Throughout his entire career an integral part of Zappa’s work was its journalistic quality. Zappa’s aim was to provoke his audience into seeing the downfalls of society and he hoped to influence them to act to make changes happen. From the first album, Freak Out!, Zappa was adamant about sharing his commentary of the world around him with anyone who would listen. Songs like Brain Police and Trouble Every Day are great examples of this. Trouble Every Day, for example, is a rant against racial discrimination influenced by the Watts riots of 1965. However, Zappa soon began backing away from heavy, politically charged messages, and moving towards commentary on what he knew best; his peers. “He was more content to mock hippies and groupies than to criticize the Vietnam War,” explains biographer Miles. Zappa’s Have I Offended Someone? compilation features songs which criticize and mock everyone from Catholic girls to record company executives to Jimi Hendrix fans who, as Miles adds, were “all easy targets and all virtually from within his own peer group.” [Miles p.108] Looking over Zappa’s work from his very first album to his very last, Miles also points out that Zappa “dumbed down his lyrics and stage act to appeal to the lowest common denominator: the Mid-West teenager high on pills and beer who didn’t even realize that ‘Titties and Beer' was about him.” [Miles p. 108]
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