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The state of ROCK


samal50

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Music---like many/most art forms---evolves around the technology that is used to create it. "Rock" grew largely out of the invention of the electric guitar and the trap kit. When it was discovered that 3 or 4 guys could make "music" using these instruments, they did. And they made music based on the capabilities of the technology. Rock sounded like it did because that's the noise those instruments made. Most of the early stuff was primitive and the mastery of the instruments and true artistry came later.

 

We're in much the same place now. EDM is a product of the technology. Once the technology is mastered, it will be up to the performers to take it beyond the primitive sounds and use and create real art with it. It won't ever sound like "rock" as we know it because it doesn't involve electric guitars and drum kits.

 

And they may not "play" their new instruments in ways that we traditionally think of music being "played" either.

 

Most of what evolves into the new dynamic/paradygym {or not,} will be elemental in nature,

primitive describes it in it's most immature form.

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Most of what evolves into the new dynamic/paradygym {or not,} will be elemental in nature,

primitive describes it in it's most immature form.

 

I chanted this at the moon by LED flashlight (it was windy) and I got a room full of jocks doing calisthenics. Stunk too. Now they're looking for food.

 

Make it stop.

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but is it really music, or is it something else?

 

My parents used to ask me that when I cranked up the Led Zeppelin.

 

 

I ask because I hear about 'beats', I hear about 'samples', but I don't hear about melody, movements, counterpoint, harmony...you know, the things I studied in college they told me were the underpinnings of music.

 

The study of music would naturally be the study of how the art and craft has evolved to that point. Not what directions it might take in the future.

 

My take on it all is that it's both OK for music to not be what it was 50 years ago and OK for us older folks to not like it much. Doesn't make either better or worse.

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Since Kurt Cobain, the guitar has been reduced to a prop to only look cool .....

We've stumbled onto an interesting point here, not that the guitar has become a prop and not an integral of making rock music, but the fact that Nirvana changed rock..............and sadly not for the better.

 

Since that time young listeners won't even use the word "Rock", they use the phrase: "I listen to alternative, or "I listen to Indie", and if you go to the 20 Billboard top rock songs, 18 aren't even going to sound like rock. More like some 80's influenced disco-pop.

 

This is even more striking to someone like me that grew up in the 70's when musicianship was very high, the lead guitar was king, and improvisation was a significant part of American music. But then I've always felt improv was a core part of rock from it's beginning and it's blues roots. Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and most of the founders of Rock had improv and musicianship in those early recordings and it stayed there through Hendrix, Zeppelin, Santana, Van Halen, Guns & Roses, up until the time that punk became mainstream. Just listen to "Rock around the clock" for the roots of the Rock guitar solo.

 

A musician from my age bracket once said to me "We grew up in a very special time, when musicianship and technology were at a place where how you played really mattered.............those days will never come again."

 

Please don't get me wrong, I come from a jazz-rock fusion background where skill on your instrument is paramount, I just don't see the young listeners today ever giving it much thought in the near future.

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Please don't get me wrong, I come from a jazz-rock fusion background where skill on your instrument is paramount, I just don't see the young listeners today ever giving it much thought in the near future.

 

Personally, I think everything goes in cycles. What is old becomes new again. Look at the neo-disco scene and the bands that are aping the New Wave sound. I don't know when it'll happen, but I'm reasonably confident that "neo hair metal" will be a thing at some point.

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I don't like the current state at all. There's 1 dimensional generic pop-acts disguised as rock bands everywhere nowadays- stylishly dressed hipsters with high-end flashy gear and polished over music videos. Nothing wrong with that but at the end of the day they all still sound like 3 minute generic crap with an extreme lack of guitar effects, solos, original structure or unconventional lyrics.

 

A good song is a good song but there's far too many acts out right now that are just lame as {censored}. They try to market certain singles or music videos and not actual albums or unique songs. Theres some good stuff but you have to dig deep to find it cause theres so much crap everywhere

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Albums? The album approach is as dead as a Generalissimo Francisco Franco, killed by the digital age and the new paradigm in music: release daily or die. No one can afford to take time and craft quality when they have to put out material constantly to remain in the public eye, unless they have already established a string of major single hits.

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I'm new here, probably not as experienced as some of you other folks, but I'd like to chime in.

 

I personally think(minus my bias for rock and roll from the 50's) Rock should go back to basics.

I've been to a few shows where younger guys(not oldies as most see) incorporate old 50's rock into a more modern sway.

Everything that becomes too technical, topples over and has to restart, likewise with rock and roll.

Let me give an example, Gene Vincents "race with the devil", sounds fairly dated if listened to it now, but they(the young group, I never got their name TBH, I was gassed and dancing with this blonde chick...anyways, moving on) took the song and added some reverb to the guitars and maybe a bit of distortion..Let me tell you, it makes the two guitar solos sound really really cool, all while still containing the sound of the original song.

As you know, back then, there was no distortion or reverb going through the amps, unless you of course count "train kept-a rollin" and "rumble", beyond that, what came out of the amps was just the regular old sound of the guitar.

 

So essentially the song has a bit of late 60's rock and roll, mixed with modern arena sound.

 

Personally, I believe for rock to make a big come back, musicians need to modernize old songs, restructure them, and then by the time they come back to a current generation, they will have perhaps developed new techniques and ideas.

 

That band sounded cool. Not only the guitar, but they had a full drum set as well which added more complexity to the song that it did not have originally.

 

We imagine the legendary song "jailhouse rock" by Elvis, perfect as it is and to be untouched...But what if you modernized it a little bit more..Maybe added some 70's esque metal sound to it, might be different, but if it's cool, it's cool.

And as a 24 year old learning the guitar, I kind of want to do that...Take the old and make it sound new with different complexities. Maybe it's just wishful thinking, maybe I'm onto something...Who knows.

All I know is that muse is one day, unfortunately, going to be considered "classic rock" and all of the awesome rock songs from the 50's and 60's will all be forgotten.

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