This weekend we rented a perfectly delightful movie: School of Rock, starring Jack Black and Joan Cusack.
I had no particular interest in this movie, but after reading Sheila's ringing endorsement, I changed my mind, since she has excellent taste. So I gave it a shot, and I must say, I completely agreed: I loved every minute of it.
Jack Black was hilarious. Joan Cusack was wonderful--but then, she's always wonderful. Best of all though were the kids. Except for the one excessively stereotyped "gay" kid, all came across as very real, like kids you might actually meet. This as opposed to the excessively precocious, wisecracking brats that Hollywood so often puts on the screen. I actually know kids just like the kids in that movie, and that's great to see.
A funny thing I noticed, though, is that none of the music that Jack Black's character talks about in that movie is less than 25 years old.
Indeed, it occurred to me that if this movie had been made 20 years ago, and Jack Black were a young idealist who loved big band and swing music, everything from Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman right up through Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and the rest of the Rat Pack, spending his days trying to make that kind of music and instill a love for it into kids... well, honestly now, it would have been the same movie, wouldn't it?
Because rock is dead, you see. I'm sorry to be the one to break the news, but it's true.
Oh, I don't mean no one's making rock music anymore. People were still making big band music in the '80s, after all, and some still are today. But rock is as dead as Glen Miller and Sammy Davis Junior. Dead and gone. Fondly remembered, still an influence on future generations, but gone.
Vestiges of rock do survive in the niche market known as "Hippy Jazz," mind you, in groups like Phish and Widespread Panic. Nods to rock can also be found in much pop music. But as an art form, Rock lost its cultural relevance, and its vital animating force, some time ago.
This realization was underscored for me when I read a recent Blogcritics thread wherein people in their 30s and 40s complained that their kids don't rock as hard as they do. These folks who grew up loving Metallica and the Clash and AC/DC and the Ramones and so forth are disappointed because their kids ask them to turn that music down, it's too loud! They also complain because the kids think stuff like Matchbox 20 is "hard rocking" and can't handle the power chords of some old-school Black Sabbath or Guns 'n' Roses. Why, these kids don't even know what real punk rock is all about! The Violent Femmes would kick Avril Levigne's ass!
I didn't have the heart to tell them that the kids today who want hard core, intense music don't listen to rock. The kids who want hard core listen to rap.
The kids who don't want hard core listen to fluffy, inoffensive pop. Some of it has rock overtones, or nods to rock sensibilities, like Fastball. But that's not really rock'n'roll, and barely pretends to be.
Otherwise, the kids just listen to country and don't care about any of that other crap.
Rock is dead. And, before you are tempted to retort by saying, "Long live rock!" just keep in mind that John Entwistle died two years ago at the age of 58, Keith Moon's been dead for 25 years, and that Roger Daltry turned 60 two weeks ago and can't scream like that anymore.
The five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and, finally, acceptance. Which one are you at? Just curious, my fellow fortyish fogies!
(Then with a deep sigh of regret, he pulls out his copy of Superunknown. As he bangs his head and plays air guitar, he contemplates the fact that it was released a full 10 years ago. Then he chuckles at himself and the folly that is man, and continues to enjoy the music of his youth.)
I don't think rock is dead - I think it's just on vacation. Real rock and roll is going to make a comeback. Maybe not the Jimi Hendrix kind of rock and roll, but I think that Jet band rocks in an old school kind of way.
My son's guitar lessons revolve around some of the masters like Yngwie and Vai. He's eleven and banging his head to pre-Hagar Van Halen. There's hope for the younger generation. Some day they too will stand in the darkness of an arena, holding a cigarette lighter aloft and waiting for an encore that will include a blistering guitar solo.
I can dream, can't I?
