83 You Hear that You Pogue?

As a young rocker, hell bent on pizza, women, music and pizza, I loved listening to all things rock and roll. Remember that? Back when you could say: "That's rock and roll" or " That's pop music" or "That's country"? That doesnt happen any more. Those were the 3'd glory days of rock.

Way back when the Fathers of Rock started turning folk songs and blues into Rock and Roll and parents, pundits and preachers were denouncing their sins, a glorious thing was born. It lead to a movement of the youth culture, self discovery and a wonderous expansion of young minds during the 60'd and early 70's. That's when we had our first hiccup. Folk music begat soft rock and sex and drugs begat disco. Disco stifled rock for a while and thank the gods, disco is dead. The 80's lead us to Springsteen, Van Halen, Foreigner, Bob Seger, Tom Petty, Meatloaf and about a thousand Hair Bands. Yeah, I know, the older guys have roots in the 70's but that stupid disco movement kinda overshadowed it for a while.

The absolute Gods of Rock(besides Elvis or Little Richard WERE born out of the 60's and 70's movement: Zeppelin, Beatles, Stones-all were and are, inspiration for generations of bands. I know, Dewey, I left out countless lesser-known bands, but in the interest of space(and I had to give you something to comment about) I shortened the list.

The mid to late 80's gave rise to pop. Boy George, the Go-Gos, Prince and....well, The Symbol is a good place to stop there.

The greatest time for me was the metamorphosis that came about from about 1990 on. Grunge was born, rock was both mainstream and edgy again and metal transformed into something that made me all warm and fuzzy inside. Pearl Jam, Niravana, Chili Peppers and others have moved up and on and mother rock has birthed us the likes of Korn, Linkin Park, Staind and so many more. These have now given rise to a couple good mainstreamers: Cage the Elephant, Silversun Pickups and a few others that have gotten their own sound instead of copying somebody good.

For many years I asked myself: "Where is Lita Ford?" "Why can we not have another Rock Goddess like her or Joan Jett?" Enter the new centuries' answer: Evanescence. Little woman, big voice. She had a sound of her own, little Amy Lee. Not just another cookie-cutter pop-tart. Its seems like "mainstream" music has become a plague, a pestilence on the music industry. Most country, pop, and what passes for plain rock have all morphed into some techno beat, whiny, synthesized crap that Milli Vanilli wouldnt even be tempted to lip-synch. Well, if half of Milli wasnt six feet under. He probably still wouldnt do it.

It's all about the marketing, the image, the computer generated sound. How many of those mainstreamers play their own music? Right. You see real rock bands in videos, still playing their own instruments. How many pop tarts do you see playing anything except maybe in a pool or with their back up dancers. It amazes me how most of these kids play into it, but they do. I suppose every generation's parents have wondered how their kids listened to "that crap" but this feels different. Kids(and us) have instant, free access to any music that you want. I know. "I would never download illegally". Yeah, right. Keep telling us that. I have a pretty decent library of music that I never paid a penny for. Artists have seen a huge drop in the CD revenues due to music sharing and my guess is that's why they have to be packaged into something every teeny bopper wants to be and every creepy old guy like myself wants to...well, let's just say.."Dear Penthouse".

So, they over-produce everything, basterdize several different genres of music so they sound the same and market the hell out of something that is remotely catchy so they can still milk dollars out of us.

It's hard to lose sight of the great mainstream bands that DO exist amidst all of this market saturation of post-music channel glam. I say that because it's so hard to find a music channel that actually plays music. Teeny's, Tweeny's and Twenty-somethings are seemingly into this "reality show" bullcrap, it seems that's why they have glutted the market with shows. Personally, I never got into the crap. Real life is interesting enough for me, I dont need to see a bunch of 20 year olds that are self-centered and dont want to grow up. So, sometimes, in the middle of the night, I get to watch some videos. YouTube is good for that too. See? The internet stealing TV and the music industry's thunder. Same reason music sales are dying. Why buy a cd when you can burn a custom one at home for pennies?

We have great concert bands like GreenDay and like them or not, Nickelback and a host of others. Last year I took the family to a couple concerts as it had been about 20 years since the last one. I had forgotten how a good band performed on stage, without all the computerized crap. Oh, they still had light shows and giant screen coverage, but they PLAYED music and SANG. Dewey will back me up on this one: a lot of the modern, mainstream wanna-be's sound good on VH1 but suck on a stage, that is, unless they're lip synching. I was personally unimpressed with Hinder for example. They sounded flat and didnt have much of a stage presence.

So, here we are again. Waiting for the next great rock and roll revolution. Like I said, it's hard to remember what we have now when they media pushes packaged crap down our throats, so take a minute and search your soul. It's okay to like some kicky be-bop from Lady Gaga, but dont make me gag-gag: you know rock and roll gets your blood going. Ladies: a well toned, shaggy singer, belting out a tune in his black t-shirt and 5 o'clock shadow gets your juices flowing, I know this. Guys: the manly, thumping, grinding beat makes you feel like a rock god yourself for 3 and a half minutes. Dont lose hope, these cruddy, canned, painted mannequins usually pass as another rock movement grows. In some ways the music always comes full circle. It doesnt always sound the same, but the messages come back and the feeling you get from the SOUL of it is always found again. The words dont matter as much as that feeling of soul, of the roots of it.

I cant bring myself to mention rap, r and b and whatever they call it now, other than to say I just never could get into it. I have heard some catchy ones now and then and I have fallen prey to them, but thank goodness, it was short lived.

Music is in the human soul. It's probably as old as sentient thought itself. Whatever kind of music you like, it's still a part of all us. Some people are hardcore country, rap, rock, punk, jazz, r and b, soul, adult contemporary, mainstream or what have you. I just think you have to have some kind of music to complete yourself. How many people do you know that dont listen to music? Yeah, me neither. Even old folks listen to one of the crappy local stations we have here. Sorry facebook friend Kim, your Dad's format just isnt for me, that's all.

Now, as this is the first time I've covered this vast subject, I sit back and wait, because I know a certain orange-haired music nut that will be sure to leave feedback as soon as he's out of his class for today. For the record, I will NOT be illegally downloading music today, just listening to it. Rock on.