So there are few parameters that I will follow here but three that will be the primary theme throughout.
1. That rock music genre's are directly correlated to the decade with which they came.
2. That since 2010, for the first time, rock music has failed to evolve into an identifiable genre that made it unique from the previous decades.
3. And lastly, the evolution will be to answer, "what does that mean for Rock and Roll itself?"
"Rock is dead they say, Long live ROCK" wrote Pete but is this the beginning of the end of our beloved rock music? Did it stand the test of time as reigning champion for 70 years and now on its way out? Well we all know that no genre ever truly dies. I mean there is still a market for every kind of music that has ever been recorded but Rock has lasted as the reigning musical genre from the 50's to the present only because of its ability to grow, and branch, change and revive even when we didn't want it to.
I HATED when 90's grunge destroyed 80's metal, but like everyone else it wasn't long and I was jamming to Teen Spirit and Jeremy. Once again Rock survived a major shift in style and came out smelling like a Rose, even at the expense of Axle. So now, at the end of its 6th decade, it seems to have, for the first time, stalled out. Of course this can and will be argued from a hundred different angles and that is not just ok, its great! However this is my blog and my beliefs are of course the foundation of this discussion. My point is, that the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, and 00's offered us a distinctly yet just as amazing decade of rock music that was completely different that the preceding decade. And, that since 2010 to the present rock music has failed to find any since of identity, whatsover. Lets walk through the past 70 years and see in a little more detail what I am trying to say.
This theory of mine that music is a decade long phenomenon begins long before rock music. The Roaring 20's, 30's Swing, the Big Bands of the 40's. And then, came Rock and Roll...
The 1950's brought the most explosive change to music in its history and man what a change! The split or merger of other genre's that rightfully so contains some of the biggest names in history that were both black, and white artists. Unfortunately a trend that only lasted for that particular decade. No other time in Rock musics long and wonderful tenure had there been such a sweet blend of multiple races. Chuck and Richard, Elvis and Haley and even Hispanic Ritchie Valens all topped the charts and the list goes on and on. Ultimately at the end of any list of the greatest bands/musicians of the 50's the list would probably split close to 50/50 race wise. The other great accomplishment of the 50's is that it belonged to America! Rock and Roll is home grown and we did well, however that claim was to end early in the next decade. But is was then, the birth of Rock and Roll as a genre, a sound, and a name arguably thanks to this iconic song.
On into the 1960's! Very little of what made 50's Rock so great made it to the 60's. The black sound took on its own direction and evolved into its own greatness, Soul, Funk and R&B! It would seem that a line was drawn in 1959 and 1960 and a whole new brand of rock emerged. One of the biggest differences between the 50's and 60's was, can you guess? America no longer had the monopoly, the British invasion was about to begin and with a vengeance like nothing ever seen before.To this day some of the greatest Rock and Roll bands ever to grace this planet emerged and though the US had its great bands to, it could be said that the Brits blew us away. The Beatles,The Stones, The Who, Zeppelin, Floyd vs The Doors, The Dead, Airplane, Hendrix, Credence. A good list that balances well but if you go deeper than five bands, say make the list 20 on each side, you will start to see the balance shift to the east and honestly, rightfully so. Keith Richards recently said the reason for the unique sound of the British invasion is that the 60's bands from America got their sound from the 50's rock music of America, Elvis, Jerry Lee, Haley and others while the British bands of the 60's got their music directly from the black Blues greats such as Waters, Hooker, Johnson and Wolf. Though the US lost the battle of the bands in the 60's when the smoke on the water lifted, there was no doubt that Rock and Roll was a global commodity and everyone had some Satisfaction.
The 1970's, Bobcat Goldthwait once said something to the effect that the 70's, musically, was the lowest point of our cultural history on the planet. And for a lot of people, that may be true, Disco was huge, country was flailing, pop was one-one hit wonder after another, now called Yacht Rock? But Rock was none of this, honestly as huge as the top classic rock bands of the 60's were, the 70's produced some the best music in rock history. When you start stacking Queen, Aerosmith, Nazareth, Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Elton, David Bowie, Boston, Eagles, Foreigner, Journey, Kiss, Rush, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Steely Dan, AC/DC, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Allman Borthers, Van Halen, ZZ Top and that is just the tip of the a-list spear, if we went to the b-list, no less great, but not the same popularity as the preceding such as Triumph, Frank Marino, Alan Parsons, Sweet, Pat Travers, Wishbone Ash, Hot Tuna, Robin Trower and so many more these bands produced some of the most amazing music ever. But all that was about to change. All the bands I loved so much in the 70's were about to produce some of the worst music of there careers but like a hurricane that was about to rock my world, I really didn't care for long.