Dean, I agree. Several years ago I realized all the rock I listen to is decades old, and anything newer that I like is poppy stuff. My step-daughter (25 yrs. old) grew up loving Rod Stewart, and it used to amuse me to tell her that his best days were WAY, WAY before she was born. He could seriously rock; I can't stomach anything he's done for the past 20+ years, and his new stuff makes him sound like an old woman. I'm definitely in the acceptance stage with rock, because while I still love the old rock I cringe to even see those guys now, much less hear them. Is there anything worse than seeing an old Rolling Stone? Old rockers haven't aged well, can't rock and perform like they used to, and remind us very unkindly of our own disintegration.
I agree with Michele that rock & roll is on a hiatus right now. If you go back to 1991, there were a couple of bands that rocked(Guns & Roses, the Black Crowes, for example)and a lot of overproduced musical garbage known as hair metal. In the summer of 1991 a bunch of non mainstream alternative acts got together and formed what I felt was my generations highest cultural achievement, Lollapalooza, which allowed us to get turned on to the all the great music that would come out of the Seattle area a couple of months later(Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc.)in late 1991, which in turn opened the floodgate for several excellent musical acts who made great albums in the early to mid 1990's.
Of course, a lot of those acts fell into the same traps as other great bands of the 60's & 70's(alcohol, drugs, death, animosity)but that is to be expected. I feel there are a couple of bands that can lead the revolution of this decade. The White Stripes, the Hives and the Darkeness all kick ass.
FYI, for all you Detroiters, the kid who is the guitarist in School of Rock is from Belleville.
Rock just took off and split the US and found a home in a Canadian band called Big Sugar. They just broke up last year.
Yeah, i'm a crotchety old punk rocker myself, but i refuse to believe it's dead. It's just hiding.
The White Stripes remind me of Billy Childish, and that's not so bad... There's even one of Billy's band members on "elephant".
The only person with a major label contract currently writing and playing anything like rock is Dave Grohl. It's sad.
PS: I'll take Dirt over Superunknown, although the latter is still a great album.
Well, I've always been about as musical as a fencepost. The music that did mean something to me, from childhood on up, was always rock music. (And yes, I'm old enough that I remember seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.) I stopped following Top 40 rock some time in the mid 1980s, and since then have more or less subsisted on listening to golden oldies stations on the radio— by which I mean, more or less, music from the early or mid 60s on up into the early 80s.
My stereo system still has a turntable, and no CD player. I do own some CDs, play 'em in my boombox, and probably the most listened-to CDs I own are the Beatles' White Album, and "Fragile" by Yes.
I think you're right, Dean: some time in just the past year or two, I roused myself from suspended animation long enough to realize, tuning up and down the FM dial, that rock is indeed dead. What is this rap? What is this hip-hop? (And is that supposed to be hyphenated or not?)
I remember back when I was in high school, in the early 70s, my father's remark about my tastes in rock music: "I think I'm losing touch!!!" My Dad has always listened to Big Band music, and he uttered that remark as if he was suffering from a sudden headache.
All of a sudden, in my middle age, I realize that I have become just like my father.
I was planning on seeing "School of Rock," but then I heard Jack Black on Democracy Now or one of those gawdawful NPR shows, spouting off about how Bush = Hitler and so on -- I'm paraphrasing here, but he said something like "it's not enough to oppose Bush because he's stupid; we need to realize that he is evil also." So I said -- you know what, Jack Black? I'm not going to see your stupid movie now.
I don't really lament the death of rock -- it's just that there's not a whole lot more to say.
I was in a guitar shop not long ago, and heard a high school kid make a remark to the effect of: Hendrix wasn't so great -- I've only been playing guitar for a year now, and I can play some of his songs, so how good could he have been?
Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick knew the truth was more like the opposite -- hey, anyone could have made up that Purple Haze riff -- the point is that Jimi did it first. There's not a whole lot left to do "first" for today's rockers.
I think you are basically right, Dean.
I don't agree that it is on a "hiatus". Neither will it disappear, though. I think perhaps Rock is merely a niche interest now, tho.
