Is rock and roll dead?

The age old question, isn't it?

It is pertinent however at this stage of the evolution of rock music to ask this, more than at any other, because while the whispers were faint earlier now they have gained in strength.

The logical way to proceed is to understand what characterizes rock music that has "life"; the following is an incomplete list of what I feel these characteristics are:

(1) Existence of musicians doing things with guitar/drum/bass that was not done before.

(2) Existence of multiple bands doing different but not too different, somewhat original, music together in a live environment.

(3) Existence of an adequate audience, to afford big concerts, because music is (traditionally anyway) to be enjoyed within a live community setting.

By all these counts, modern rock fails.

(1) There hasn't been a single new guitar/drum/bass player that has generated excitement in the last 15 years. Radiohead may be a decent band, but they certainly don't have great musicians.

Why is this important? After all, the Beatles weren't great musicians either. It is important in the sense that guitar/drum/bass heroes provide inspiration to young people to learn an instrument.

There's no incentive now to really learn the guitar for instance; you can learn 5 chords and strum them vaguely and you have Beck. Learning an instrument teaches you how to play those 5 chords. The issue is not the number of chords or the skill, but the emotion you get out of the instrument. Surely it is a silly argument to say you can get emotion without being skilled. So, the end result --> fewer people understanding their instruments.

If every band was like the Beatles, rock music would not have progressed beyond Chuck Berry (maybe it still hasn't). The Beatles were a great band, but while they wrote excellent songs together, as musicians I haven't come across a single person who claims to have been inspired by them.

(2) The incentive to perform live is slowly disappearing; with the record companies firing bands after 2 albums, the bands are not able to really learn how to play live together. And live music is really the test of a band. Studio production can cover up a lot, playing live exposes the band and all it's faults. IF they can still rock out, that's great!

However, if record companies lose out due to technology, we still have to worry about point number 3.

(3) Audiences are going to dwindle, and this is more related to technology, as we stream more music off the internet. The money now lies in spreading your song over the internet, not in producing albums. So big concept albums, or even albums that were bound together by a cohesive feeling are finished for good. The focus shifts toward individual songs, and this has never worked well for the success of any band.

A second fall-out of the internet, is that bands can increasingly produce their own music, with the studio going digital. This means they concentrate on being good in the studio, not playing live. Whatever this is, this isn't rock and roll.

The lack of an audience means bands cannot afford large tours on their own; they have to team up together to sell out concerts.

This is also a reason why old groups are getting younger audiences, there are simply no younger bands good enough to play live anymore! Any reading of interviews of older bands will show this trend coming out - from AC/DC to Iron Maiden to Motorhead to The Who - all claim their audiences are getting younger. This is a terrible thing, once these bands are gone - and there's not much left in most of them - what concerts will be there to go to?

SO, rock music is in a crisis, and if there are fewer bands playing live music together, rock (as we know it) is pretty much finished. Even if it adapts to the new way of doing things, it will have to give up the live aspect of playing, and that really isn't rock and roll. And this is sad, because the excitement of seeing a good band play live is irreplacable.

the hellacopters

The Hellacopters are from Finland, and they play rock and roll.

Look them up!

This is them, kicking out the jams live: *yes, jams. Very very cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bN6oZRs9JA&playnext=10&playnext_from=QL

Bow down to the, bow down to the king

There is a certain inalienable truth - politicians will philander.

Most americans I have spoken to about Obama appear to believe that he and his administration will change everything. Primarily it seems they believe Bush and his cronies had the whole world hating America, and our dark knight (is this racist?) will save this troubled land.

Americans can be really self delusional; I cannot believe the extent to which so many have bought into the propoganda sprouted by the Democrat party. Forget Americans, the whole world appears to believe we have found a leader for our time.

Until some time from now, when some forgotten little news articles tucked away in a corner of Pg 8 will talk of the ongoing genocide in some West African country, and how the US government is turning a blind eye to it.

When the US will refuse to sign the Kyoto protocol, or reduce their consumption of cars, or refuse to put a proper public transport system in place. Why should they? They've spent billions on their roads and highways; its a complete loss to build a public transport system now. In the meantime we can all choke on their gases and complain about global warming.

When Israel will attack some other country next, and America "protecter of the weak and innocent" will mumble little nothings.

50 years of a police state, and the king will heal all bringing peace and justice across the land.

Well done world. Well thought strategy, that one.

Let there be rock!

In the beginning...
Back in nineteen fifty-five
Man didn't know about a rock 'n' roll show
And all that jive

The white man had the smoltz
The black man had the blues
No one knew what they was gonna do

But Tchaikovsky had the news
He said -
"Let there be sound", (there was sound)
"let there be light", (there was light)
"Let there be drums", (there was drums)
"Let there be guitar", (there was guitar)
"Let there be rock"

And it came to pass
That rock 'n' roll was born
All across the land every rockin' band
Was blowing up a storm

And the guitarman got famous
The businessman got rich
And in every bar there was a super star
With a seven year itch

There were fifteen million fingers
Learning how to play
And you could hear the fingers picking
And this is what they had to say
"Let there be light!"
"Sound!"
"Drums!"
"Guitar!"
"Let there be rock!!"

One night in a club called `The Shaking Hand'
There was a ninety-two decibel rocking band
And the music was good and the music was loud
And the singer turned and he said to the crowd -
"Let there be rock!"

Hilarious video here (it's a wonder angus young's head doesn't fall off)

So now you know which AC/DC song mentions Chai-ka-visky.

"But rock and roll is middle class. Haven't you noticed?"

lemme at it!

Motorhead's Lemmy being asked:

"What does heavy metal mean to you?"

"It means never being able to get a serious review of your music. You get reviews of your bullet belt, you get reviews of how loud it was, you get reviews of what the crowd looked like, you get reviews of how ugly you were, whether you had a shave or not...but you very rarely get reviews of anybody taking your music apart and looking at it, you know, ever.

Whereas they love to analyze stuff that I think is vastly inferior to the music, the way your hair is and all that...in the 60s and the 70s you would have just laughed at it, because it is so banal. Hopeless."

Interview here

Virtually every person I've met who claims to dislike heavy metal points to precisely these outward appearances for not liking it. Stuff like "all that big hair, double bass machismo stuff isn't up my alley". You know. No one wants to understand what the hell the guys are playing.

slumbering dogs

So slumdog millionaire wins AR Rahman his first Oscar. Matter of fact, slumdog has won pretty much everything it was nominated for.

This proves one thing - the Oscar committee does not really understand Bombay/Mumbai; most people who've stayed in Bombay would agree the film is extremely superficial in its treatment of fairly realistic issues. It just didn't feel right.

Is this a good film? Well, sort of. Is this anywhere close to Trainspotting? No. Has Rahman made better music? Yes.

But, the white boys and girls have decided this worthy of their prize, and as in Frost/Nixon "there is no success like success in America".

One positive offshoot of all of this is that maybe more people will start acknowledging Rahman as a music director. Not that he needs it, but the massive ignorance of anything east of Europe will (should?) decrease.

Economics is an exact science

Dan McFadden, on being asked how many economists were present at the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize:

"About 18. I can't give an exact number..."

view interviews here