Rock of Ages: Where Rock and Roll Has Been and Where It s Going

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1 Yobp 1 Bailey Yobp Ms. Dasher AP English Literature and Composition 29 September 2017 Rock of Ages: Where Rock and Roll Has Been and Where It s Going Music has been an expressive art form for humans for longer than most can remember. It has been a way to express feelings, tell stories, and make connections. There are thousands of music genres, and millions of more sub-genres for every overarching genre. Of these thousands, there have always been some genres that gain more fame, and in some cases infamy, than others. A perfect example of a genre that has achieved this is the Rock genre. This genre has seen both the highest levels of popularity and has gone so low that parents would be scared to let their children listen to it. Rock music has seen some drastic changes since its conception in the 1950 s. It has evolved more than any genre of music, and kept its original theme. As its evolution continues, it is difficult to predict in what direction it will go. However, careful study of the genre s past and observation of recent albums released by new and old bands lends credence to one main idea. It is most likely that Pop-Rock will continue to evolve alongside overall Pop music, while underground sub-genres will continue to form with increased vigor, until Pop-Rock is absorbed by Pop music, and the Rock genre will become less popular in the mainstream, but dominate on music streaming services and underground forms. Rock music was first truly developed in the early 1950s by an odd combination of blues and contemporary swing, where the electric guitar that had originally been a backup instrument now took center stage. Forerunners of the young genre consisted of two main performers, Chuck

2 Yobp 2 Berry and Elvis Presley. What is particular about this is these two performers had the power to control the entire future of the genre, which, in a way, they did. Elvis style would lead to softer, more Pop-Rock, while Chuck s style would lead to sub genres that would appear in the 70s and 80s, such as Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. As John Lennon would say after the Beatles would gain popularity, If there hadn't been an Elvis...there wouldn't have been a Beatles." (Macdonald, 12). From the beginning, Rock would see push-back, mostly from the older, more conservative population. They saw Elvis more sexual implications and attempted to put a stop to the young genre. However, tabooing a piece of entertainment often makes it much more popular, and so Rock was an enormous success with the teenage demographic. Near the end of the 1950s, thousands of bands had already appeared and were gaining popularity in this new genre, and as the 1960s rolled around, the genre would begin to see some more foreign influence. While many point to the 1970s as the golden years of Rock, paying the 1960s a bit of respect is always due. This is mainly because all the bands that would see enormous success in the 70s started in the mid to late 60s. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Creedence Clearwater Revival and so many more all started in the 1960s. However, of all the bands that arrived in the 60s, the real superstars were The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Coming as part of what was known as the British Invasion, a time in rock history where the majority of popular Rock bands were English, The Stones and The Beatles are considered by many the greatest Rock bands of all time, but the most popular of the two was The Beatles. Even Keith Richards, the guitarist from The Stones said, "Everything to do with The Beatles was sort of gold and glittery" (Macdonald, 44). The Beatles would go on to be the most successful band of all time, topping the charts so many times that their album 1, released in 2000, is comprised only of songs that hit number one on the

3 Yobp 3 top charts. This would often be seen as the beginning of Pop Rock, which will theoretically become the prevalent Rock genre in the future. The Stones were a different anomaly. While not quite reaching the levels of success The Beatles boasted, The Stones would go on to be a driving force in two new sub-genres, Psychedelic Rock and Prog Rock. Psych Rock, centered around the effects of drugs, would see a huge boom in the late 60s with the drug craze hitting the US. Bands like The Stones, The Doors, Pink Floyd, and even the Beatles after a while, were making songs that often were very confusing in nature. Prog Rock, or Progressive Rock, was a genre that would change so much over the decades that it would become unrecognizable form original prog-rockers. These huge changes in rock would lead to an enormous evolution and revolution of Rock in the 70s. As Rock entered its third decade, concert tickets were the only thing in short supply. Terry Teachout would go on to say in September 2016 that by 1971, the new music brooked no rivals. The genre was more popular than ever, which would lead to some rather interesting side effects. A new major sub-genre had begun to appear in 1970, brought about by four men in a band called Black Sabbath. The group saw huge success and brought the new sub-genre, which would be known as Heavy Metal, more bands that would help it evolve. As Heavy Metal grew mainly in the underground, Rock continued to grow in the forefront, with bands from the 60s finally gaining critical success in the 70s. The biggest example of this was Pink Floyd, another band considered by many to be a benchmark of Rock. The main success of the band came from the utter bizarre style the band went for, with frontman Roger Waters being the main writer for the band. Their albums told stories and had flowing narratives, something never really seen before on such a scale. Another band that would revolutionize Rock forever was the legendary

