On October 21, 2010, in an interview with Digital Spy, Mars revealed the intention to follow the hit single " Just the Way You Are" with "Grenade". But Matthew Collin’s ‘Pop Grenade’ is more than that: it’s a dizzying journey through a contemporary soundtrack of rebellion, social changes and war, imbued with personal experience, lyrical descriptions of diverse landscapes and colourful portraits of some of the most important figures in contemporary global culture, politics, music and society in general. In 2013, he was hunkered down in Taksim Square getting pelted with tear gas canisters with the rebel musicians and was there in Moscow to see Pussy Riot released. The book takes a trip through the lawless creativity of the early Berlin techno scene after the fall of the Wall and tracks the demented trajectory of anarchist sound systems on their psychotropic journey to the outer limits of hedonism in the late 1990s.

grenade launcher a gift from Ukraine, Polish police Exploding grenade launcher a gift from Ukraine, Polish police

In most cases we're not talking about people wanting to start the revolution – although some people did – but the desire to simply create a better or more human space in which we can live. They delivered aid supplies but also threw frontline parties that helped to inspire a techno scene in war-traumatised Sarajevo which still exists to this day. From Berlin’s anarchic techno scene after the fall of the Wall to outlaw sound systems in wartime Bosnia, from Moscow during the crackdown on Pussy Riot to New York in the militant early years of hip-hop, it tells the extraordinary stories of some of the world’s most audacious musical freedom fighters, disco visionaries and rock’n’roll rebels with a cause.

In Australia it debuted at number 48 in the ARIA Singles Chart and five weeks later reached number one, taking "The Time (Dirty Bit)" by The Black Eyed Peas from the top spot. I don't think he planned it in advance, no one saw it coming and no one saw where it would go – that the dreams of the Arab Spring would lead to the nightmare of ISIS. Grenade" was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and seven times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), as well as six times by Music Canada (MC). According to The New York Times music reviewer, Jon Caramanica, the song contains elements of 1980s pop and is accompanied by drums similar to those used by Kanye West.

Pop Grenade from Zer0 Books

The photographer who went with him, Adrian Fisk, told me that he [Keith] was driven by this challenge of putting on these parties in environments that were increasingly difficult and risky, but at the same time motivated by what he saw as one of the great injustices of our generation: a European country subjected to this absolutely terrible, brutal war. Now insert your AEG spring into one of the pistons, put the middle ring over it, close it so that all holes are aligned and tighten the screws. Consequence of Sound 's Kevin Barber praised the track and Mars, since it "showcases his Michael Jackson-esque vocal range" and it's "heavy, heartbreaking lyrics". He was a stringer in Georgia when its president tried to prevent a Russian invasion by putting on a Boney M gig in a conflict zone in 2007. To do so, the Smeezingtons completely rearranged and re‑recorded it, including the vocals, "two days before the album was supposed to be handed in".

Tom Gockelen-Kozlowski of The Daily Telegraph complimented "the Kanye West-style genre-bending on Grenade and other tracks that joins the dots between Michael Jackson and Bob Marley. On April 19, 2013 Within Temptation's cover was released and available for download as part of their cover album The Q-Music Sessions. On November 19, 2018, the single was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). When I interviewed Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova after she was released from jail, she said that they were not only influenced by the feminist riot grrrl movement of the early 90s, but also by songs about police oppression and working class life by second wave British punk acts like the Angelic Upstarts, Cockney Rejects and Sham 69.