That Rock n' Roll; It Just Won't Go Away

  After Lorde’s win at the MTV’s Video Music Awards last month, I’ve realized our generation has little knowledge of what rock music is. While I have no problems with the successful teenage singer from New Zealand, her music is more commonly described as electronica, pop, or even the newly-coined term “indietronica”. (Really people? Really? Are we really going to stoop so low as to use words that sound like something a hipster college student says at Coachella when they want to sound like their musical knowledge is superior to that of their hipster friends?)

   Regardless of the new wave of music genres, I can safely say that rock is still very much alive today. Other nominees for ‘Best Rock Video’ at the VMAs include the Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, and Imagine Dragons, all of which have produced incredibly successful rock albums. As the Arctic Monkeys’ frontman Alex Turner drunkenly declared in his band’s acceptance speech at the 2013 BRIT awards, “That rock and roll; it just won’t go away. It might hibernate from time to time and sink back into the swamp. I think the cyclical nature of the universe in which it exists demands it adheres to some of its rules. But it’s always waiting there, just around the corner, ready to make its way back through the sludge and smash through the glass ceiling, looking better than ever.” Now, I know you’re just thinking about how gosh-darn attractive Alex Turner is (and yes, I totally agree), but his slurred words make plenty of sense. Rock isn’t the same as it used to be, and it never will. Unfortunately, there can never be another band like Led Zeppelin, with long-haired guys trashing hotel rooms and taking more LSD than humanly possible, but that’s perfectly okay. The golden age of classic rock remains in the 1960’s and 70’s, but we can still worship those legendary bands without sneering at the Strokes or the Foo Fighters.

watch turner's drunk acceptance speech here

       Rock has never only been about how deep your bass guitar is or how many guitar solos you can layer in one song; it’s about loud music that will show your rebellion against social norms and anger your parents. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been true for more modern rock music. When Nirvana debuted, frontman Kurt Cobain hoped his controversial, edgy lyrics and grunge vibe would turn away the kind of people who made fun of him in high school, but the band’s rebellious attitude attracted the same conformist a-holes Cobain despised and set grunge as the norm of the nineties. Furthermore, your parents won’t get mad about rock music blaring in your room anymore since that’s the music they listened to as a kid. Then they might end up telling you of a story from when they snuck out of the house to see the Who in concert and it’ll only end up angering you. Listening to loud rock music out of spite doesn’t even work nowadays.

       Nevertheless, a number of rock bands exist today that don’t deserve to go unnoticed. Although Tame Impala refuse to call themselves a rock band, their musical style is definitely a new-age psychedelic rock. The lead singer, Kevin Parker, sounds incredibly similar to John Lennon (but not Twist and Shout John

Lennon, more like Strawberry Fields John Lennon). While we can’t say Tame Impala are the next Beatles due to their lack of a boy-band, bubblegum-pop vibe, I feel as though they could very well be the reincarnation of the Beatles’ psychedelic-rock phase. That might sound like a big of an exaggeration, but if you get a chance to listen to their Lonerism album, you will definitely understand.

       Furthermore, we can’t talk about new rock music without talking about Arctic Monkeys. The English band has been making music since early 2000’s, and their style has evolved ever since. From their first album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, we get a mass of loud rock songs perfect for

headbanging and dancing to. Their third album, Suck It and See, has a very unique sound, with Turner’s low, almost soft-spoken vocals giving an interesting contrast to the fast, energetic drum beats and guitar riffs. However, with their newest album, an entirely new sound is introduced to music; The deep bass, slow tempo, and smooth guitar riffs contribute to the overwhelming success of AM. The whole album itself makes you want to wear leather jackets and smoke cigarettes at old-timey diners and act totally badass, giving an entirely new sound to an entirely new era of rock.

Along with these newer bands, a few rockers from the turn of the century still continue their reign of success, including the Strokes, the Foo Fighters, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. All three of these have still been producing new music, carrying their legacy on to a new generation. From the release of the Foo Fighter’s eighth album set to drop in November to The Strokes’ announcement of their return to the music industry, rock is exploding in modern culture. The NFL has been giving us a helping hand too, with their Super Bowl halftime shows throughout the past decade featuring Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, the Who, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. An average of 112 million people watch the Superbowl every year, especially including younger generations, so exposing them to rock is incredibly important to a genre that nearly faded from our culture.