4 Yobp 4 Led Zeppelin. While Floyd handled the more artistic side of Rock in the 70s, Zeppelin would help with the progression of what would go on to be Hard Rock. Using odd combinations of electric guitars and mandolins, the band saw a huge amount of success that would be felt throughout the rest of Rock history. The band was mostly influenced by older Blues and Rock music, stating in the mid-70s that Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin s guitarist, grew familiar with Taurus and the rest of Spirit s catalog ( Randy Craig Wolfe Trust v. James Patrick Page ). Zeppelin would later be accused of stealing chords and songs from other bands due to how heavily they were influenced by bands like Spirit. As the 70s began to close, something interesting was happening, some Rock bands were pushing back against their popularity. This was most evident with Pink Floyd, where it was said that The global success of Dark Side had sent Pink Floyd out touring the world's massive arenas for the first time, an experience which Roger Waters did not enjoy at all ( Music Icons, 50). The hatred of the public judgment is what will lead to the underground genre of Rock as that is more true to the original sound, but will become less successful. This would be a trend that would manifest itself greatly as time went on, but Rock would grow even more as the 1980s began. The 1980s were as revolutionary as the 1970s, yet people often remember the 70s better due to the giants of Rock that appeared there. 80s Rock saw an odd evolution, it became heavier. The electric guitar became more prevalent in the songs, as well as the bass guitar, leading to much louder and harder Rock. The leaders of this new Hard Rock were AC/DC, an Australian band with a Scottish front man. They became extremely popular after their 1980 album Back in Black, which was made to honor their old front man who had died earlier that year. The band rocketed the Hard Rock sub-genre to the top, allowing bands like Bon Jovi, ZZ Top, Aerosmith,

5 Yobp 5 and Van Halen to gain a huge amount of popularity. Heavy Metal would also see a jump in popularity with the emergence of Metallica in After this, Heavy Metal bands began gaining popularity in great ferocity, with groups such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Pantera shooting up in sales. While all of this was mostly new Rock that had never been seen before, one artist was gaining his popularity, one who was drawing a huge amount of influence from the 50s and 60s. This artist was Bruce Springsteen, who would later earn the nickname The Boss. Springsteen drew massive amounts of influence from early rock, mentioning in his autobiography that by the late 70s he was...in the midst of giving [himself] a crash tutorial in fifties and sixties rock 'n' roll (Springsteen, 207). This style saw great success in the 1980s after the release of his album Born in the USA. Near the end of the decade, Rock was more colorful then the light spectrum on the cover of Dark Side of the Moon. When the 1990s hit, Rock saw a decline in popularity, losing chart spots to Rap and Pop composers. However, there was one band in the early 90s that kept Rock alive. This band was Nirvana, again one of the most popular and successful bands in history. The Seattle-based band would go onto pioneer a brand new sub-genre, one that an English reporter would go on to call Grunge Rock. The sub-genre was essentially a combination of Heavy Metal and Punk Rock, and it would sustain the overall Rock genre for the rest of the 90s, with bands like Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and Smashing Pumpkins emerging. The Punk Rock sub-genre of the late 80s also saw a huge amount of growth. Blink-182, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Green Day all came from this and saw huge commercial success. While these Punk Rock bands handled the overall popularity well, the Grunge-Rockers did no such thing. Dave Grohl, drummer of Nirvana, said At the time...it felt as if Nirvana was the end of his life (Nirvana). This would all