Its true, the 1980's somehow took all those amazing great bands gave them lobotomies and what spewed out was the most vile music imaginable. When Cornerstone came out, I was nervous. When Mr Roboto came out I ran! Journey did it, Toto did it, REO did it, Springsteen did it, Elton and Queen did it! Huge mega hits for all of them but for me it was just the worst. I wanted nothing to do with it, but I didn't have to because the emergence of Heavy Metal and Hair Bands was my musical savior! Say what you will, in every way I was a head banging, long haired, metal head in every sense of the word. I loved the 60's and 70's, but my car was jamming to the likes of the Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Dio, UFO, Riot (not the Quiet one) Accept, Queensrÿche, Mötley Crüe, Ozzy, Poison, Dokken, Twisted Sister and of course Guns and F'n Roses! Those ten years of my life ruffly ages 15 to 25 were epic and every new hair band that came out I was a FAN! I didnt care, Winger, Warrant, Firehouse, White Lion, Cinderella, didn't matter. They were all epic to me. There was a place for them next to The Who and Hendix, Heart and Hoople! But then, as if the end of days had arrived, the apocalypse began and the unthinkable happened, Metal was dead at the blink of an eye.
The 1990's murdered my one true love! The end of the end! Grunge? Really? WTF? How could anything kill Heavy Metal??? It wasn't long though and I knew what teen spirit was, I had no idea what Kurt was saying but I didn't seem to care. For that matter I didn't know what Eddie or Chris or Anthony was saying either, I just knew I liked it! I missed my metal but grunge was happening, and the likes of Mother Love Bone, Alice In Chains and STP were permanent in my CD player. One thing about the 90's that was a first for me was that two genre's emerged that took rock into two distinctly different but just as likable directions and I loved it! Grunge of course, the other never really got a name that I ever heard but a very large class of bands was playing it. Collective Soul, Bare Naked Ladies, Blues Traveler, Blind Melon Candlebox, Brother Cane, Counting Crows, Drivin' N' Cryin', Sister Hazel, Spin Doctors, The Black Crows, The Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies, The Wallflowers, Tonic and Train just to name a very few. To me all these bands were very original yet had a very similar vibe to them that was kind of the yin to the grunge yang but was just as important to Rock and Roll. The first time I heard the songs Boogie King, I Lie In The Bed I make, and Heavy, I was hooked. Those bands deserved a genre unto themselves, lets name their genre dammit! But as good as those two genres were, they were in no way prepared for the millennium, none of us were...
2000-2010 The first time I heard "Whatever" I literally stopped in my tracks and every single note of that song pumped in my chest, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Dragula and Testify and What If were next and I knew something explosive was taking Rock into nothing it had ever known before. How can driving metal and rap music fuse without a nuclear blast?!? It did, thanks to Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Rage Against The Machine! As with all the decades listed above many of the bands I list started in the previous decade and these bands were know exception. Some began in the 90's and some even earlier, but the alternative metal/rock explosion took its place as the primary rock genre of the 2000's decade. grunge was dead, alt was in, the likes of Godsmack, Korn, Disturbed, Stained and so so many more amazing bands where suddenly mega stars and the world was taking notice of this angry white boy music. Even today a 40 something single mother of three on her way to the office in the morning is jamming to Shinedown, Crossfade, POD, Mudvyne or the Deftones. And regardless of what you think of him, every Rock fan should hear Great White World by Marilyn Manson. But as we got near to 2010 and the mega stars of the millennium started breaking up or fading out, I was for the first time in my life anticipating the next big thing. What was Rock going to do next? I had no idea, and sadly, six years into the next decade I still don't know...
As I wrote this there are 100's of bands that I could have listed, im sure 100's more will be as this blog goes along, but for now, and before we start talking about the first six years of this decade that I am still trying to figure out where in the hell is rock going, I have a question for all of you. A poll if you will. Of the first 60 years of Rock and Roll, where does your heart lie? Which of the 6 decades I described could you not live without? The proverbial island. If I put you on one and offered the complete works of rock music for any of the above mentioned decades, which would you take? Cant wait to see your responses!
