My Two-Bit Opinion #5: Rock and Roll

What is it? Is it dead? Does anyone care? Did we ever? Should we have?

I don't know, Babs, but I do know this: Rock and Roll has only ever been about one thing - the middle finger. Whether it was Chuck Berry's duck walk or Johnny Rotten's boogers, the metaphoric middle finger of defiance is the only thing that ties together the 50-odd year span of "rock." Sometimes interspersed in the rock stew is "tha boo-tay," a presence defined by the intense desire to get it on. The history of rock and roll is a constant chase of the middle finger by tha boo-tay.

In the 1950's, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and others grabbed some newfangled electric geetars and started creating highly stylized, rhythmic blues music that emphasized defiance and the desire to get it on. So the genre was defined by the middle finger as well as by tha boo-tay. This new form of music was mostly obscure until a cute young truck driver from Memphis started moving his boo-tay and singing songs to people. Naturally, this sent scads of adoring young women to his shows (and scads of young men to the garage to play guitars to attract some of those young women for themselves), thus causing much consternation among the white establishment and much rejoicing among the youngsters. The boo-tay was previously the exclusive province of colored folk. But no longer. The postwar prosperous youngsters had money and time to spend shaking their boo-tays, so a tidy industry began.

Not much else happened for awhile, and the fad was in danger of fading away in the early 60's until four cute lads from Liverpool, who'd gotten quite good at imitating their American heroes, came over and started playing songs for the young American girls. Eventually, scores of other Limey acts came across the pond and the face of rock changed. Brits like the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds and the Who had created a new version of rock that was less about the boo-tay and more about the middle finger. British society being as stolid as it is, these young kids were more concerned with giving the middle finger to their authority figures than they were with moving their collective boo-tays (Brits not being particularly prepared psychologically or physiologically for effective boo-tay movement anyway). Thus, the "roll" was trimmed from the "rock and roll" banner. "Rock" now had a more geological connotation than a sensual one, as the music became "heavier". The Who demonstrated some of the aggressive possibilities of the form, and "heavy metal" was eventually devised to better explore these new modes of expression.

Throughout the 70's, rock floundered and morphed further still. Splinter groups like heavy metal and punk kept the young boys fueled, while disco became the prevailing popular music, proving once again the pervasive power of tha boo-tay against the middle finger.

The 80's fused punk with pop in the form of "new wave," and some boo-tay was injected back into the proceedings, but not much. A unique offshoot of disco called "hip-hop" or "rap" emerged from the streets and took over the world with a remarkable combination of the boo-tay AND the middle finger. Hip-hop opened many doors for "techno" and "electronica" and once again the boo-tay prevailed.

But today there is little in the way of the middle finger in popular music. "Grunge" was a significant strike back in the 90's for the middle finger, but its complete lack of boo-tay ensured its quick demise.

So to answer the question, "is rock dead?" Well, that depends on your definition of rock: boo-tay or middle finger? Hip-hop is alive and well, so if your definition of rock is tha boo-tay and the middle finger, then yes, rock is very much alive. If your definition of rock is just the middle finger, then your answer may be no. If your definition is just tha boo-tay, then you shouldn't even bother asking because tha boo-tay is too large for rock and roll alone to contain.

Now what?*

The middle finger contingent needs to rethink its philosophy. Rage Against the Machine offers the purest definition: "fuck you I won't do what you tell me." But the middle finger doesn't have to presume aggression. Individuality is the key - "I'm going to do what I want to do and I don't care what people think" is the most positive interpretation of the middle finger, and this would extend the scope of the middle finger to artists like Dave Matthews Band and Phish. Originality and and individuality should be the goal of the middle finger, not mere snottiness for the sake of rebellion.

Likewise, tha boo-tay should take note. Mindless boo-tay shaking is an empty pursuit, devoid of soul. Artists like Ani DiFranco and Wyclef Jean are bringing some heart to tha boo-tay. Tha boo-tay needs to be sensual, not pornographic.

So we take these two, the yin and yang of popular music, and we mix them as we see fit. With our middle fingers in the air and/or our boo-tays shaking like a bowl of jell-o, we march into the 21st century looking like the fools we know we are.

 

* In the face of a breakdown of values, become him who you are.
I think Nietzsche said something like that. It's still true.