A Rock & Roll Tyranny
Kreblog posts his hatred for classic rock. Indeed, I've always wondered if the Baby Boomer generation ever had to endure a radio station saturation of constant overplays of Ella Fitzgerald, Artie Shaw, Frank Sinatra back in the 60s when they were teenagers. Did they ever bristle from having to hear the Classic Be-Bop, Classic Ragtime, Classic Swing, Classic Boogie Woogie of their parents generation? Why is it that early Boomers torment us to this day with their Beatles, Rolling Stones and Late Boomers torment us with Led Zeppelin and The Who?
In fact, I'd like to see us move beyond rock & roll and its offshoots and hear the next musical genre innovation. Medieval madrigals didn't last forever. Neither did fugues and symphonies. Can we get beyond rock & roll or are we forever doomed to stuff our rock favorites down the throat of each succeeding generation?
Rock is Dead, Long Live Rock. Hopefully the former and not the latter.
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3 Comments:
Uh what?
You might as well go ahead and post the Zapruder Film.
The next musical genre is here: Rap. Really. It represents the same sort of radical change that rock did, and continues to spin off it's own permutations.
And technically, symphonies have lasted forever (so far). How many people, over time and geography, recognize the music of Beethoven or Mozart? Everything else pales in comparison.
But really I don't think comparing symphonies to rock & roll is apt. Greatly simplified: Symphonies are art music (by academics, for academics), and rock & roll is popular music (by the people, for the people). The two continue to develop on parallel and tracks.
As a person born somewhere in the boomer curve, I can remember playing my parents Glen Miller and Harry Bellafonte records and thinking they were pretty cool the same way my (now 25+ year old kids) played my Beach Boy and Beatle tunes and thought those were cool. Eventually, you begin to despise everything your parents stand for, and you go your own way. I guess for me that meant the hard rock so my dad could yell out, "What's that noise? You call that music?", the same quote I yell now when I hear some forms of thrash metal or hip hop.
With a zillion music channels on TV and digital radio, and a billion quintillion MP3's out there to buy or steal, nobody is jamming anything down your throat. Listen to what you like. Try new things. Be tolerant of other's tastes. Live longer.
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