Time is soon going to be up for my assignments. I hope I can get it done on time. I've been listening to a lot of rock music lately. It's a phase I go through after a couple of months where I keep changing my genre of music. I've done a jazz post before this and it's time for me to do a rock post! :D
Once upon a time, the world wanted a nice clean record. Something that has a good balance of sound without having levels to peak. Something pleasurable without having to hurt ones ear. But, they never knew that the day would come where someone would intentionally boost his guitar amp to get a really harsh tone to play really angry tunes. It was the day that distortion and rock was born! :)
Legendary rock groups like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, etc. started to hit shelves. A new genre of music that pleased the angry bunch of people who wanted to express every feeling of hate in them. Screaming vcocals, heavy banging on drums, simple riffs, lightning speed solos and head banging were the esentials for rock. So, what happens when you get a whole bunch of angry people swarming every rock gig around town? You'll have a bunch of good people telling you "ROCK IS EVIL!" :) I'm going to go off topic here for awhile because I really need to stress this to a bunch of people.
I remember the day when an uncle mine came to visit my family. He knew I that I played guitar and he decided to strike a conversation with me. He asked me what music I was listening to and I told him that I have been listening to alot of rock bands like Nirvana, Metallica, etc. He said, "Oh... better don't listen to so much rock music, it's satanic." I kept quiet and replied "Er.. ok..." and he went of. My dad happend to be there and he said this to me "Oooooooh... rock is satanic you know? Don't listen to it you know" in a very sarcarstic way. I couldn't help it but I started laughing :D Come on, be realistic, true enough music does influence you in a lot of ways but I've always believed in family teachings. If you're screwed in the head because you're brought up that way, you're definitely screwed up for the rest of your life. It has nothing to do with rock. I have a bunch of friends who listens to bands like Marilyn Manson, Sepultura and other hardcore goth bands around but I don't see them worshiping satan? I even have a friend who doesn't even smoke for crying out loud and he listens to more rock than I do! There are bands out there who worship satan and all but it's totally up to a person to make his own decision. A good example would be this, everyone knows that guns are dangerous. If I leave a gun on a table, are you going to use it to go around shooting people? or are you going to use it for security purposes? You might as well say that the gun is made by satan himself because it has brought a lot of death but you'll look at it in a different way when a cop saves your life when he shoots down a criminal. In fact, listening to rock music helped me go through difficult times without having to break anything or throwing my temper at someone. My dad has been exposed to more rock than me and he has thaught me to help people who are in need. So did rock stop my dad from doing charity work? No it didn't. My dad often donate clothes to the needy and I think rock opened him up in a lot of ways because it does cover the facts of life and how difficult it can be at times. :)
Okay, back to the real topic itself. I know music has evolved to a point where it is difficult for us to categorise because of having different elements merging into it. The sad part would be rock is not what it used to be anymore. If you listen to STP, RATM, Live, Korn, etc. you'll noticed the wide dynamic range in that piece of music itself. A couple of songs that has really good dynamics would be Live - Lightning Crashes, A Perfect Circle - Three Libras, Soundgarden - Blackhole Sun and many more. Tone is also missing out from a lot of rock bands lately due to technology advancements like the digital multi-effect boards are one of them. Most of these boards have amp simulators. What are amp simulators? They are a set of mathematical calculations to simulate a particalur amp model on how it behave and how it sounds like but it will never replace your conventional guitar amps that you have, tone wise. There is one particular album that I love listening too because of its warmth is Korn - Life is Peachy. Pay attention and you'll noticed the warm tone you get from it. What I'm trying to stress here is rock has lost its sound. I do listen to new bands like Maroon Five, Jet, etc. but it doesn't appeal to me as much as the old classic rock bands from deep purple to Korn. The only bands that I don't listen to is Hoobastank, Good Charlotte and whatever so called rock bands that are out there. They sound cheesy and I just can't stand them and I would rather listen to Rod Stewart, Michael Bolton and Eric Clapton anytime. It's just my own preference.
At one point rock was dead and boy bands took over the scene. Rock came back to life after that but it became gay. *sigh* Why is that so? It's because of money and not for the passion of music anymore. Most rockers would stick to their oath which is to play because of the music and the passion but I guess not anymore. Times have changed. :( Everything I wrote in this post is my own views about the whole rock scene so comments are welcome and everything IS subjective.