6 Yobp 6 come to a head when the lead singer of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, was found dead in his hotel room on April 8th, It is speculated that a large factor in Cobain s suicide was overexposure. Many other bands would end up canceling their record deals due to an overall mistrust of the music industry and a distaste for fame. By the end of the 90s, Rock was falling off the charts rapidly, but would see another great surge in the early 2000s. As the century turned, Rock was nowhere near as popular as it had been in the 70s and 80s, but it would see one bigger seller in the form of what was known as Post-Grunge. This new sub-genre, in actuality, had very little to do with Grunge, but the name stuck. Post-Grunge mainly was popular for one enormous reason, it sounded like Pop music. It used the template of Rock that had been around for decades, but the lyrics were much easier to relate to and understand. Many shared similar themes and stories that Hip-Hop and Rap songs had. Big names in this new sub-genre included Nickelback, Shinedown and Creed. At this point, lesser sub-genres were popping up left and right, and one big reason behind that was the ease of access when it came to recording and publishing music. With CDs and the internet, all one had to do was record an Extended Player (EP), upload it to a website, and reap the benefits as a talent hunter found your video on YouTube. Some new sub-genres included Nu-Metal, a combination of Heavy Metal and Rap, Emo Rock, a sub-genre strictly aimed at teens that were dealing with depression, and an interesting new angle, Alternative. Alternative Rock would grow into its own genre as the 2010s would hit, but at the time, it was a sub-genre of Rock that was reserved for Rock that didn t really fit anywhere else. It would eventually be a blanket genre for sub-genres such as Emo Rock, Indie Rock, and Pop-Rock. After the early 2000s, Rock would fall off the charts entirely, seeing random success for brief periods, the biggest example of this being the

7 Yobp 7 Indie Rock craze in the early 2010s, with bands like Imagine Dragons and fun leading the charge. After nearly 70 years, Rock has seen some incredible highs and some terrible lows. As the present-day rolls around, there is not much left of Rock in the charts. Many still wear the band tee shirts, but not many grasp what the shirt means or the story of the band they wear on their chest. Occasionally a Rock band will get lucky and score a hit on a popular station, but it is rare. Many have assumed that Rock is dead. This, however, is far from the truth. The genre still survives, mostly on the underground, owing a fair bit of gratitude to music streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify. Many Rock and Heavy Metal albums earn critical praise for solid melodies and thought-provoking lyrics. It is often speculated that the future of Rock is uncertain, which could be argued about all music. There are several ways the genre will evolve in the future. One is the genre will attempt to return to the mainstream by adjusting to fit a more popular mold. This is already being seen, with bands like Linkin Park, Fall Out Boy, and Theory of a Dead Man taking a more Pop or Rap approach, using more synthesizers and less guitars. Another possibility is the genre will go entirely underground, surviving on a dedicated fan base to keep the genre afloat, but staying forever out of the mainstream. While most Rock-purists prefer this, it is still not the most likely outcome. The most likely outcome for the future of Rock is that there will be an even split of the genre. Some bands will wish to adapt to the mainstream, becoming Pop Rock, while other bands will keep making whatever music they want, staying as Underground Rock. Claiming that the genre will die is entirely incorrect, because, as Greil Marcus, author of The History of Rock n Roll in Ten Songs, said, Once a song disappears into the ether, it never disappears (Barclay).

8 Yobp 8 Works Cited Barclay, Michael. The History of Rock n Roll in Ten Songs. Maclean s, 8 Sept. 2014, p. 78. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/a /ovic?u=sequoyahhsmc&xid=00bf3b93. Accessed 25 Sept Evans, Mike. The Beatles. Sywell, Igloo, Macdonald, Bruno. Six Degrees of Rock Connections. Birmingham, Alabama, Sweet Water Press, Music Icons. Vol. 6, 1 Jan Nirvana. UXL Biographies, UXL, Student Resources in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/ej /suic?u=sequoyahhsmc&xid=88b Accessed 25 Sept Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains. London, V&A Publishing, Richards, Keith, and James Fox. Life. New York, Little, Brown, Springsteen, Bruce. Born to Run. New York, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, Teachout, Terry. Is it here to stay? Rock n roll considered. Commentary, Sept. 2016, p Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=litrc&sw=w&u=sequoyahhsmc&v=2.1&it=r&id=gale %7CA &asid=9b9a2fe7e2455faaf0109ba1b8f Accessed 26 Sept United States, United States District Court. Randy Craig Wolfe Trust v. James Patrick Page. 23 June L. Ed.