On the History of Rock Music

Bearbeitet von Yvetta Kajanová

1. Auflage 2014. Taschenbuch. 161 S. Paperback ISBN 978 3 631 65556 6 Format (B x L): 14,8 x 21 cm Gewicht: 220 g

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Introduction Thorough research and analyses on the theory and history of rock music have not been published until recently. The reason for this stems from the relatively short history of rock music as a genre, which does not allow an adequate analytical perspective on the historical and artistic values of rock. Furthermore, the existing methodologies used in other areas of musicology cannot be directly applied to rock music, since rock has its own specific characteristics that differentiate it from other genres of music. The issue is further complicated because much previous research has coupled its analysis with non-musical disciplines such as sociology and other social sciences, business management, economics and aesthetics. With those aspects being perhaps the most commonly researched, rock encyclopaedias and dictionaries have mainly focused on the most successful bands and their songs, ­financial earnings, the songs’ highest rating in British and American charts and how many weeks they stayed there. Aesthetic and sociological works on rock ­music have tried to illuminate the importance of rock personalities, and their ­appeal to the listener, by examining both the musical subcultures and the social ­milieu of the listener. For example, Dieter Baacke, one of the first rock theoreticians, in Beat – die sprachlose Opposition1 identifies “criminals, and counter-­cultural and rebellious group movements” as being associated with 1960s beat music. They organised protests without a clear purpose. Amongst the “criminals”, Baacke saw groups of “politically radical” students who based their ideas on ­theory and organized collective protests. The “beatniks” included bands, along with hippies, drop-outs and other social non-conformists; some consciously adopting aesthetic values which had previously been the preserve of the middle and upper classes. There were also the instances of the beat as a medium of expression that was not tied to a specific social class; and we certainly acknowledge that the beat movement is classless. Using Baacke’s analysis of rock’s social environment, we can make some conclusions about late 1960s rock music: 1. Beat is an unconscious form of protest, an opposition without a clear purpose. 2. Although aggression is beyond the core of the beat itself, rock, however, is not an amiable expression of art towards the wider society, as it has created 1

München: Juventa Verlag, 1968.

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“narcissistic boundaries within the listener”. Beat began because of the powerful institutional influences, such as schools, teachers, and parents, who forced individuals to socialise. 3. Beat is a culture with its own symbolic characteristics including clothing, hairstyles, make-up, image and social context. All these components can result in a synaesthetic effect. 4. It is also a subculture that reflects the conflict between generations. Rock projects new ideas onto life and society from its increasing adoption of sociopolitical criticism. Richard Meltzer, in his book The Aesthetics of Rock2, investigates the semantic meanings in rock compositions though, at the same time, he is aware of the extent to which their lyrics reflect the banality and triviality of the world. The lyrics of rock songs are influenced by the social and environmental conditions in which people live including sexuality, “ritualised chaos”, “games on convention”, religion and technology. Meltzer confronts the aesthetics of rock with a comparison of symbolic meanings across other forms of art including fine art (Marcel Duchamp), literature and film. Meltzer was one of the first rock theoreticians as well as a critic. He studied philosophy at Yale University, was a proponent of performance art and a student of Allan Kaprow3. He later wrote lyrics for the heavy metal band Blue Öyster Cult. As punk or heavy metal4 are superficially manifested as juvenile delinquency, the subsequent studies seek a deeper insight into rock’s subcultures and try to

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New York: Da Capo Press, 1970, second edition 1987. Allan Kaprow (1927-2006) was an American painter and one of the creators of performance art. Performance art was followed by the expansion into the production of intermedia compositions, conceptualism and happenings. Fujak, Július: Musical Correla(c)tivity. Notes on Unconventional Music Aesthetic. Nitra: ILAC Faculty of Arts, UCP, 2005; Podpera, Rastislav: Quo vadis musica: premeny sociálnych funkcií hudby. Bratislava: Veda, 2006. Epstein S. Jonathon & Pratto, J. David: “Juvenile Deliquency and Satanic Identification”. In Popular Music and Society. Bowling Green University Popular Press, Winter 1990, pp. 67-75; Epstein, S. Jonathon, Pratto, J. David & Skipper, K.J.: “Teenagers, Behavioral Problems and Preferences for Heavy Metal and Rap Music: A Case Study of a Southern Middle School”. In Deviant Behavior, No.11, 1990, p. 381-394; Gross, L. Robert: “Heavy Metal Music: A New Subculture in American Society”. In The Journal of Popular Culture, 1990, No. 24, pp. 119-130.

d­ iscover their essence. Dieter Baacke’s original characterisation of rock subcultures has not changed. What have changed are the symbols of the subcultures and their related social issues, ideas and solutions. One of the most comprehensive books on rock history is Rock of Ages, The Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll5 by Ed Ward, Geoffrey Stokes and Ken Tucker, who deal with the differing aesthetic, philosophical, managerial and economic aspects of rock. The authors look at the development of the different styles of rock music and focus on all the above aspects. The problematic issue is, however, the inability of theoreticians to agree on basic musical principles that would give a definition to hard rock, art rock, progressive rock, industrial rock, alternative rock or indie rock. Consequently, there is still a myriad of definitions applied to the different styles of rock. For example, it has not yet been resolved whether Pink Floyd, Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP) and Genesis belong to art rock, progressive rock or classical rock. Which groups these terms actually refer to is also contentious. Sometimes, these categories include King Crimson, Tangerine Dream, David Bowie and Queen (some books classify the band King Crimson as experimental rock, others define Tangerine Dream as electronic or industrial rock, David Bowie as glam rock and Queen as pop rock).6 In Central Europe especially, the term art rock is more common, whilst western cultures prefer the term “progressive rock”. Arnold Shaw in his books Von den Anfangen des Blues zu den Hits aus Memphis und Philadelphia7 and Rock’n’ Roll, Die Stars, die Musik und die Mythen der 50er Jahre8 uses recognised historical methods in rock music research and, at the same time, he accepts non-musical analyses of rock. A similar approach has been comprehensively used in the study of medieval, renaissance and classical music, and the application of such methods to rock music has also been made by the Czech musicologist Aleš Opekar.9 In rock music literature there is an absence of studies that explain its musical theory or analyse compositions and various parameters of music, such as 5 6

