The impact of Resistance Records on the right-wing hate movement as a whole ­­ particularly with regard to recruiting young members ­­ is unclear. While white power groups' membership rolls have generally been flat or declining for the past decade and Ku Klux Klan chapters have been closing, the exceptions have been the National Alliance, whose numbers have more than doubled since 1992, and the fast-growing World Church of the Creator. In this light, it seems clear that for William Pierce, as well as Willis Carto and others, hate rock has become a logical, simple and effective tool to try to lure troubled youths, who might already be receptive to racist, anti-Semitic, anti-government ideologies, into becoming full-fledged members of their organizations.

As hate rock bands subtly infiltrate mainstream youth culture, they capitalize on teen-age rebelliousness and channel it into enmity and fury against "non-Aryans." Pierce has explained, "My aim with resistance music is to give them a rationale for alienation, to help them understand why they're alienated, to help them understand the programs and policies behind these alienating conditions, and to give them a target, a purpose for their anger and rage." Coupled with these organizations' slick and enticing Web sites, hate rock is part of a multimedia approach that packs a powerful and seductive punch. Therein lies the most dangerous threat.

In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare poeticized the romantic notion, "If music be the food of love, play on." Pierce provides a decidedly darker and more menacing view of the purpose of music in furthering the racists' agenda, in his Message from the Publisher in the Fall 1999 issue of Resistance Magazine: "Music speaks to us at a deeper level than books or political rhetoric: music speaks directly to the soul. Resistance Records ... will be the music of our people's renewal and rebirth. It will be music of strength and joy for our people. It will be music of defiance and rage against the enemies of our people.... It will be the music of the great, cleansing revolution which is coming. Enjoy it!"