How Rock and Roll Changed America - Essay Example

Rock and Roll is a genre of music that has evolved remarkably over the of the last half-century especially in the United s and the UnitedKingdom transforming and changing in tandem with the social and political backdrop of the times. The genre, as any other musical category does not exist or grow in cultural, social or political isolation and it has with time drawn strongly from several other genres such as blues, folk and classical music among diverse sources. Rock and roll lyrics in the early 60’s were mostly inclined towards love; nevertheless, numerous other themes were addressed either independently from or alongside romance. A noteworthy element of rock and roll in the 60s was that it was markedly inclined towards the musicality and authenticity of ideology unlike other genres such as pop. During this period, several other music varieties emerged bearing a distinctive rock music sub-genre feel such as RnB Folk rock and Jazz fusion among others. The period also saw the development of more specific music types such as progressive rock, this particular genre majored on artistic elements while glam rock could be said to emphasize showmanship as well as the visual technique. Notably, the diverse and enduring major sub-genre that is heavy metal has retained most of its initial attributes also was also introduced around this time, unlike the others it focused on the volume power as well as speed. Fashion In 1999, the metropolitan museum of Art acknowledged the role played by rock music in fashion in an exhibition running from up to 2000 in which the significant stages in rock and roll fashion were on display (Vogue, n.d). Fashion is one of the most important art forms and so is music as such it was only natural that the two are merged and the impact of the unity of the two was seen in performance of rock and roll from the onset. In its advent, the influence of rock and roll in fashion was seen in the clothes popularized by the early rock stars; Elvis Presley had his blue suede shoes, the Beatles in the British invasion brought with them their hairstyle, which influenced the American hair fashion sense for decades (Gritten, 1994). In addition, Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx and many others then also inspired tattoos that came in vogue around. In the 60’s, musical groups would wear stage uniforms made in expensive materials for stage performances and they would be identified with their particular looks which their fans often copied. In the mid 60’s, the rolling stones showed up and they introduced the tough leather wearing street image and are credited with being the first to cast aside the group fashion mentality. Each of them adopted his own style and they did not have to conform to a specific dress code or uniform, this spawned a myriad of fashion trends and actually brought about a split in the cultural scene where there were two groups, the mods and rocker. The former preferred expensive high end clothing and rockers went for jeans and t-shirts, the rockers clearly won in and even today, the fashion trend which they set in the 60’s is still dominant today among both artists and in the fashion industry. In addition, the late sixties, rockers embraced the hippie fashion, wore jeans, tie, and dye t-shirts, which became totem of the 1960s fashion. In the 70’s, when disco hits became popular the urban styles that were the epitome of fashion took a firm hold on today’s world and have continued to evolve over the years. Grudge was popularized by bands such as nirvana, which were characterized by a gothic look that is a major part of today’s performance of rock music both on stage and on the digital media. Surprisingly, todays rock stars such as Bon Jovi have not moved too far away from the 70s and 80s fashion and in his videos such “We weren’t born to follow” there is a distinct similarity between the rock stars in their faded jeans and t-shirts to their forerunners decades ago. In addition, the individuality that sparked off by the rolling stones is still a crucial aspect of modern rock music and it is only very rarely that one sees a rock band in uniforms with each of them trying maintaining his/their individuality. Today, most popular rock bands are made up of white musicians and in a way, it would appear to be white genre in the way Rap despite having white singers is popularly seen as a black dominated genre. However, retrospectively, many of the rock and roll singers in the early 50s were black, indeed Chuck Berry, a black one is credited as being the father of Rock and roll for recording the first song where the guitar was the lead instrument (Iwasaki, 2009). According to Altschuler (2003), the political context of the rock and roll movement engendered the new feeling or liberation and expression by the black were beginning to assert and identify themselves by their race. This caused quite a bit of conflict with groups of whites especially the white supremacist because they felt their “superiority” was in jeopardy due to the new black consciousness and the myriad supreme court decisions supporting integration and slowly eliminating segregation,(At least on paper). Furthermore, many whites during the times were accustomed to and valued the idea of separation of race and when forced to interact legally with blacks resistance was evident especially because the new generation of white youths were thoroughly enjoying the black music. In order to try to mitigate the effects of this “jungle music” as it was known by some, several methods were employed such as banning blacks from public media outlets with supremacists like the klu klax clan publicly disowning rock and roll. They tried to spread the message that the rock and roll beat would course the white youth to lose their humanity and dignity due to racial mixing. There was a lot of resistance, especially from the white majority and the fact that they had the financial influence final culminated in black records, as rock and roll was no longer being played in music halls and by dick jockey (Vanderknyff, 1989). The salvation of rock and roll came from the most unexpected quarters in white musicians impersonating the black artists in what came to be popularly known as “bleaching”. White rock and roll stars “cleaned up” the genre