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Rock 'n' Roll Graduate School
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11729 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
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4 / 1987 |
4,202 Words |
| Author
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Alexander Bloom
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THE TRIUMPH OF VULGARITY
Rock Music in the Mirror of Romanticism
Robert Pattison
Oxford University Press, 1987
288 pp., $ 18.95
SWEET SOUL MUSIC
Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream
of Freedom
Peter Guralnick
Harper and Row, 1986
438 pp., $14.95
STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN
The Spiritual Roots of Rock 'n' Roll
Davin Seay with Mary Neely
Ballantine Books, 1986
355 pp., $9.95
The first rock 'n' roll critics, like its first performers and its first audience, were 1950s teenagers. Asked about a new record on American Bandstand, the highest accolade given was frequently, "It's got a good beat, Dick, you can dance to it." Despite thousands of records and millions of words, it is questionable whether rock 'n' roll criticism has advanced beyond that simple declaration. We have lived with rock for over thirty years, and it is likely we will live with it a good deal longer. It has thrilled some, perplexed some, inspired some. Many analysts have tried to explain it, assess it, damn it, and praise it. Sociologists, historians, music scholars, and cultural critics have all taken a stab at telling us what it means. But finally, it may all come back to what the kids on American Bandstand know. "It's got a beat...you can dance to it."
But if rock 'n' roll were merely dance music, it would have gone the way mainstream music critics predicted in the 1950s. Countless dance crazes have come and gone - the cha-cha, the twist, disco - and rock 'n' roll survives. Rock music has stitched itself into the American cultural fabric to an extent that even Elvis Presley's most ardent fans would not have believed in the 1950s. The kids of the 50s, 60s, and 70s have all grown up, and rock 'n' roll still goes on. More strikingly, the performers themselves have grown older - in some cases become middle-aged - and many still go on. The music which began with American teenagers in the 1950s pours forth from FM radios and television advertising, compact disc players, and college football bands. In 1956 Ed Sullivan would not show Elvis' gyrating hips on television. In 1986 part of the final extravaganza ending the Statue of Liberty centennial ceremonies included 200 Elvis impersonators.
Over the years, various cultural critics have tried to analyze rock and its impact. At its best, this analysis helps capture some of the spirit in the music. At its worst, it misses the point - or more thematically, the beat. Bad rock criticism is like the rock music filtered through Muzak systems into elevators and department stores. The form and melody might be there, but "it ain't nothin like the real thing." Good rock criticism is like good rock music: it knows how to balance the music and the words, to go for the feel as well as the idea. You can dance to it.
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