Why I'm Not Giving Up on Rock n Roll
Here's some food for thought for you to disregard if you like...I'm not as quick to say "rock is dead" as Kiss' Gene Simmons. I do not subscribe to the theory that it is completely gone, it's evolving. The way I see it, since its' inception, it has always been evolving. There is one old stand by you can be sure of, not everyone is going to agree on what constitutes rock n roll. People aren't going to agree, and some are going to be scared as hell of it. Some of you, dear readers, are going to dismiss my next statement because I was not born of the era, however, remember when Elvis was the subject of controversy? He scared the pants off of every broadcasting station, nay every parent in these good ol' United States...with his charm and pretty face and swiveling hips--HOW DARE HE! Right? But he was what the kids of that era loved. Boys wanted to be him and score all of the groovy chicks, and girls wanted to be with him...and he could croon a tune that made em' swoon. We started to like him more and more because...
Then came The Beatles...those four lads from Liverpool. Holy crap. They were tall, they were handsome, they were foreign. We liked them because they were rebellious. They were rebellious in that "rebel without a cause" kind of way. Parents were then scared out of their minds again, because their daughters were going bananas over boys they found objectionable. Little did the parents know they were playing into the hands of the machine. The kids loved them because the parents didn't...y'know until Lennon decided to say that they were "bigger than Jesus". Of course, I have it on good authority that he was probably right. (*gasp* am I still here?!) The parents thought "that's not music" on both counts.
Then in '67, things really started getting weird. The Beatles found enlightenment with Sgt. Pepper, The Turtles wanted to follow in their footsteps (and how I love them!) and then came The Doors.
Named for "the doors of perception", they really did give you something to think about. Lead by their poet laureate, Jim Morrison, they gave us driving beats and killer lyrics. C'mon, "the killer awoke before dawn..." chilling, right? Of course, one of my favorite tunes by The Doors has to be Crystal Ship. I also like "The End", which rounded out their debut album. The Doors managed to piss off Ed Sullivan, and once again freak out every parent in America.
Of course we can't forget the "colored" acts, or "race music" like James Brown, The Temptations, Little Richard, just to name a few. Parents decided they hated them due to the heightened racial tensions of the time, and they are perfectly acceptable, and even deemed classic now. That's truly where it all began.
My point here is not to offend but to point out that even these acts, all stemmed from one place, influenced each other or was influenced by, and evolved into something different, taking into account what the previous generation learned.
A new commercial out featuring Blondie made me remember that even rap music, which started from the street and literally came "up from the underground", influenced rock n roll. When Blondie released "Rapture" in 1980 from the album "Autoamerican", some could argue that Debbie Harry was the first white female rapper. Remember when Aerosmith and Run DMC collaborated for a version of "Walk This Way"? Some critics thought the idea was refreshing, and admittedly some didn't; even the respective artists themselves had some reservations, but they came together and pulled it off, much to the delight of fans.
I think in this respect, different genres emerged, and some even worked together for a common cause: music speaks. Music is for everyone. Even today, with the rise of music piracy and iTunes and the age old battle of the artist not seeing as much profit as they should, rock n roll is evolving yet again with "indie" rock, independent labels, bandcamp, soundcloud...you get the picture. Independence is the newest evolutionary leap in the annals of Rock History. The premise is still the same, it chooses you...it keeps you company on your iPod or in your car or whatever; when you turn it up, it turns you on.
As long as people keep getting off on the buzz, rock and roll will thrive, what it sounds like is up for interpretation, but I think the genre will go on existing in its' many forms until...forever.