and improved on both sound and performance to the extent that it was acceptable to white parents. While parents let down their guard since music was coming from whites and then white singers like Presley Elvis and Jerry Lewis reintroduced the sexuality that had resulted in the rejection of the genre, by then the musician was too mainstream for parental or extremist disapproval to have any impact. Nevertheless, the effects of bleaching never really wore off as whiter singer’s entered the field, which they dominate, to date. Today’s rock stars and other musicians from different genres freely gyrate their waists and for most of the youths, this is seen as normal thing to do and is often seen to be just a dancing style as opposed to an overt way of expressing their sexuality. In the 60’s when Elvis pioneered this dancing move, he incurred the wrath of the public especially the middle age and older generations to an extent that he was censured (Wallace, n.d). He was prohibited on many occasions from performing on TV shows unless he stood still or agreed to be filmed from waist up so that his gyrations are not seen by the viewers an nicknamed “Elvis the Pelvis”(CSMonitor, 2013). Notwithstanding this, teenage girls soon begun to imitate his moves and this was seen as a way to express their sexuality, today, the idea of a rock star performing while standing still or being banned from wait gyrations is unheard of and is no longer considered controversial. The connection between rock and roll and a culture of hedonism, drug use as well as displays of violence and nudity as well as alcohol consumption is one that has stained the face of rock music from its formative years to modern times. The lead man for the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger may have has mellowed up considerably today but in his heyday, he was quoted saying that people get into rock and roll for the sex and drugs and anyone who does drugs and sex can do rock and roll (Bates, 2012). From such reasoning, it is easy to tell that drugs had become so entrenched in rock and roll culture to an extent that one of the world’s greatest rocker actually believed that the two were inseparable ((Miller, 2007)). In the 60’s Jimmi Hendrix is despite being one of the most legendary guitar players of all times (Lyke, 2000) credited for among other things making the guitar “scream” was notorious for playing under the influence and often used LCDs and heroin . Ultimately, in spite of his drug-inspired antics, he ended up following what has come to be a typical end for many rock stars; he died still in his prime from a heroin overdose (Roberta, 1992). Apart from great music, many rock stars over time have attempted to draw attention to themselves through a variety of onstage actions raging from mild, thoughtless to the bizarre. Krist Noselic in attempting a stunt threw his bass guitar in the air but could not catch it fast enough and it hit him so hard over the head he walked of stage in a daze (Bosso, 2008). In his tour “diary of a madman”, Osborne had a giant catapult hurling the raw entails of pigs and calf into the audience and during one of his concerts; he accidentally was smacked in the face by his own missiles. This is mild compared to the antics of Jesus Christ Allin, who admitted to desiring to put danger back to rock and roll and went ahead to do it and more, he brought the level of “madness” on stage to new levels. These included forced sex acts, attacking fans and he even once defecated on stage smeared it on himself and jumped into the crowd, he regularly smashed bottles and mutilated himself with the shard in the middle of a concert. He had promised his fans he would commit suicide on stage and from his actions, therein it would not have been surprising if he had, however a heroin overdose killed him before he could fulfil the promise. Once while performing in a concert, Ozzy Osborn bit off the head of a live bat and as expected, this elicited sharp critic especially from parents and animal right activists, this however almost turned tragic since the bat bit back and he had to get treated for rabies(Jamieson, 2009). While he claimed that this happened accidentally and he thought it was a stage prop, he did deliberately bite off the heads of doves on stage to “excite” his fans and this caused many Christian organizations to protest the action. In 1984, Ozborn and Nikki six; in a drug fuelled escapade once took each other on an extreme show of gross actions. Nikkis snorted an incredible line of cocaine and not to be outdone; Ozzy snorted a row of live aunts urinated on the other ants and proceeded to lick the urine (Virgin Media, n.d). In the 90s, Kurt the lead singer of nirvana was found dead in his room pumped up with drugs having shot himself in the head with a shotgun, this incidence created new awareness on the extreme gothic and morbid nature of rock lyrics (Casey, 2013). The Beatles were known for their electrifying and sometimes nightlong performances, what many people were however ignorant of was the fact that would at times use antihistamines and marijuana so they could sustain their performances for the long hours. Steven Tyler, the lead singer in Aerosmith addicted to using dozens of different drugs and in the bands heyday, they required that stages should provide small cubbies in which they could quickly snort cocaine (Erin, 2013). References Altschuler, G. 2003. All Shook Up: How Rock n Roll Changed America. New York: Oxford University Press. Bates, D. 2012. Trash the hotel early, take drugs to have sex, and make sure you know what city youre in: What 50 years rocking has taught Mick Jagger. Mail Online. [Online] Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2247312/Mick-Jagger-Trash-hotel-early-drugs-sex-make-sure-know-city-youre-in.html [Accessed 16/08/2013] Bosso, J. 2008. Nirvanas Krist Novoselic recalls infamous MTV bass toss. Music Radar. [Online] Available at: http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/nirvanas-krist-novoselic-recalls-infamous-mtv-bass-toss-183793 [Accessed 16/08/2013] Casey Mcnerthney. (2013) Kurt Cobain suicide scene. Seattlepi.Com. 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[Online] Available at: http://www.lagrange.edu/resources/pdf/citations/2012/11_Wallace_History.pdf [Accessed 16/08/2013] Read More