to keep fighting against social injustice.
Certainly, all this can be related to the Bush presidency and his decision to start
“The War on Terror” in countries like Afghanistan or Iraq, with no evidence of their involvement in 9/11. This campaign has been highly criticized due to the cruelty, manipulation and hypocrisy of the Government, which were infused on the American Army. However, the social commentary that the song and the video offer goes beyond Bush and even beyond the American borders. “The Pretender”, thanks to the energy that the combination of lyrics, music and images transmits, is a perfect hymn for those who are tired of being exploited and deceived.
Andrea Delgado López, American Music Videos: Lessons about the Nation 23 Works Cited
“Is Foo Fighters’ ‘The Pretender’ a Secret Protest Song?” RadioX, 26 September 2020 https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/foo-fighters/is-the-pretender-secret-protest-song/. Accessed 19 March 2021.
Andrea Delgado López, American Music Videos: Lessons about the Nation 24