Music is all around us. You cant avoid it. PSP's, iPods and the like make your music even more portable and easy to listen to. Today since no one on this thingy wants to post I will give you a brief and quite possibly wrong history of Rock. Just because I have that kind of time.
Before rock there was a thing called country. This country was evil and should never be heard by humans who dont wear plaid and have over-alls. But then in the South a new music was coming. A musical style call Blues. Ah, nothing says good times like blues. It was so diffrent. It had soul, it was ALIVE! A young man of Tennesee then heard this blues. His name of course was Jehosophat Bringal. No, I lied. His name was....Elvis.
Elvis then took this blues and made it popular to suburban teens. The term was later called rock 'n' roll. Much like Elvis, I have the swiviling hips. Let me tell you its hard to stand in line. Rock 'n' roll was good, clean American fun. It spread across the world and of course Elvis went on to sell millions of records and dying on a toilet. Or did he?
The 60's brought a change to the music style of youth. Folk and rock melded into hippie music. But the sixties also brought excellent artists and bands. Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones before Kieth Richards became the living dead and the Beatles to name just a few. It was a time of Vietnam and Love-Ins. Of social change and Peace-ing out. Of course the drugs helped too. *Cough*.
With a the end of the Sixties an evil empire started to rise. This empire was called disco. Disco is the music of Hades, people. Disco shouldve been taken out and shot. But there was hope a small rebellion lead by bands like AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, KISS, The Guess Who, Queen, Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath and many others. This small rebellion held out through the years battling the evil empire of disco throughout the Seventies. Then my children the real music rebellion began in a far off land. Punk. The Clash, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Adverts, Generation X, Sex Pistols, The Slits and X-Ray Spex all started a strong underground following. Then this punk rock scene spilled over to America where bands like the Ramones, The Misfits, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks and the Germs flourished. It was a wierd and pierced time.
But all good and punkish things must come to an end. By the 80's most of ye olde punk bands had burned out or faded away. Making way for the oddest music ever. New Wave. Wierd hair and sythesizers were the order of the day. And eveything was tight. I dont know why it just was. Im far too lazy to name New Wave bands though. There were far, far too many. But there was still some rocking bands in the Eighties. The Scorpions, Van Halen, Motley Crue, Ozzy Osbourne, Poison, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Sammy Hagar, Quiet Riot, Metallica, Warrant and of course the probably biggest band of all time U2. Throughout the Eighties there was a thing called "hair metal". So named of course because of the gigantic sprayed hair the band members had. It wasn't true rock but hey, what else were you listening to in the 80s? Madonna? Michael Jackson? Tears for Fears? It was a time of experiment and wild, wildness, parties. Mmm, cocaine. To quote Robin Williams, "...anything that makes you impotent and paranoid, mmm, gimme more of that!"
Hair metal died a quick death by the early 90's. Then the Seattle scene happened. All of a sudden, instead of gigantic guitar riffs you heard depressign, angst filled music. This music, of course is called, Grunge. Say the name out loud and you can basically figure out the idea behind it. Bands that came out of the 90s were the most influential and great of all time for rock. Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, REM, Bush, Smashing Pumpkins, Blur, Silver Chair, Alice in Chains and of course the great and mighty Nirvana. This was the time of alternative rock. It was dark, it was moody and it effected a generation of teens. And of course it was FUN! Cant spell "my-life-sucks-but-hey-so-does-his" without fun. But unfortunatly after Kurdt Cobains suicide the grunge scene kinda...well, died. There was however a small revival of punk. Green Day, The Offspring, Rancid, The Transplants, The Distillers and the like started to come out of the woodwork. By the late 90s experimintation was the order of the day. Rap-metal, and more electronic sounding rock started appearing. Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Rage against the Machine, Korn to name a few. Im not going on about that because it was a dark time.
Finally here we are at the early 2000's. Rock has finally come back. And more commercialized then ever. But thats not the point. Bands like Nickelback, Default, Theory of a Deadman, Our Lady Peace, Seether, Sum 41, Billy Talent, Three Days Grace, Jimmy Eat World and the like coming through the speakers. Also in every generation there is one band that makes you want to stick your head underwater. Im talking about Maroon 5. Why are people still listening to them? Havent they read this famous blog?
What're people going to say ten years from now? Will this generation of music fans have it worse of? Or are we in the midst of a revolution in rock music? I hate Good Charlotte. Dont ask me why. Just a thing between them, me and an elevator in Idaho. We shall see in another five years whether this music can last or will it just be a fad. I refuse to listen to rap if rock dies. I plan on holding out with rock CDs and a shotgun if it comes to that.
Adieu.
My body hair is growing exceptionally.
Hurricane Katrina, horrifying natural disaster that it was, can be used as a metaphor for a societal catharsis that gives valuable insight into the state of America, and the South in particular. It made very evident the disparity between the social classes in New Orleans, and sadly, the races in as many cases.
