Thursday, January 14, 1999
Like a rock, genre lingers
in current recording trends
MUSIC: Hip hop, R&B integrate styles, methods with sounds
from old era
Over a long and particularly dry vacation, I found myself stuck
in front of the television far more frequently than I’d like to
admit. One notably dismal night, I happened across an MTV special
concerning the current state of music. Although the panel of
musical experts seemed a little skewed in its composition, being
made up of mostly hip hop and R & B artists such as Jay Z and
Usher, I decided to see what they had to say. Pretty soon, a theme
emerged: Rock is dead.
You hear that a lot these days. Marilyn Manson, a pseudo-rock
icon, has a song by that name. Wannabe musicologists trying to
sound informed toss it about in the press, and people murmur about
it in the aisles of Tower Records. People seem to think that
because rap and hip-hop artists have grabbed the spotlight for the
moment, that rock is long gone. Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, Big
Punisher and Jay Z all sell tons of records. As much as I hate to
admit it, Puff Daddy is a major player in the music world. Sure,
rap is huge right now.
Rock has been suffering, it’s true. Top-name bands such as
R.E.M., The Smashing Pumpkins and Hole all squeezed out new albums
last year, but the public’s response was less than overwhelming. No
one seems as passionate about rock as they were in years past, when
Pearl Jam concerts would sell out in 15 minutes, and you couldn’t
turn on the radio without hearing Nirvana’s "Smells Like Teen
Spirit." The big wave in alternative was the ska and swing revival,
with bands looking to days-gone-by for musical inspiration. Yes,
rock might seem to be in a rut.
Is it dead, though? No. Not by far. There might not be the
arena-filling crowds of the Beatles’ time or the guitar innovations
of Eddie Van Halen to wow a generation of pasty faced high school
boys, but rock is still alive and well. It’s changed forms, but the
torch of rock ‘n’ roll, ignited by Elvis, Chuck Berry or Ruth
Brown, or whoever you want to give credit to, is still burning
strong. It hasn’t been displaced by hip hop, it’s just undergoing a
lot of transitions.
Let’s take The Smashing Pumpkins as an example, shall we? If you
listen to the band’s earlier material, it sounds like a lot of
other hard rock and alternative bands. OK, a really, really
talented hard rock and alternative band, but the point is, it was a
pretty straightforward group with loud, energetic guitar and
growling, angry vocals. Smashing Pumpkins was a bulwark of the
alternative world five years ago, and its hits "Today" and "Rocket"
were staples of rock radio.
But hey, now it’s 1999; Jimmy Chamberlin has been replaced by a
drum machine, James Iha’s doing solo projects, and the sound is
only a faint echo of what it once was. The Smashing Pumpkins no
longer "rawk," its music just kind of cruises along. Different,
yes, but there’s still good rockin’ tonight, my friends. It’s a
much more electronic-y sound, a far cry from the high octane
scorchers fans were used to. Just because the drum sequencer and
keyboard have taken over for the guitars and effects boards doesn’t
exclude its music from the rock canon.
This change of instrumentation goes both ways, too. It seems
that hip hop, long rooted solely in funk and jazz, is beginning to
borrow from rock ‘n’ roll, as well. More and more bands, such as
Black Eyed Peas and the aforementioned Wyclef, are using live
instruments in their recordings, rather than samples. Those still
employing samples as the foundations of their songs, like the
ubiquitous Puff Daddy, are lifting more recognizably rock-ish
songs, such as Bowie’s "Let’s Dance" or Led Zeppelin’s "Kashmir."
The borders of rock aren’t limited to just 12-Bar blues
progressions any more – they’re encompassing a far broader
territory. This isn’t to say that rock is colonizing hip hop,
merely that its influence can be heard all over.
Yes, the times, they are a changin’, and so is the music. The
electronic feel embraced by The Smashing Pumpkins isn’t the only
way rock is branching out. One of last year’s highlights was
"Prolonging The Magic," the third release from Cake, which blends a
plethora of styles while retaining a rock-type feel. Cake expands
the rock definition with a vengeance, bringing together funk,
blues, country, and even a touch of rap here and there. The blend
of pedal-steel guitar and punchy trumpet is an odd one, but it
works. Rock ‘n’ roll has always stood for musical exploration, and
Cake’s offbeat genre-mixing showcases that quite nicely.
Even the swing revival has some rock elements to it. Notice how
much more guitar-driven most of the current jive-cat bands are, a
distant cousin to Louis Jordan and Duke Ellington. The Brian Setzer
Orchestra, currently up for three Grammys, is fronted by an
electric guitar, and Setzer’s wild yet precise fills imbue a unique
flavor to the horn-dominated swing band. By taking a 50-year-old
genre and adding in a timeless instrument, Setzer has changed the
flavor of the soup quite a bit. Sometimes it takes an eye to the
past to expand for the future.
So what am I saying here? Just because it’s not the same sound
as five years ago, rock is not dead. There’s still a lot of
vitality coursing through those veins – it’s just a different color
than before. When it stops changing, and stays stagnant for years,
that’s when rock will shrivel up and expire.
Hopkins wants to see a hard rock polka revival.
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