Entertainment For Lively Minds
Rock is Dead (and getting a little dusty)
Does this development in the world of rock finally signify that pop has finally eaten itself and that rock music can no longer claim any connection to its "rebel without a clue" origins?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7740078.stm
There is now to be a "British Music Experience" interactive museum exhibit which will open at the O2 in London in March. It is intended, of course, to be a major new tourist attraction for the city.
Pop and rock music of many (practically all?) sorts was originally designed with an ethos which firmly held up one (or two) digit(s) to the establishment, to your parents and to the status quo. Anre remember that encompasess a broad church from rock and roll to heavy rock to prog to disco to punk to new romantic to nu folk to metal to grunge to whateber. Now that same movement/art form is to get its own V&A equivalent (or is it its own Madame Tussaudes?) - with all the requisite interactive buttons for the party of school children on its day out to press.
Isn't this what the "Hard Rock Cafe" was all about - seeing some dress worn by Diana Ross ina video, or Prince's left over jock strap...
Can the world or rock still claim to have any real cutting edge, agent provocateur, iconoclastic edge when it has its own museum and heritage industry into which it buys. Of course we've all known that the rebels were, indeed, without a clue. Elvis the corruptor or a nation's youth was, of course, later asking to be an FBI special agent to protect young America from the evil of the Beatles, Who, Stones and the like. The Who, naturally saw salmon framin as a preferable alternative to dieing before they got old. The remaining members of the Fab Four are rolled out for any rentarockceleb extravaganza while (persumably now) presiding over a veggie fast-food empire and voiceovering Thomas the Tank Engine (yes, I know it's Our Lucien now but still). The Stones are now the world's premier Rolling Stones covers band and defacto landed gentry/Hello fodder... but still... Rock was supposed to be all anti-establishment wasn't it? "Rebel without a clue" indeed.
Not that I'm dissing or disparaging the idea. I'm pretty sure that I'll end up going along at some point before long, and bringing my guitar obsessed nephew along too. However, it does seem to undermine any claim that rock might have had that it's not just corporatised and sold out.
Maybe its time for all us radical music types to rediscover a new music revolution de jour? Yo, dig that rad Gregorian chant, dude, it's well book!
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Wasn't this done many years ago in the Trocadero in London....was it called Rock Circus??? Pretty sure it was Tussauds that did it.
Rich
It's a point of principle with me...
... to avoid any museum/exhibition where the name include the word 'experience'.
which of course makes me wonder
what the Curators of a museum dedicated to Jimi Hendrix would ever call their attraction...
Cutting edge?
Was 'rock' ever cutting edge? Is this not one of the orthodoxies trotted out, like 'Punk killed prog rock'? I can't think of one song or musical act which lead to any change (good or bad) in people's lives, unlike politics or financial upheavals. I believe for most people music is a pleasant interlude to break up the monotony of work etc. The only people who seem to believe this nonsense, then get upset when they see modern acts failing to live up to the likes of the Stones, Velvets etc, are dull rock fanboys like Bobby Gillespie.
By the way, did anyone catch the Lennon show on Sky Arts last weekend - 'Gimme Some Truth'? The film is based around the making of the Imagine LP, and had some truly cringeworthy scenes, particularly when, among others, Tariq Ali was discussing the lyrics of 'Imagine'' with Lennon. As usual, the only Beatle to come out of this with any dignity at all was George, who was funny, especially when the 2 ex-Beatles were teasing Phil Spector.
Rock museum...
Wasn't there a 'National Rock Museum' or the like in Sheffield a few years back? Went tits up in short order, of course...
Some thoughts
Cutting edge in pop is relative - I mean it may have existed occasionally, but was really behind the times as had already been more radical experiments in classical and jazz before pop and rock 'n' roll as we now know it had even really got started and pop was copying those experiments to some extent and putting them in mainstream - this spreading of such ideas among the wider populace was significant I would say.
It's wasn't hard to stir things up and cause a bit of controversy in a pop world and society that was so conservative - because raw rock'n'roll was being compared with something so mild. Like swearing on tea time TV, as Sex Pistols did. Then again most people did just get on with lives unaffected by all this cultural carry on. They didn't bother much about the avant garde. Yet it did come through without most really realising it.
As for rebellion, well teenagers came into being and their music was an expression of their feelings of angst, but of course this was exploited for business purposes, which we should be thankful for since it led to records being made. The youth also rather naively thought they could be part of revolution in society, which music was thought to be a valid vehicle for by some. But naturally this becomes rather hard to take once rock stars are making big bucks and reaping the rewards of show biz success. Nevertheless there was a genuine wish for a better world (from counter culture) and I would say some good came out of all that (and bad no doubt), but was pop a cause or effect? Bit of both maybe but not really the main source, but it did help spread the word.
I would say the real change was in our way of life, our attitudes - we got a freer world but also a more selfish one. Rock stars and their fans wanted to be free - but for many it was mainly so they could have a good time as much of the time as possible, to paraphrase Spinal Tap. A revolution for more hedonistic opportunities more than anything perhaps? Fight for your right to party indeed. I do think it was all more than just entertainment and show business though.
But all that's been and gone, and is all tied up with so much myth it's hard to say what really did happen. Such is history I guess. It does all seem to get packaged up and analysed a lot quicker than it used to.
Some more ruminations to cast out into the void.
I realise this isn't really a response to original post. Just some thoughts that came to me reading it and other comments plus post about Rock Dreams. Wasn't sure where to put them. This seemed as good a place as any, though I'm sure many would advise keeping them in my head.
As far as the future of rock goes - well at least we can focus these days more on the music of the past that we still haven't heard and a bit less on the baggage that came with it, though some of that will adhere. And fine new music still happens.
Nothing like a good ramble on a Saturday afternoon is there?