And tho it may continue with a scant few like Michelle's son, the reason I still consider it dead is that it used to be the voice of the younger generation. It was the embodiment of rebellion against the standards of the adults and parents and establishment.
But now the people who rebelled against it are now a part of the establishment.
There will be people who still express that feeling through rock, but they will be few and far between. Rap is the current medium for that expression. 100 years from now it will probably be something else, but not rock.
Shows I'm getting older, I guess. I'm only 49 still, but soon I'll be old enough to vote. The music I grew up with (the Beatles, Woodstock, etc.) is to today's youth what my parents' music was to our generation.
Rock replaced with (c)rap? What next, nails scratching on a blackboard? Back to Bach!, I say. I'm a reactionary.
I don't know, Dean, I've heard a lot of good rock&roll lately. The styles are changing, groups experimenting, but the spirit is there. I saw Metallica live at the height of their ability (Black Album tour, after they had their material from And Justice For All figured out and down pat), and Disturbed puts on a comparable show. On the non-metal side I've seen and heard many incredible recent performances. I'm willing to say Rock is still alive and kicking, it's just not the dominant culture for the time being.
At least the kids today put 'samples' of our music (rock) in their music (rap).
All good things must come to an end I suppose. I hate becoming my parents, but maybe I'll do a better job?!
Every generation has its own music, art, slang, poetry, clothing. Some of it seems to be recycled, some of it used, some of it discarded.
I'm just glad they have put most of our music on c.d. so that we have it; those albums don't play so well anymore.
Metallica's been around for more than 20 years, last I heard.
Hey. Tony Bennett's still working too you know. ;-)
My point was that Disturbed (just as an example) is comparable to the talent and energy produced by Metallica at their height, and they're only on their second album.
Rock keeps splitting off into variations. But to list random (and mized) examples Disturbed, Korn, Evanescence, Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, Jet, Taproot, Trapt, and others keep carrying the flag, under different sub-headings to be sure, but its not dying. All the way from major groups to potential one-hit wonders. There's as much diversity and strength in the genre now as their was twenty years ago, and it only makes it better that so many of the classics are still out there (the Stones, Rush, Aerosmith, KISS, and on and on).
I plan on indulging in fresh rock&roll well into retirement years.
Disturbed, Static-X, and other industrial-metal bands in the NIN tradition are still making music with an aggressive edge. And some of it is really, really offensive -- sure to please adolescents looking to piss off their parents. Some of it is also really, really good, often the same bits that are really, really offensive.
But it's small potatoes compared to hip-hop, sadly.
I am just enjoying the different comments about this so much.
My parents do come to my mind and I love it for they were terrific about the changing music.
They raised their brows here and there but they just simply instilled a love for music in me from birth. I am becoming them and it is rather hysterical, just hysterical. Look at the oddities of your folks and the cute things dad or mom did, you will age better. I am sincerely looking for the first gray hair and I am just past 50.
Is rock dead? Uumh, good comments. When I post I think, who cares what I think but I like to anyway.
Who cares about the mainstream? I've got my Dream Theater (prog, but definitely on the heavy end) and Lacuna Coil (which kicks Evanescence's ass) and even less well known acts such as Devin Townsend and Yogi, and as it is now feasible to do small-scale distribution through the internet (we bought all of our Devin CDs from the man himself at www.hevydevy.com ) I don't CARE if the grand majority doesn't listen as long as I get my fix.
My presssccciooouuussss....
Unfortunately Dean I'm gonna have to disagree with you on this one. I think lin our current musical climate there are several "revivalist" (if you wanna call them that) rock groups who want to bring the genre back to it's ass-kicking, rebel yelling, anti-establishment glory days.
Up and coming bands like the Darkness, the Vines and one of my new favs due quite the substantial amount of thrashing-out. And how could we forget detroit's own newly crowned dynamic duo of rock The White Stripes.
