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Here we are on the brink on the new millennium, ready to step into the New World and adapt to the new environment of time. We shall be embracing new lifestyles, all of us; but we shall be leaving a big chunk of our past and present buried in the wastes of time. Rock n roll is dead? What started out as a revolution of the youth in the 50 s is right now an endangered species. Rock n roll had lived through its glory days and now stands at the threshold of its extinction. Throughout the latter years of this millennium, rock n roll had been gaining momentum, rising above all music forms and mutating into a religion of sorts, it had risen above its intended stature And subsequently it collapsed in on itself.
An event that was perhaps as magnanimous as the overnight extinction of the dinosaurs, but an event that has gone unnoticed by millions worldwide. It is no fallacy that rock n roll was the one of the biggest institutions worldwide. Reaching its apex in the 1980 s, rock n roll had permeated every facet of our lives. Rock n roll was everywhere, whether we liked it or not.
Opponents claimed that rock n roll was the devils advocate. They used the imagery of devil worshipping and chanting to defame rock. The church openly waged a war on rock components. Nevertheless the rock regime never let go of the Billboard chart ratings for over a decade, filling in the charts with scores of rock acts.
Television had filled our lives with entertainment, and entertainment was dominated by rock n roll; be it commercials, TV series, Movie soundtracks, Music Channels, even the News! The media was forcing rock n roll down the American throat and America loved every minute of it. Excessive lifestyles, Political meanderings, Stuffed toys and Action figures, Rock n roll was everywhere. MTV was another invention of the eighties which was a direct result of the Rock boom. Perhaps both MTV and Rock n roll shared a symbiotic link, Rock n roll fuels MTV and MTV in result spoon-fed loads of it to a Mass audience previously totally inaccessible.
Teenagers were the ones to be hit the worst. Until now, Rock couldnt invade their young minds because of the somewhat scrutinized upbringing by reserved parents, but when MTV hit the screen, Rock was easily accessible to the millions of its new converts. It is ironic that it was MTV that led to the death of rock n roll. Almost overnight MTV shut its doors on rock and declared war on all that rock ever meant. Gone were the hair boys, the Glam bands, gone were the heavy metal videos, and instead MTV became a home for the new wave teri of alternative music.
Bands like Poison, Winger and Warrant disappeared overnight. It was no longer cool to have teacher long hair. It was a sin to know how to play your instruments. MTV forced rock out of the American heart.
Documented in the April 1997 issue of Guitar Player, Reb Beach [Guitar player for WINGER] commented You could never anticipate that at the very moment youve made your best album, the tide would reverse and what youre doing would become totally uncool. I remember sitting on the bus three weeks into the PULL tour and seeing this new MTV show called Beavis and Butthead with a 300 -pound, zit covered kid wearing a Winger ma T-shirt. Our sales stopped cold. We were packing clubs and it started dying.
By the time we got to Pittsburgh- my hometown- there were 150 people at our shows. People say that Beavis an Butthead made White Zombie. Well, they definitely broke Winger. The old age of rock bands like iron Maiden and Judas Priest were on their last legs.
Creatively on a downhill, and with leading members like Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford [respective vocalists] jumping ship, Heavy metal fans were becoming dissatisfied with what was happening to their idols. The music was low on energy and the ideas were old and clichd. New bands in the same vein werent accessible due to the MTV outage and the general media backlash towards rock n roll. So the youth turned their attention towards the upcoming new music form. Alongwith Alternative music, Techno, industrial, electronica, all became huge hits worldwide. Feeding off the death of rock n roll as we knew it they invaded all that rock n roll had ever built upon.
Even Guitar Magazines dropped the Guitar Players of yesteryear's and started to capitalize on the new generation of players. Virtuosity didnt matter anymore, Marketing packages did. I personally stopped buying magazines when Prodigy appeared in a cover story in Guitar Player, one of the biggest guitar magazines in the world. The November 1993 issue of Guitar World, another leading guitar monthly, had these words on the cover: SHRED IS DEAD. Shred was the term used to describe high energy, virtuosic guitar playing, and with the declaration of the death of shred, Guitar magazines inadvertently declared the death of rock n roll. Editor in chief Brad Tolinski wrote In a recent cover story, guitar Player magazine anemically posed the question Is Shred Dead?
Meanwhile, a cover line on the August 93 issue of Guitar For The Practicing Musician implied that shredding was indeed doomed. Further proof of the death of rock n roll can be witnessed in the record sales figures. Barring few rock acts like Mettalica and Megadeth typical rock acts have not been able to crack either the gold mark or into the record charts. Back in the eighties rock acts used to share the top positions with multi million sellers like Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston. Bands like Van Halen had a string of no 1 singles. Even pops act used rock stylings in their music, incorporating Heavy guitars and a big drum sound.
Taking a look at this 1993 CONCRETE CORNER ratings show that very few rock acts made the cut. Most of the bands in this predominantly rock chart ratings scheme are either alternative, punk or industrial: Artist Title This Week Blind Melon Blind Melon 1 STP Core 2 Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream 3 Soul Asylum Grave Dancers 4 Aerosmith Get a Grip 5 Tool undertow 6 White Zombie Undertow 7 Pearl Jam Ten 8 Also, the party scene worldwide had discarded rock from its agenda. Part music now incorporates predominantly Electronic Music, programmed on computers. Sterile sounding, monotonous, but with a huge bass sound and a thumping groove, party goers prefer this new sound to the dated 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 grooves of rock music. The continuous thump of the bass drum along with the droning low register bass lines get the people in a trance like state, which enables them to dance for hours.
With the rise in the college level hardcore drug usage, this hypnotically suggestive music is a big hit with revelers all along the world. Where once huge world tours took rock bands to audiences worldwide, now DJs armed with a handful of party equipment setup party destinations across the world to engage huge parties. Party destinations have included Goa [India], Madrid, Manali [India] in the last few years. Conclusively, it is not difficult to say that rock IS dead. With the media ignoring the few left survivors, and the change in public tastes worldwide, it is easy to predict the total eradication of the Rock bug by the turn of the new millennium. But I wouldnt exactly say that.
Rock n roll faced a similar predicament during the late seventies during the Disco invasion. Punk and Disco had totally captured the world music market and forced rock out of the picture for a decade. But when rock n roll resurfaced it took over the entire world in the 80 s. Maybe we are witnessing a similar trend. Even now, rock is gaining momentum in the underground. Bands like Dream Theatre are cult figures in the NY area.
They have managed to build up a worldwide base of fans through dedicated touring and releases in Asian countries. The club circuit is again starting to pick up rock acts. Maybe this is a gestation period for Rock n roll, or maybe its the last stage. To be sure one has to look into the future from their vantage right now. As of now, we are heading into the new millennium with the knowledge that Rock IS dead. But it COULD rise anytime
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Research essay sample on The Death Of Rock N Roll
