Got opinions? You sure as hell better be prepared to defend them or by the gods of rock and roll you will never get very far.
Just as social issues motivate them, rock and roll artists are often motivated by an awareness of some political imbalance. “Cap in Hand” is a song by Scottish group, The Proclaimers. It’s a song about how the Brits view the Scots, or how the Scots think the Brits view the Scots, or how the Proclaimers are warning the Scots not to think that the Brits view the Scots. There are levels of confusion. The Proclaimers say in the song that they can “tell the meaning of a word like ‘serene,’ ” and that they can “say Saskatchewan without starting to stutter,” and generally indicating that Scots are people too, in spite of what the Brits seem to think. In that light, the Proclaimers belt out that they “can’t understand why we let someone else rule our land? Cap in hand?” commenting that the Scots are just as capable as the Brits—no reason to submit to their rule. Rock and roll often comments on big-picture issues like this.
If you’re setting out to make rock and roll without some idea what’s going on in the world and without some reason you’re responding to it musically then you’re in the wrong fucking frame, mate.
Rock and roll often comments on everyday issues—domestic abuse, boredom, partying, confusion, growing up, growing old, marrying, shopping for groceries. This song by Fallout Boy has several messages, and one of them is how Fallout Boy themselves are a point of argument in the music industry. Are they sellouts? Are they real rock stars? Both? Neither? We’re not sure. What we do know is that the debate is hilarious to fallout boy, and the mere act of arguing about something like whether Fallout Boy deserves a little respect makes Fallout Boy laugh, and so they add to the argument, giving “weapons in the form of words” to both sides. They point out that the issue itself is silly, and they do it with a catchy song. Rock and roll often comments on social issues like the silliness of debating whether rock and roll is any good.
Double meaning is both important and irrelevant to musicians.
This is a song about Mary Jane. Mary Jane is slang for marijuana. It is also a girl’s name. The song tells the story of Mary Jane being too much for her small town lifestyle, moving to the big city, and blowing the boys away with her sheer attitude. From there, Mary Jane goes on to storm the rest of the world. It’s also a song about Tom Petty, the song’s writer, trying to get over his addiction to “Mary Jane” or marijuana. The song demonstrates several things about rock and roll. In no particular order: it demonstrates songs in rock and roll as vessels for telling stories, and for their stories to be demonstrations of double entendre and irony, so that multiple and ambiguous themes can be efficiently explored or hinted at inside only a little time. “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” also demonstrates a longstanding love/hate relationship that rock and roll has with chemical substances. A lot of rock and rollers, for better or worse and to different extents, have had drugs inform their lives.
The above five tracks demonstrate the most essential things to bear in mind to determine whether what you are listening to is rock and roll. They sufficiently describe the sound of rock and roll. The remaining tracks in this primer demonstrate the socio-eco-politic-artistic expression often present in rock and roll.
I strongly suggest that you either adopt an open mind or shut the fuck up.
Rock and roll has a long history of saying the things that a lot of powerful people would rather not hear. Furthermore, practitioners of rock and roll frequently to embrace their roll as a proverbial voice crying in the wilderness. Often, the majority misunderstands, or chooses to dismiss, the message that the rock and rollers are pushing. This song by Cage the Elephant is a prime example of the attitude. The lyrics describe the masses—the again proverbial “they”—putting down Cage the Elephant, declaring that they “ain’t got the style” and they “ain’t got the class.” “They” predict that Cage the Elephant will go down in flames, lost and forgotten. But Cage the Elephant retorts that their predictions “go in one ear and right out the other.” Cage the Elephant will continue what they’re doing. Not blindly, however. They’re confident that they’ve got something important to say—“if you listen to the words you’d find the message underneath.” Many rock stars have this confidence in their endeavors. “Damn the torpedoes,” the rocker professes, “full speed ahead.”
Rock and roll has at its roots the purpose of accompanying dancing. A great deal of rock and roll forgets that while trying to be something that challenges its audience to think, imagine, and create. Sometimes big ideas are unnecessary. Sometimes an infectious beat is the most important part of a song, as in this track “Le Disko” by Shiny Toy Guns. The lyrics mean little at best. They exist to provide a tune to the music.
Sometimes rock and roll is made of harsh noises, like guitar distortion. For some reason our artistic pallets have decided to appreciate them even though they are technically painful to hear. This is a peculiar point and worthy of a dissertation in itself and so I only mention it here.
Just because rock and roll does not require electric guitar, as my last track might have implied, I have included this song by Rasputina. As formative as the electric guitar has been to the overall sound and attitude of rock and roll, there is something deeper and more attitude driven about what rock and roll is. This is a song called “Draconian Crackdown” by Rasputina. The primary instrument in it is the electric cello, which is like, but isn’t, an electric guitar. “Draconian Crackdown” is about a fictional totalitarian regime making fictional raids and fictional policing actions. The attitude is very much rock and roll. There is music, there is poetry, there is loudness, there is an edginess, there is irony, story, and distortion. All of these things are a huge part of rock and roll and they can always happen even if the instruments used are different than the usual rock and roll instruments.
As ambassador of rock and roll to y’all, it is also my duty to suggest that you attend a show or two. Try the special brownies.
