Serj Tankian

Serj Mixing his Solo album (midiblog.net)

There have been many people in this world that have grown up to become successful musicians. There have also been people to have grown to be political activists. But there are few people in this world that have grown up to be both of these completely different things and still become widely successful. This and many other reasons are why I think Serj is a hero. He has been an influence to people in the music world with his diverse songwriting and ability to play multiple instruments. He has informed his fans of injustices by openly speaking out at these things in different ways. He is also a political activist, helping others and making a difference in places in the world. Serj started his musical career in the 90's when he met guitarist Daron Malakian. They soon formed the band Soil, but soon changed the name to System of a Down. The band to date has sold over 20 million albums, been up for a total of four Grammy nominations, one of which they have won and have a worldwide dedicated fan base.

Serj and the band are known for their unique sound which contains elements of hard rock, heavy metal, and Middle Eastern music (being because all four members are Armenian-Americans). The band went on hiatus in 2006, which allowed Serj to work on his first solo album, Elect the Dead, which was released in 2007. This album gave Serj more freedom to experiment with even more genres of music, which include jazz, funk, opera and acoustic rock. On the album, Serj plays on nearly all of the instruments featured on the album, the others being drums and additional guitars, thus being an influence to a wide range of musicians.

Promo shot for Elect the Dead (www.last.fm.com)

Serj has been known to incorporate political themes and other injustices into his lyrics in both Young2 System of a Down and also as a solo artist. While these subjects are mostly present on his solo album musically, he has also released an album of poetry called Cool Gardens. The book features poems based on reflections of life, human societies rights and wrongs, and portrays what people do to themselves and others who try to control them. His lyrics and poems seem to move and give hope to those who are fans of his music and fans of art in general.

While frequently being occupied with music, Serj also has been politically active. He, along with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, formed The Axis of Justice, a non-profit organization that brings together musicians, fans of music, and other various political groups to fight for social injustice. Other than The Axis of Justice, Serj has joined PETA to try and stop the methods of slaughtering chickens in KFC slaughter houses and also that it was somewhat instinctive to stop eating meat.

While Serj has become hugely successful with his musical accomplishments, he has used his success to evolve both musically and politically, while helping the society we live in today to become a better place, rather than just reward himself. That is why I view him as a hero.