The Rise And Fall Of Classic Rock
Classic rock is music without frontiers, it is music that was created devoid of any expectation beyond creating a great record.
Just as Beethoven, Bach and Mozart never sat down and said, I'm gonna writesome classical music today, neither did Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin or Robert Plant ever woke up and say I'm gonna write a classic rock song today. But they accomplished it anyway because they understood the first law of rock and roll; "be true to yourself"
Whether you like Taylor Swift, Biggie Smalls, Madonna or The Rolling Stones, music is arguably a necessity of life. However, rock and roll can be considered one of the most influential of all genres.
There was a golden age of classic rock. A decade-long span that stretches from the glorious forces of FM rock radio in the late 1950's, to a point somewhere in the mid to late 1970's.
In the 1930's Swing was all over the radio and quickly evolved its various black musical genres such as the blues, this music later led to the music of the 1950's.
if you look at the history of rock in strictly linear fashion, it is clear that music moves in five to seven-year cycles we think the original rock and roll era was from somewhere around 1955. In this time music started to be sung by both blacks and whites, and the phrase "rock and roll" was first used to describe
the new kind of sound.
People like Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and the king himself Elvis Presley, tried to sing and play something never done before and with that kind of thinking rock and roll was born.
By the 1960's rock and roll was losing it's popularity in the United States. However, thousands of miles away in the depths of England. rock just got big.
The first record to make number one in America was I want to hold your hand
in 1963. Then, from there the Beatles popularity began to rise across the
globe. Wherever they went they brought Beatle mania with them, so thus the Beatles were born, and as they say "the rest is rock and roll history".
During the 60s the beat boom, also known as the British Invasion, brought some of the biggest rock and roll artists ever like The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.
In the beginning of the 60's, songs of flower power, world peace and love, were being sung to the youth of America. However, by 1967, the three year old
Vietnam war had turned ugly, and so did music. in the musical world, music had
changed drastically in emotion as well.
The Beatles went from Mr. Kite and girls in the sky with diamonds, to foreign guns, blistered fingers and weeping guitars. and in 1967 the Rolling Stones were singing of lanterns and rainbows and singing it all together, but by 1968 they sang of scorching the earth with jumping jack flash and songs of sympathy for the devil.
Other artists of this era included; Bob Dylan, Queen, The Doors and Jimi Hendrix.
As the 60's were coming to an end, the decade went off with a bang with Woodstock on August 15th 1969. Woodstock was described as an aquarian exposition, three days of peace and music, and attracting more than 400,000 people across America.
In the 1970's rock and roll flourished and there was nothing that could slow it
down. The seventies weren't as simple as the 50s or 60s,. Rock was becoming more than just blues and music of the soul, it turned into an industry, and more
genre's of rock began to pop up.
As sub-genre's came in the original name of rock came to an end. Genre's such as hard rock (the mix of electric guitars, lots of distortion, bass and heavy drums came in. Most famous for their hard rock was; AC/DC, KISS, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and The Ramones.
Another genre, acid rock, worked for any band whose music could play off the effects that decent LSD could induce. music that people in tie-dyed shirts danced to guitar solos that were the length of a Broadway.
Another genre was satanic rock, a way of transcendental meditation through music. People could be scared by a horror film, but couldn't they easily be scared of a rock band as well? Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath seemed to prove that true.
And one last type of rock - the last type of rock before pop rock, was glam rock. It originated in Europe and consisted of large amounts of makeup, platform shoes and those big extravagant outfits that David Bowie obviously didn't seem to mind.
The 70's also brought in solo's of all shapes and sizes lasting from 1 to 20
minutes. In the movie 'The Song Remains The Same', Jimmy Page let out his infamous solo to 'Stairway To Heaven' the guitar solo is a staple in rock
history of the 70's.
But the seventies had its downfalls as well. In the year 1970, The Beatles broke up, all going their separate ways leaving the world in shock. Luckily, The Beatles, (being one of the greatest bands on earth) can linger on forever
in music history.
By the later years, genre's such as punk rock and new wave came into play, and the idea of singing from the soul started disappearing, and the idea of singing for money grew. Time and place are irrelevant, and so are music labels and how much money you make on your record. All that matters is whether your music hits people hard, and classic rock does.
The sound of a cash register became more and more important to music industries from 1977 to date.
Sadly, in the late 70's, although classic rock was in its prime, it died. But as
people say "all good things must come to an end". Artists like Madonna, Blondie and any boy band you can think of, took the spotlight away from Rock and more towards Pop.
Another reason for the death of classic rock, is the death of the vinyl and the birth of the mp3. Who could ever imagine people actually left their house and lined up down the block to get a copy of the newest album? Today people
have to log on to a website, and download the thing, and now what do you get?, an icon on your desktop?! Losing the feel of possessing a beautiful double-sided vinyl album with a piece of art on the sleeve.
The last reason for the death of classic rock, was the emergence of new technology like synthesizers, computers and mixers which took away from the idea of actually playing your instrument. Technology is not evil, the real problem is when people suddenly realize, although a song may suck, you can add an auto-tune chorus, bump up the electronic drums, a bit of a run on keyboard beat, and the people's ears won't hear how bad the song really is.
Music makes you, shapes you, music even determines the kind of person you'll
grow up to be, which in the 60's and 70's was fine, they were all deadheads. But today, can you even imagine how a person will turn out listening to this
generation of music?, would we even want to know? Life changes, the music does as well, for the better or the worse depending on your taste.
Maybe someday some band will come around and bring back the dormant genre of music we call classic rock.
תגובות