Whatever else it is, rock and roll is music—its chiefest instrument being the electric guitar. There are many exemplar practitioners of the electric guitar, many who have stretched what is possible with the electric guitar, the part technological, part mechanical, part medieval, all visceral instrument. There’s a great deal of debate about the greatest electric guitarist of all time on Earth, and a lot of good candidates. Criteria for inclusion include everything from an ability to play pretty music, a capacity for writing catchy music, technical proficiency, experimental prowess pushing what their instrument can really do, and who knows what else. Ultimately, the question of the “greatest” guitarist is a subjective one, and I encourage further exploration.
I have included the song “Far” by Coheed and Cambria. Their guitarist, songwriter, and singer Claudio Sanchez is an excellent example of the things that a good rock and roll guitar player needs: he utilizes the unique qualities an electric guitar has that other instruments can’t—feedback, distortion, reverb, etc.—he writes clever, catchy music, and he’s a damn fine player of pretty melody.
I have been elected as ambassador of rock and roll to you. Here’s the second track in my primer of rock and rolling.
This song has been selected for its demonstration of percussion. ”Iron” opens with a trumpet salute to set a mood of grandness. It gets you to sit up and pay attention. Then a complicated drum pattern starts. The drumming only gets more complex as the song barrels forward. The vocals and other instruments that enter are de-emphasized, serving to keep the drumming from becoming too monotonous. The focus of this song is the percussion, the driving drums.
A strong beat in rock and roll is absolutely essential, whether the beat is erratic—as it sometimes is—designed to encourage dancing—as it often is—or contrived to be enormous and impressive—as in my example. Even if the drums are not the main focus, a definite beat is required for rock and roll.
I just finished taking Cultural History of Rock and Roll at school. Part of our final was to make a list in response to this prompt:
Suppose an alien race landed on Earth, and they have learned English and how to communicate with humans, etc.. You have been declared ambassador to these aliens in charge of explaining what rock and roll is. What are the ten or so songs, artists, or albums you would give them and why?
This was how I replied.
Dear aliens,
In their wisdom, the human race has designated me—Oliver, one word, like Madonna—to ambass—the verbal version of the functionary “ambassador”—rock and roll to you, our new friends from far away. I have determined the twelve essentialest songs for understanding every important thing about rock and roll from the beginnings of all time. I hope you enjoy the attached mix CD—my girlfriend drew the lightningy things and the little smiley face. Here goes.
I have included this song because it is a good representation of every core aspect of the rock and roll sound. The song begins with a solid drum intro, getting you started with a good head-bopping beat, so that, if you are so inclined, you might shimmy along with the music. A catchy guitar riff begins almost immediately. Guitar and percussion are further explored below. The singing starts not long after, with the words “find yourself a girl a settle down,” starting the song with a common enough scenario and piece of advice, making it immediately relatable. The also catchy vocal hook—“steady as she goes”—is introduced inside the first verse. Then there’s a chanted repetition of the vocal hook, inviting the audience to participate, which always makes them feel good about themselves. The song continues on the same theme: the guitar repeats the catchy hook with enough variation to never become annoying, the lyrics repeat the theme of finding a girl and settling down without rocking the boat, but with enough color to be interesting and suggest that the singer—Jack White, one of our good ones—might be meaning the whole thing ironically. Even if he does, “Steady as She Goes” makes no demand that you try to figure that out. It’s just profound enough to be memorable, just loud enough to be hard, just fast enough to be hopping along and invite some movement if you want to dance, it has a catchy guitar hook and a catchy vocal hook, and a chanted section for those audience members who want to participate but don’t know the words. The song sounds and feels like rock and roll—it has all the necessary parts. There are a lot of things happening in the song, a lot of context yet to give.
Philosophy is boring as hell. It is a good tool for figuring things out, though.
This blog is a randomly updated exploration of classical mythological and literary themes in movies, books, music, and encounters I have with the world. I have classical analytical and philosophical training. Purely classical airations really annoy me, however. I like punk and grunge so much I can’t leave them out of anything. So while this blog has sincere analysis of literature, new and old, informed by Aristotle, Shakespeare, and old themes, all of my analysis has the voices of Kurt Cobain, Johnny Ramone, Rob Zombie, and their ilk railing along with Dickens, Camus, Flaubert, Scorsese, and Austen.
If you like that, stay tuned. Nothing shall escape me.
The Alien List, Track Eight: “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” by Fallout Boy
Dear Aliens,
If you’re setting out to make rock and roll without some idea what’s going on in the world and without some reason you’re responding to it musically then you’re in the wrong fucking frame, mate.
Rock and roll often comments on everyday issues—domestic abuse, boredom, partying, confusion, growing up, growing old, marrying, shopping for groceries. This song by Fallout Boy has several messages, and one of them is how Fallout Boy themselves are a point of argument in the music industry. Are they sellouts? Are they real rock stars? Both? Neither? We’re not sure. What we do know is that the debate is hilarious to fallout boy, and the mere act of arguing about something like whether Fallout Boy deserves a little respect makes Fallout Boy laugh, and so they add to the argument, giving “weapons in the form of words” to both sides. They point out that the issue itself is silly, and they do it with a catchy song. Rock and roll often comments on social issues like the silliness of debating whether rock and roll is any good.
Posted by olivershiny | January 28, 2012 | Categories: music | Tags: aliens, Fallout Boy, literary analysis, music reviews, philosophy, rock and roll, rock and roll primer, social commentary, song review | Leave A Comment »