since July 7, 2004.Rock is dead.
There, I said it.
Not that it was some big secret or government conspiracy, but face it, the glory days of rock have ceased, and as Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Lester Bangs said in "Almost Famous" (and I’m paraphrasing here): 'what now passes for rock-n-roll, silence is more compelling. . . .The war is over; they won.' And that was 1973 rock criticism. Imagine if Lester Bangs were around today. (Oh, Lordy!)
And rock is not necessarily to blame for it’s own demise. Its remaining shredded remnants are channeled into sub-genres, filtered through branches of commercialism (or completely ignored), and recycled across generations, covered countless times that original song versions soon become as rare and antique as the equipment they were recorded on.
But rock’s journey underground hasn’t been entirely painful. Thanks to some singers/bands’ longevity, it has managed a healthy afterlife. David Bowie, Ozzy Osbourne, and Aerosmith – and others – often tour with younger groups and singers and continue to reign in pop culture.
As the music industry (hopefully!) continues its shift away from the likes of Britney Spears and fake boy bands, rock will find itself at another crossroad, where it will either spend eternity repenting in purgatory or find renewed life with the younger scene.
Rock will only survive and fully live again upon the continued discovery of singers and bands who again make it exciting, constantly push the envelope and especially aren’t cookie-cutter copies of everybody else. In the last 15 years, several bands have reinvented the rock spectrum and inspired others to do the same including Nirvana, Counting Crows, Live, Hole, Sublime, Foo Fighters, Oasis, Blind Melon, Queens of the Stone Age, The White Stripes, and Evanescence.
So, until a big push of musicians moves the industry out of its rut – and gives the RIAA something to do besides sue people – rock remains officially dead, on life support and waiting to be revived. And despite the continual tours by aging classic rock artists, the only cure is finding more fresh talent, since most of what we’re stuck with just ain’t cutting it.
The Sex Pistols said, 'God Save the Queen.' I say, 'God Save Rock-n-Roll.'
Part 12.2: My Top Ten Music blah-blah-blah
10. & 9. Big Brother and the Holding Company/Janis Joplin – OK, so by now it’s nooo secret that I like Janis and her music. However, the fact that TWO biopics are now on the film horizon is leaving me troubled. Sure, one’s Hollywood and the other’s an indie, but we’ll never know till they come out just what the filmmakers focus on: the music, the drugs, her sexuality, familial woes. Am I curious? Yes. Anxious to see either one? Not really, when I can watch "Janis," "Nine Hundred Nights" and "Ball and Chain" anytime and see how she REALLY was. Besides, stuff will be skewed and/or left out, which brings me to Big Brother, who will likely be known as the band that once backed Janis. Get a life, Hollywood! Aside from a hiatus after she and guitarist Sam Andrew left (before he came back), they have been recording and touring for nearly 40 years. True, their popularity came with Janis, but that shouldn’t discredit their music or longevity. After all, how many psychedelic groups emerged from the 1960s alive, well and still performing?
8. Cool Edit Pro – Sound editing is not the easiest thing in the world, nor is it my favorite, but, man, this program absolutely rocks. (Peak is the MAC equivalent and works pretty much the same.) After transferring old VHS movies to my PC, I can go in and warp the vocals, move them around, overdub, etc. Talk about power!
7. D.A. Pennebaker’s rockumentaries – "Don’t Look Back." "Monterey Pop." "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars." Musical genius meets filmmaking genius. Pure fun in every form of the word.
6. Bookends – I love this album. I’d always liked Simon & Garfunkel, but when I finally heard this from start to finish, it just blew my mind. My mom still swears that "Almost Famous" provoked my liking of the album, but it was just hanging out with Renata in the CPJ office and listening to Simon & Garfunkel A LOT.
5. Concerts – Adrenaline. Just one long, sustained wave – that’s the only way I can describe how a rock concert feels, at least a good one. My dad says anyone is better live (except Britney Spears, I always argue). And the loot you feel you can’t live without: t-shirts, key chains, programs, those funky glow thingies. Someone once mortified Renata by telling her that spending $75 on a t-shirt was worse than what’s going on in Iraq. Obviously, that individual just doesn’t get it!
4. Subwoofers – Man, those things are (in a deep James Earl Jones voice) SWEEEEET! And my poor little Pentium has never sounded better.
3. My dad’s 45 collection – Growing up, I used to think radio stations were screwed up because they never played familiar music, stuff my dad always played. He’d had a stereo that recorded onto 8-track cassettes (once a hot-ticket item) and recorded this oldies tape of favorite 45s, which was played constantly. Well, being the naive weirdo that I am, it took about 10 years before I realized how old those songs actually were and, though once popular in the Northwest, many weren’t Top 40 hits, so not many oldies stations played them. Even now, some are still hard to find, even in independent stores. But that one tape – with artists ranging from Phil Ochs to Fever Tree to The Murmaids to Blue Cheer – is still legend in our household; in fact, Sis and I still bear our worn-out copies with pride.
2. The Beatles – What can possibly say about them that hasn’t already been said? They’re here basically because of their simplicity; their lyrics are typically simple and easy to sing along with: 'golden slumbers fill your eyes/smiles awake you when you rise/sleep pretty darling do not cry/and I will sing a lullaby-ee.'
1. The Olivia Tape (circa 1983) – Likely the most played VHS tape in the history of our household and still works, thanks to a $700 RCA VCR, which lasted almost 17 years before it choked while taping "Dark Shadows." This tape – including an Olivia Newton-John concert, Michael Jackson’s "Thriller," MTV videos that included Lennon and McCartney, and "The Muppet Show" – was more than just a random, collective montage; it defined my childhood, and I’ll carry it with me till another RCA eats it. (That’ll be a sad day, man.)
(P.S. This is the last installment of Music! Music! Music! Thanks to everyone who helped me out along the way, especially Chelsea Baker, Kai Young, Renata Rollins, James Stippich, House of Records in Eugene, and my lovely copy editors, Rob and Mitch-U.)
Copyright © 2004, Talia M. Wilson
published in Cooper Point Journal, May 20, 2004
since July 7, 2004.