Why Is Rock Still Dead?

He definitely knew how to make what people wanted to buy. I own a ton of albums Mutt produced.

It's light years away from being an international culture. You need to have a personal history that rural Southerners can relate to, if you want to be accepted. Or you can just make something up that sounds like a Dolly Parton lyric.

Of course. He started out recording at Sun Records in Memphis, with the same recording engineer that did Elvis' first session.

One thing I can't forget is the cultural history. When those songs were new, there was almost no overlap between country and rock culture in the South. Country music people were the "nice" people who followed the rules and went to church on Sunday with their parents and grandparents. Rock fans drank, smoked weed, had premarital sex, and used profanity in casual conversation. In public high schools, the two groups hated each other.

To me, calling it all one thing sounds like cultural blasphemy. Especially now, when country music has moved even further to the right.

 

Granted, I wasn't alive back then, but what about outlaw country like Johnny, Willie, Waylon, David Allen Coe, etc? There was a spirit of rebelliousness and anti establishment that ran through classic country music, at least as reflected in the music and musicians, maybe it didn't extend to the fans?

 

Not in classic country was there rebelliousness and anti establishmentism. Most of the lyrics are about traditional values, religion, etc...( Edit; other than cheating and drinking, lol)

Willy and Waylon had to go to Austin to find an audience, Nashville would have nothing to do with them.
In fact Willy called up Waylon with the news that there were a bunch of long-hairs down in Austin that were digging their kind of music and talked him into going.

 

They had a niche following, mostly in farming areas. You know, every area has its social outcasts. Some outlaw country fans were bikers. Some grew weed or ran stills in the back country or in the mountains (see Steve Earle's Copperhead Road). Southerners who lived in small towns and big cities didn't have much exposure to that culture. Families who spent summer vacations at Nashville's OpryLand amusement park and went to the Grand Ole Opry (old location or new) didn't always admit to their church friends that they had a couple of Johnny Cash albums on the bottom shelf. He was like a guilty pleasure.

Lynyrd Skynyrd grew out of a large, unique neighborhood on the north side of Jacksonville, FL that was notorious for its high violent crime rate. Not the stereotype most people associate with the east coast of Florida. They had a large biker following.

 

I think I'd classify this as hard rock, but, this song will pick me up any time of the day under any circumstances. If rock and roll was uplifting to anyone then this IS Rock n Roll to me!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=njMgeThQvS8

 

When people talk about a best of Motörhead, they always be talking about them old 80s songs but honestly the best of Motörhead is right there on Bastards... IMO. :d

 

Well, I respect the early sabbath more now than I did back then, but at the time exposure to the juggurnaught of Hendrix's performance at Woodstock, the Electric Lady Land recordings and Band of Gypsys rendered a lot of pop rock offerings pretty dang trite for me.

 

When you read about how Ozzy joined that band it is hard to expect such greatness from them, but sometimes a band just got it. Iommi lost a piece of his finger that influenced how he had to play the guitar, Ozzy was such a weird guy he walked around with a shoe on a lease, they came from a boring depressing town (overall seems not to hurt if you wanna break out and rock the world though) yet they forged such strong songs and such a good solid sound. It is one of many examples that makes clear good rock needs something extra, sometimes hard to define. Something like the chemistry between the members that enables them to just do their thing, which then happens to be something truly unique and great, and of course rocks peoples tits on their backs for decades. It can be attitude, charisma or a strong idea of how the sound must be but often it seems there's a bit of luck invovled too. Like there wouldn't be this band and songs and highly influential sound if that (often obnoxious) weirdo with the shoe on a lease didn't drop by to become their singer.

 

Rock has developed in different subgenres. It is all rock but it is kind of segregated. But it is so diverse there's really something for everyone. Not everything by far is overly sleek (happily)

Is this serious? Ignore the stuff you don't like. It's not the only stuff, it's just the stuff that gets in your face (because there's so much music these days most is bound to not exactly do it for the critical music fan that likes/looks for specific things)

 

Many hard rock has the real rock 'n roll essence. It isn't nearly always something technical. Sometimes it is just about getting as loud as possible and get a message/feeling across

Here's one turn rock 'n roll took in the 90's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXCh9OhDiCI

 

Damn, took me only one song to get into it again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0NcCZmojUM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYsBvZRXF7A

I only love one album from this band, and I don't really dig much similar stuff either, but this album is amazing (this particular 'industrial' sound may have gotten old but they were one of the first that did it right). And it rocks!

