"Oh look Darling..another rock band"......
I caught myself saying this to the wife while watching "London Live" a couple of weeks ago.
I don't remember the band, they were instantly forgettable in that Kaiser Cheifs sort of way, but my reaction did lead to no little musing, and this is the thought I finally arrived at.
The rock band as we know it is on its last legs, and has been slowly dying for about 20 years.
Consider the average band in 2008 compared with its contemporary in 1968.How much has changed? Very little, I'd posit. Even by 1968, the template had been in place for about 20 years with the advent of Muddy Waters Chicago band and Hank Williams country music equivalent. Young men playing guitars ,bass and drums.
If one follows the timeline through Rock n, Roll, British Invasion, California, Psychedelia, Prog, Punk etc, the formula remains untouched, and whenever vague stylistic, sometimes merely cosmetic changes occur, they are generally trumpeted as revolutionary.
They are nothing of the sort. The Sex Pistols had far more in common with Yes than they did with Glen Miller or indeed any other "legit" music of the previous eras.
As the road of the rock band has progressed, its paremeters have narrowed to such a degree, that the chances of a unit coming up with anything vaguely new are next to impossible.
The rock band was always going to be one-way street. None of the elements that could broaden it's scope (sophisticated songcraft, adventurous arrangements, the ability to improvise properly) hold any interest to the average skinny white rockster. There was perhaps a time when those elements were in play, but they were invariably abused by people using them because they were fashionable.
There will always be kids wanting to make a racket, and other kids willing to pay for it, but let's not pretend that anything is being added to the culture.
- More from shane pacey.
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I disagree
I think it's cyclical. You could easily have said the same about 18 years back - back then it was wall to wall shoegazing or dance music and people were decrying the death of rock when all of the sudden Nirvana go massive followed by Britpop in the UK (and say what you like about Oasis and Blur, for a time back then it was all just good clean fun).
It feels like todays stuff is just a stop gap until something else comes along - look at the Heavy Metal Kids documentary posted elsewhere: not only am I amazed that Ver Kids are getting metal bands together at age 11, but they can actually play their instruments and - most shocking of all - grow their hair.
Oh look darling ... another rock is dead post
Yes, Shane, you are right in my opinion. This theme comes up frequently here. I think it's probably our age, myself, as well as rock regurgitating itself.
When it appeared last week I referred to Stephen Merrit saying (in The Word mag) that Psychocandy was the last new thing in rock. A few of us thought he had a point. I think the last time I got that 'woah - what's this?' feeling (as opposed to the 'hmm, that's nice' feeling was when I heard Surfer Rosa for the first time. Can anyone come up with something more recent?
Then, is it just rock? I think that dance music has definitely evolved - though I know little about it. What about other areas - anything radical and revolutionary in jazz, folk etc?
I don't think rock is dead....
...I just think the rock band is a moribund medium, and self limiting.
Beck was the last artist that made me feel as if something new was happening, and he's not a rock band.
Something else WILL come along, but I'll be very surprised if it's a trad rock band.
Know what you mean
In putting together the "Now Hear This" I find my heart sinking when I'm confronted by another white rock band, each with its silly name and ready-made schtick intended to prove that they're somehow different. It's as if many of them think that being a rock band is somehow exciting in itself. That's why I'm always drawn to solos, electronic acts, music from overseas and anything that doesn't follow the same time-dulled pattern.
Elbow are obviously a worthy winner of the Mercury Prize but my personal pick would have been Burial because where they're going I don't think anyone's been before. And I think there are lots of terrific acts who don't fit into the band stereotype. Roots Manuva, Rachel Unthank, Lykke Li, Teddy Thompson, that Mount Analog tune on the current CD, lots more. Many of them are here.
Lykke Li is great
There is so much exciting gear around...
..no reason for anyone to feel curmudgeonly.
I'd love a band to come along and smack me in the face, but I know the chances are slim.
Even someone unlike me, who has heard everything can tell a rehash when they hear it.
"Everybody knows guitar music is on the way out"
.
They say it's gonna die
but honey please let's face it
Well we just don't know what's a going to replace it.
Nice quote......
...when was that again?
1962
Though I have to hold my hands up and say the quote's not quite right. It should have been:
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out"
they're on the wane, you know
according to this fine fellow in 1965
*edit* this looks like an offcut from Viz' 'UTA' corner...Don't care; it's staying!
Yes well...
...HIS band is still going strong, innit?
And to be fair...
...he was talking about instrumental acts like the Shadows. In which case he was probably on the money.
He was just trying to get..
..Brian Epstein out of his office.
If the band HAD signed to Decca, they would not have worked with George Martin, and things could have ended very differently.