A lone drummer, and a vocalist who doubles as the only guitarist. If that ain't rock then maybe I'm listening to the wrong stations.
Which would primarily be the internet, because it seems that conventional radio is not only disinterested in "rock" nowadays, but of music of any sorts.
"NIN tradition"
Good heavens. Is there such a thing? Sometimes I'm glad I'm an ocean away.
Using sensuality to look for redemption outside social rules and cultural abstractions is a major thread in all great art traditions. Maybe rock really isn't any longer the genre that's the best vehicle for that in popular culture. After all, you can be anti-establishment and question authority and do imaginative things with your instruments and stuff, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're seeking transcendence.
I have to disagree with Dean and say that rock does live on, and it is frankly quite healthy.
Unfortunately, you have to search it out. It is not going to be played on the radio much, if at all. Rock is in the hearts and minds of anyone who plays for the love of it. Check out your local music scene, it hasn't vanished.
Rock has always been visceral, always tied to the show. It isn't in a video, or a single, its in the performance before/with a crowd. I've seen a few glimmers of hope recently that others have mentioned (white stripes, jet, darkness) all excellent music, gritty and nasty at its basic level. (I have to disagree on the vines tho, I've seen 'em live, worst show I've seen since marilyn manson)
If you want to find out where the Rock has gone, don't turn on the radio, or MTVH1. Go to the dirty bars and smelly clubs, you'll find it there, still searing the flesh of its devoted fans.
Couldn't have said better with less word Blueshift.
Rock on brother! :)
Yes, there's a NIN "tradition." Stabbing Westward's first album sounded exactly like Nine Inch Nails, and there have been plenty of other pretenders since.
Got to agree on the Devin Townsend rec. His "Accelerated Evolution" is quite a good rock record. Actually, from what I've heard, Canadians remain quite fond of both rock 'n' roll.
In the prog-metal vein, fans of Dream Theater would do well to check out Magellan, Gordian Knot, and Pain of Salvation. And if you're not a fan of Dream Theater, what the hell's wrong with you?
I get the feeling that Rock and Roll has been pronounced dead more-or-less every year since Chuck Berry recorded "Johnny B. Goode."
I just wanted to come back in and grafitti "big sugar" all over your walls, and holler "there is no alternative to rock and roll!" as i ran out the door again.
Let me just change a couple of word's in Blueshift's comment, for comparison:
"I have to disagree with Dean and say that [polka] does live on, and it is frankly quite healthy.
"Unfortunately, you have to search it out. It is not going to be played on the radio much, if at all. [Polka] is in the hearts and minds of anyone who plays for the love of it. Check out your local music scene, it hasn't vanished."
All of that is still true, and none of it is dispositive. Much though I might like to believe otherwise, rock (polka?) is dead.
anger I think. but I play in two rock cover bands, so I think that's to be expected..
Mate, rocks not dead, everyone I know wants good 'ol rock n' roll to be back in full swing, and I'm a whoppin 24 years old. My freinds want it, their freinds want it. People everywhere are bitching and moaning that it's no where to be found. Then you get the 2000's version of Spinal Tap (The Darkness) and they go and get onto top 20 MTV. Then you've got bands like the "Black Rebel Motorcycle Club" straight rock, and its coming back.
Now many say that HipHop (rap) is to you what rock was to your parents. I disagree, HipHop is completely different, its divergent. People just listen to more then one grenre now, and they're buying hiphop becuase there isnt any good rock out there, and what good rock there is its not being marketed and sold by the record industry. In the end it comes down to the dollar. It's easier to promote a band that will have 1-3hits and bust then it is to put money into artist development, and have them really go into something creative and unique.
All in all, rock's not dead, it just needs to go and slap some people around for a while, to realize the mistakes theyve been making in porcessing all these fad bands (and im convinceed it started with 80's glam and 70's dico) Nonwtheless, Im out.
;) Cheers.