 

I'm sort of serious, in that that's the kind of sick desperation I feel for the mainstream to celebrate things that are truly creative and inspirational. I guess some people think everything is just peach keen. To me it seems like a depraved, demented, hell on earth.

 

Frank explains why that ain't gonna happen...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP4wsURn3rw

 

Absolutely Fukin Spot on

 

Far from everything is peach keen but when we are listening to and looking for good music it is (apparently) an art to ignore the bad. Mainstream music has developed even more than it used to be to just appeal to the mainstream, the broad masses, the easy listener. It says not much at all about new music as a whole.
I also could be bothered with the mainstream and even resorted to a mindset that all the good stuff is only in the 'underground' scenes. I've come a bit around from that, although it still seems to me that the most interesting stuff happens outside of the mainstream I don't really think in terms like 'mainstream' and 'underground' anymore (except in convo's like this). There's good stuff to be found everywhere, sometimes we miss it because of our particular taste and sometimes we miss it because it is not in our face.
Music didn't become better in the last decade (the period in which my opinion and perception on music and rock as a whole changed), it is my perspective that turned for the better. It's much more pragmatic. To be clear: music didn't become worse either!! The bad stuff does not have to be a concern for you when you have found all the good stuff to listen to and be busy with. Even for people who like to play music and find out their sound is not 'hot' or 'in' (anymore) and get all annoyed about today's music scene because it leaves them less opportunity to make it big with their kind of music: Hey, do you want to make good music? Just get to it... Everything comes and goes.
It's not about selling records when you're in it for the tunes. There's no shame in working in a supply room to be able to keep playing the music you care for. It's all between people's ears. When you are into the good stuff, especially with other people, you realize it is all about the good stuff even if the majority of today's music seems bad (it is easily ignored when you're busy with the good stuff).

 

I actually don't see this happening all over the place. There are record labels for everything and sure they will refuse certain stuff because they don't see anything in it (sure this happens often enough), but it also doesn't keep everything without mass appeal from being released. I see lots of stuff being released, from new weird stuff that seems to just get a chance to old chewed out 'retro' stuff that will not gather every old fan of the genre but only a certain kind of crowd/record buyer. When we notice how much weird stuff is being released nowadays (the 'indie' stuff is only one but a very good example, it contains a lot of stuff that is 'in' now and people of record labels obviously want to take a chance with, but there's also a lot of stuff that is truly experimental and artsyfartsy and without mass appeal. There are whole other genres wher this is going on too. Of course when the industry has a hard time record labels WILL be more selective but it does not depend on the 'hired hippie' on the label) it seems to me what Zappa is saying in that vid is not the main issue these days.

 

Rock is far from dead. Whether its "mainstream" , indy, underground, sleek or rauncy, peeps are still making good music. Truthfully, I dont feel its the music thats dies, but rather, somthing inside an individual, that makes it seem that way.

 

People that have the feeling there used to be more good stuff and see less of it nowadays seem to be more picky and impatient when they see all the bad stuff right away but not the good stuff. It has not to do with any kind of dying imo. It seems if the rest of the world is not feeling the same way about (in this case) rock, rock must suck or be dying to them. While I have discovered (hey it works for me) that it does not matter what the majority or the rest of the world is doing. As long as there is a small minority that suits our specific taste and a bigger minority doing things that may not suit our specific taste but still can be recognized as good and inspiring forms of rock it is all good.
To dwell on the past for example is rarely a good thing. But if one favours styles or a scene from the past it is good to know that lots of others feel the same and that there is a continuation of that kind of music too. If one mainly craves the heyday of an older form of rock and scene, yeah, then you might be in for a dissappointment because the heyday of a scene is in the past. But when we think about it: is that love really about the music? Or about a certain atmosphere/group feeling?

 

Thats what I'm saying..when a style or "hey day" that an individual really likes and identifies with is over, one can certainly feel like something has died. But I agree with you Asmo..its best not to dwell in the past.