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New York: Rolling Stone Press, 1986. Blüml, Jan: “Art rock: Definition of the Term with Regard to the Development of Czech Designating Practice”. In Acta Universitatis Palackianae Olomucensis. Musicologica Olomucensia XI. Olomouc: Facultas Philosophica-Aestthetica 24, 2010, pp. 9-22. Hamburg: 1980. Hamburg: 1978. Opekar, Aleš: “Towards the History of Czech Rock Music: Turtle – the First LP by a Czech Rock Group”. In Central European Popular Music. Praha: 1994, pp. 66-72.

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harmony, melody and rock musical structures. So far, historians have not provided a systematic and comprehensive view of the development of rock music, not only in terms of the American and British scenes, but also in the emergent European artists (Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Apocalyptica, Him, or Ramstein) and the Australian rock scene (AC/DC, INXS). All these groups have a significant place in global rock music history. Analyses of the rock music of the former post-communist bloc and its contribution to the history of rock are likewise to be made (Czech groups: Plastic People, ETC, Blue Effect, Olympic, Pražský výber/Prague Selection; Slovak rock personalities: Marián Varga and Collegium Musicum, Prúdy, Fermáta; Hungarian groups: Locomotiv GT and Gábor Presser, Illés, Panta Rei, Omega, Hobo Blues Band; Polish bands: Maanam, KSU and Turbo; East German bands: Puhdys, Panta Rhei10, Electra, Kreis; and also the role of Russian underground performers including Boris G ­ rebenschikov11). Rock music as a genre of non-classical music12 originated in the mid 1950s as a synthesis of country and western with rhythm and blues. Its distinctive characteristics include: 10 The East German progressive rock group Panta Rhei was established in 1971 and consisted of H. Dreilich-voc., U. Swillms-keyb., H. Protmann-bassg. and voc., J. ­Smauch-sayes, fl., perc., R.  Ulbricht-saxes., fl., R.  Stolle-tb., B.  Richter-tp., F. ­Hille-ds. They released the following albums: Aus und vorbei, 1971, Hier wie nebenan, 1972, Nachts, 1972. The group broke up in 1975 when some of their members formed a  new band Karat. In: Matzner, Antonín & Poledňák, Ivan & Wasserberger, Igor et al.: Encyklopedie jazzu a moderní popularní hudby, Praha: Supraphon, 1987, alphabetical register L-Z, heslo Panta Rhei, pp. 177-178. A progressive rock group called Panta Rei existed also in Hungary between 1974 – 1982. The group consisted of Kalman Matolcsy-keyb. and synthesizers, Alex Szalay-guitar, Andras Szalay-bassg., Csaba Beke-drums. The group was reknowned for constructing different types of synthetizers which they then used in their performances. 11 Uvarov, Mikhail: Historical and aesthetic transformations of Soviet/Russian popular music in the 2nd half of 20th century. Eremeeva, Anna: Bards in the musical space of the USSR and contemporary Russia. Orlova, Nadežda: Religious motifs and motivations in Russian Rock Music. http://www2.muzykologia.uj.edu.pl/instytut/2009-04-27_Panel.htm 12 The older generation of musicologists such as Jiří Fukač, Antonín Matzner, Ivan Poledňák, Igor Wasserberger considered rock to be a part of modern popular music. Matzner, Antonín & Poledňák, Ivan & Wasseberger, Igor et al.: Encyklopedie jazzu a moderní populární hudby, část věcná. Praha: Supraphon, 1983, část jmenná – světová scéna, 1986, 1987, name register – Československá scéna, 1990.

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1. Audience segmentation by tying them to a specific social group or subculture such as the beat generation, middle-of-the road, hippies, heavy metal, punk, gothic rock or grunge. 2. Electrification of musical instruments and their contribution to creating the distinctive rock sounds, and also the perception of sound as noise. 3. The growth of the music industry, furthering strategies in the promotion, advertising and production of music. 4. The creation of a complete show using non-musical elements for greater visual effects. Synaesthetic elements pervade the development of rock music with a wide range of non-musical means of expression (gestures, facial expressions, dance, clothing, coloured lights, smoke screens and the use of film and video). Synaesthesia is associated with a visual-spatial response to sound phenomena13, and psychological research shows that music is associated with colour effects in non-musical elements perceived by the human vision. The effects of the nonmusical elements in rock, and their connection with music and lyrics have not yet been sufficiently researched. 5. Singers using tonal voice distortion, experimentations with sounds, and seeking non-traditional musical interpretations. 6. Working with rhythmic patterns (in a rhythmic section, consisting of bass guitar and drums, occasionally with an accompanying guitar), and riffs (a rhythmic and melodic phrase in the melodic section, played by the lead guitar). Using rhythmic patterns induces kinaesthesis – physical effects on the muscles of the human body. 7. Featuring of cover versions and improvisation, a decreased importance of “opus” (the musical composition), and the emphasis placed on interpretation.

13 Lexmann, Juraj: The Theory of Film Music. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2006.

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