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Lowbrow
Aristocrats Feature Departments
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Rock 'n' roll has seen better days. We all know this. Since the end of Grunge, rock music has not been able to create a mass movement capable of influencing society... instead it has been left to imitators and pop stars. What we now have is a vampirish sucking of sound by the Creeds and Nickelbacks as they take the last ounce of what Grunge left. Grunge is gone, rock is barely existing in the Phantom zone, all these bands know is how to imitate. They have succumbed to the lowest level, feasting off of one another's borrowed sound. I love rock'n'roll, I really love it. I have immediately written people off because they told me that they didn't like the sound of the distorted guitar. I may have been harsh, but I still can't imagine trying to talk to someone who would rather listen to the cold electronic sounds of rave music than the sweet gravelly sound of a distorted guitar with ear piercing feedback.
Now before I go too far, I will give these radio rockers a bit of credit. They are able to write music that a large mass of people are able to enjoy; their melodies are sometimes even catchy. I doubt that any of us has not had a Nickelback melody stuck in our head... it's ok to admit it... I can force you to. Who among us cannot recall the melody to the song that mentions "the bottom of every bottle?" That's a problem. They are able to write melodies that even the most unmusical person is able to retrieve from memory years after hearing it. That's what keeps them popular. On the flipside, understanding what the popular sound of the day is and copying it to death is not very tough. Mozart could imitate the popular music of his time, making a mockery of it when he was only 6. The saddest thing about today's radio rockers is that they are unable to create their own sound. One of the defining factors between good and bad music is that good music has a characteristic sound. A good musician has an idea of what he sounds like and how he wants his sound to be projected. The White Stripes aren't very talented musicians (sorry El Hombre...they aren't). But they understand their sound and are able to use it to make their music good. Sure they sound like 70's rock, but they do it in their own way. There are countless other musicians; Nirvana, the Pixies, and even Tom Waits aren't going to be remembered for their great musicianship, but instead for the sound they created. It is sad when a band who had a sound reverts to the LCD. The prime example of this is Metallica. To start, I have no respect for anyone who says they like Metallica's recent albums...anything after the Black Album and even then there are some issues. Metallica kicked ass. Somewhere along the line they stopped doing everything that made them good and instead became another soundless band. Perhaps they thought they were evolving their sound, but all they did was become more radio friendly, and make more money (that's not an acceptable excuse for writing weaker music). The need to evolve sound is a natural progression for music and musicians. Bands with sounds continuously have to push what they have created to stop from becoming stagnant. That is generally a good thing. Music needs to evolve. Great bands can't write 10 albums that all sound similar. Rage Against the Machine wore thin by their second album. U2 has sounded more or less the same for the last 15 years (minus Zooropa). The Beatles were a prime example of a band who knew how to write songs that you couldn't help but like, had a very distinct sound, yet felt the creative urge to make their sound evolve. They could have continued to write bubble gum rock tunes, but they realized that bubble gum quickly loses it's flavour (that hurt me to write). The Smashing Pumpkins, a favourite band of mine, were one of the artistic leaders of the grunge movement. Like many other bands they found their sound during their second album (don't ask me why, it just seems to happen this way)...Siamese Dream. This will always be a classic. Their next album, Melancholy and the blah blah blah was a natural progression that expanded the realm of their sound and gave us another masterpiece. However, Billy Corgan continued to push the evolution of his music...so much so that he dropped what was good about the band: their ability to fill space with a wall of sound. He tried to progress music, but surpassing one's musical boundaries is not quite as simple as having a distinct sound. |
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