1. saviors of rock and roll
every week brings a new one. the white stripes. the strokes. the vines. the hives. whatever. we all know that rock is in a sorry state right about now. the landscape is now strewn with slinky girl-divas, choreographed boy bands, carbon copy rap stars and screaming nu-metal bands, so anybody that shows up bearing little more than a fender strat and a marshall amp is instantly branded the new moses. the messiah. this band will save us all from what we have become. the band will bring the rock back down from the gilded mountain of popularity and share it with the humble people of earth.
wrong.
we continue to blame the popularity of this band or that diva on the machines of marketing, acting like britney is being fed to us intravenously or that n’sync is being slipped into the water supply. but all the marketers do is put it out there. they set it out on the table. and what do we do? we belly up and consume. for every bubblehead pop star, there is a whole state’s worth (if you consider rhode island) of fans that love them, adore them and would walk 500 miles just to be the ones to fall down at their concert. they weren’t drugged or brainwashed, they just heard and liked and bought. simple as that.
and so what does it mean when rolling stone puts the latest and fuzziest barebones band on their front cover, calling them the new kings of true rock? they are simply setting them on the table, moving them out from the obscure corner of the pantry like a forgotten can of chick peas. effectively, they are being marketed right out of obscurity, marketed right out of that you’ve-never-heard-ness that caught the eye of an opprtunistic music mag editor in the first place.
you know what else it means? it is supposed to mean that you’re not cool if you don’t instantly dig this new band. and not just dig this band, but disparage all of the others as if you were suddenly entering a commune and forsaking worldly goods. and it is amazing that so many still fall for that, even though nobody really leaves their former tastes behind, not completely. wouldn’t it be great if everybody just owned up to the things they still kept in the back of their music box? just because i love radiohead now, that doesn’t mean that i need to be ashamed that my first ever album purchase (with my own money) was a styx cassette. kilroy was here. domo, domo.
rock & roll does not need saving. rock & roll survives as it always has, even through the disco era, the millis and vanillis, the billy oceans, the terry jacks (i hate “seasons in the sun” – sue me). where is it hiding? you know it when you hear it. and what is rock to you may not be rock to me. jeff buckley rocked. marvin gaye rocked. stevie wonder rocked up until about 1975. elvis presley rocked until he went into the army. rock changes and adapts to its contents. rock reflects its surroundings.
much like we do. like we have.
mozart rocked. as did shakespeare. galileo.
and while we’re on the topic of saviors…
8 responses to “tipping sacred cows: shove number one”
Makes me think of a quote: “Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Rock and roll is misunderstood. Quite. I think mostly because we as a species have this ridiculous need to pigeon-hole. But, that is a rant I think you’ve heard at least once before, no?
Music is good or bad but LABELS are dead..How about there is no such thing as Rock and Roll..*creates chaos
Hmmm…the subject of saviors. Well, there’s always Jesus. He was such an amazing guy that he died for sins that I hadn’t even commited. But I’m working very hard to make sure he didn’t die in vain. He undoubtedly rocked. He rocked so hard that he was totally misunderstood. Instead of reforming Judaism as he’d planned a few people got together and created a whole new religion from his words spoken.
And Churchill and FDR and Stalin. And now no one likes Stalin because he killed more people than Hitler. Although I did spend a weekend in the home of his grand daughter. Nice place.
Martin Scorcese rocks. So did Stanley Kubrick. And John Candy. Are they saviors? In the case of John Candy, maybe. He saved many a movie. Except for _Planes, Trains and Automobiles._ Nothing could’ve saved that film.
Jonas Salk. If you take issue with that I’ll kick your ass.
Nine guys from PA are probably willing to name a bunch of people who rock.
I’ve even heard some rockers who rock. But most of them just roll.
Does it rock? Is it marketing? Or is it us taking what we’re given cause we’re workin for a livin? Can Madison Avenue actually manipulate the American people? Surely not. Except for the beer we drink, the cars we drive, the standards of beauty that we all adhere to… Sort of like the American press. I mean, why would anyone bother to write something down if it weren’t true…
So, yeah. We take what they give us because they serve it up to us. And they have us in their little pockets. The reason that a good ad agency gets so much money (interestingly enough, it’s your money) is because they deliver us lock, stock and barrel into the sheep pen of a product.
Well sure, we have freedom of choice. And we exercise our right to freely choose the product, by buying the one who’s commercials make us laugh or cry or feel more American or more like part of the crowd (sort of the same thing really- 250 million individuals, all doing the same thing).
I think marketing decides who the artists are, and tells us. You don’t see a whole lot of ugly pop stars. And even if you do, you don’t see them for very many albums. And I’ve seen a lot of people who don’t meet today’s standards of beauty with voices of demi-gods and angels. And when I walk down the streets of NY, or drive down the streets of Atlanta, or walk into a bar in East Bumble **** France, I tend to notice there’s a lot more ugly people than pretty ones.
So you tell me.
new untainted unmarketed music here and here.
I hate to play devil’s advocate here – but it’s been proven that advertising has subliminally manipulated us for years (Joe Camel anyone??) – so technically haven’t we been forced into being sheep. Isn’t pop music “all about the hook??” I’m as guilty as anyone for enjoying “teen pop” for the cheeze factor – proof that anyone with as ecletic tastes as I have can be manipulated too.
You’re all crazy. It’s all crap. That’s why I only listen to musicals.
And I think Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is one of John Candy’s best movies (next to Uncle Buck, of course).
tells Darrell. YES that is why there ARE NO LABELS because music is everywhere……
Marketing or not, I’m still, as the great Bonnie Tyler said, holding out for a hero.