Some irrefutable truths about rock and roll

Dementia is very sad.

Says the dried out self absorbed old man with one foot in.

Tho our tastes differ by about 180 degrees, I've always found 'Bert one of the most interesting posters here. His views of art and its role in society reflect a sensibility that's not often seen these days. It may be fair to label him intolerant, but its also clear that he finds true joy in the music that fits his view of "noble" art and that he pursues that passion with energy.

I always find his posts well thought out, even tho the context of his logic is narrow. He calls that good taste, others call it intolerant, I'll sit out that debate and continue to read his posts for the very different point of view they represent.

Please do not confuse me with Schubert!

Rock was never metaphysical but visceral. Rock, rock n roll or whatever words you want to describe it, was always rebellious, at least the notorious side of it. It was always about lost love, cheating girlfriends, revenge, and redemption. Rock was seductive, particularly, to middle class suburbia angst. I wanted fast cars like the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean had. I wanted a GTO. I wanted girls and sex like the Rolling Stones promised. But perhaps by 1967 things changed, it became mainstream, the capitalists could make a ton of money off of it. We went from clubs, to arenas, to stadiums. To some extent the music became slower [beats per minute], even turgid, because the acoustics in stadiums back then were horrendously bad. [ not unlike why plainchant was so slow, not because they do not want to speed up things a bit, but the acoustics in cathedrals were ghastly with reverb! Machaut used this to his advantage!]. And what is truth, in a post modern world? Whatever gets the most applause.......;-)))

I can't really argue with Shubert's irrefutable truths about rock and roll.

At its core, it and its primary influences is as he describes, at the opposite end of the spectrum from what makes great classical music great.

Two things I would point out though.

1) None of us are pure good or evil. Each of us has some amount of both in us. God and the devil, for lack of better words, in different amounts and proportions, that can change minute to minute. I like to think of it in terms of ying and yang. We are that way for a reason. Take either away completely and what is left is most likely lesser overall I suspect. Much of life is about recognizing the good and the bad and how to deal with it effectively. We learn a lot about both from music in general.

2) Rock and classical may be at their core at two ends of the spectrum in terms of high art and cultural value, but there is all forms of music in between of both those, variants of the purest forms in a sense. There is much to take away from it all! Not all music categorized as rock targets our vices. The example I will cite personally is The Moody Blues. They came about in the haze of the sixties but I would challenge anyone to find anything negative at all in their music. Their music is designed prety much exclusively to help elevate others in various ways. There is even a book out there these days that focuses on the spiritual aspects of the groups music.