Sinister: Rock and pop?

[JSwinea at xxx.com]

In a message dated 97-11-30 08:36:29 EST, skg21 writes:

<< Rock 'n' roll is surely by definition happy, upbeat music >>

 Oh geez, I agreed with much of what you said,but I can't really buy into
this statement.  First of all, I don't see any point in confining any art,
including popular art, to one emotion. That's pretty stifling. I think, if
anything, Rock 'n' roll is closer to alienation by definition. Secondly,
there are examples throughout the past to contradict the notion that it need
to be happy music to be Rock.  Bob Dylan was at his best and rockin'est in
the 60s when he was smart, angry, and full of contempt.  Brian Wilson was at
his best when he was sad with songs like "Caroline No" and "I Just Wasn't
Made For These Times".  And Westerberg, he was at his best when he was happy,
furious and depressed. Now that he's completely happy he pretty much sucks.  

 I think Lester Bangs pretty much nailed what Rock 'n' Rolls' all about and
how it relates to "heaven" when he wrote,"The politics of rock 'n' roll, in
England or America or anywhere else is that a whole bunch of kids want to be
fried out of their skins by the most scalding propulsion they can find, for a
night they can pretend is the rest of their lives, and whether the next day
they go back to work in shops or boredom on the dole or American TV doldrums
in Mom 'n' Daddy's living room nothing else can cancel the reality of that
night in the revivifying flames when for once if only then in your life you
were blasted outside of yourself and the monotony which defines most life
anywhere at any time, when you supped on the lightning and nothing else in
the realms of the living or dead mattered at all."

joe
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