lumen
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response 26 of 31:
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Dec 2 07:50 UTC 1997 |
Dammit, I like "A Fifth of Beethoven!" Pppphhhhhttt! I refuse to let any
sort of classical purist or disco hater to get to me! (Of course, I freely
admit there is plenty of bad disco and club/dance music out there..I am
choosy.)
As to "what is rock?" well, we discussed that in the "The day the conference
died" item, referring to Don McLean's most popular song "The Day The Music
Died." Rock has received so many musical grafts it's hard to tell what it
is anymore. It evolved from 'race music,' which was softened to rhythm and
blues-- especially songs cleaned up for the clean-cut white teenage audience.
The term 'rock 'n roll' was coined by a radio DJ to get the music played on
the air-- he worked in a station that was still racist at the time (well, rock
'n roll did face a lot of racism.)
There's a lovely poster in the Music Education room at the music library at
my school that shows the evolution of modern music on a tree. Spirituals,
folk, country-western, jazz, etc.. it's all there up to at least the 70's or
so. Rock has received grafts from folk and country-western music to make
protest music in the 60's, jazz to make fusion, etc. The list is too
impossibly long for me to try to draw out here-- I'm not a modern music
historian, and I just don't have enough notes in front of me.
don't even get me started about modern electronic music and John Cage.. or
connections to techno, for that matter..
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rcurl
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response 27 of 31:
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Dec 2 19:53 UTC 1997 |
You are "defining" rock in terms of other - undefined - musical forms.
If you can tell "rock" if you hear it, you can describe what would be
written in the score - rhythms, harmonic progressions, etc - from which
it is played. That would define it.
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