I was walking through school today and a kid said "niiice" and pointed to my Beatles shirt. This kid is the classic rocker with his slim build, shaggy hair, and stereotypical diction of "man", "rock on", etc. spilling out of his mouth. And it made me think, why has rock seemed to have disappeared into the oblivion of pop and dub step. If you were to go back definitely to the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s you would see a substantial population of rockers, even in the 90s with the alt rock coming in, people still held fast to the rocker definition of not caring what people thought and doing what you want, wearing what you want, BEING what you want. Yet in the past ten years this way of life seems to have completely disappear. Today people only listen to what's on the top 40, and as one artist falls off the chart, they soon forget completely about the band or artist that they were totally in love with last week. With rockers, you find the band whose sound, lyrics, ideas, etc spoke to you and you stuck with that band even if they were no longer popular. As long as they didn't change their sound and the music still spoke to you, you went to their concerts, bought their albums (not just ONE song off iTunes, which is KILLING bands by the way, please by from record stores when you can, the people actually know what they're talking about). Just look at the dead heads, they are so loyal and followed the grateful dead from show to show because they wrote songs that spoke to those people ( as we see with Lindsey weir and Kim Kelly in freaks and geeks as the follow the dead with their new friends hitting shows all over the country in 2 weeks). Last time I checked, I could relate more to just having a bad day and it being okay like "I don't want to live today" by the ape hangers than these sugary pop songs about being in the club every night(and if you are a 17 year old like I am, I highly don't suggest unless you want to be a 17 year old with a beer gut...)
And when people start giving in to the conformity of pop, then record labels don't sign the rockers anymore, which is why we haven't seen a new rock band in a couple years. Luckily we have the classics keeping up and touring like the stones and Aerosmith, but we can't expect them to cover our asses forever. We need musicians who aren't afraid to challenge the pop artists and stand out!
So stop thinking like everyone else and think like yourself! Find yourself and find the music that will help you through the highs and lows through life.
Start a teenage riot!
