5/19/2009

The Audacity of Rock: Part 11

Let's rock about rock.

By special request* from ke, I'm talking about some meta-rock. This can really mean anything, but for Part 11, it's all about singing about rocking in general.

"I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister (1984)

The instant I read "meta-rock" I thought of this song. Twisted Sister is the epitome of campy hair band, before the trend really got out of control. In this song, we have the classic rock hater demeaning a poor kid who stands up for himself by answering that he wants to rock with his life. Awesome, ridiculous, and need I explain that Dee Snider is one of my favorite VH1 regulars? Anyone who took on the Parents Music Resource Center and defends freedom of speech is brilliant and pure rock 'n' roll in my book.





"Radio/Video" by System of a Down
(2005)

I have a special place in my heart of System of a Down. While some of their songs are pretty much screaming and hard and fast guitar riffs, a lot of their songs have gorgeous European-folk-song-like melodies. In this song, there's a bit a both, with a shout out to the Danny and Lisa in their lives. But most importantly, SOAD rocks hard when they are singing about rockin' out.



Questions to ponder:

1. Does singing about rocking take away from the actual rocking?
2. Do ridiculous outfits help when singing about rock?

*Yes, I do take requests and suggestions.

3 comments:

  1. The other day I noticed that iTunes had classified all of my SOAD as "blues."

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  2. That doesn't even begin to make sense. haha

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  3. But right? I guess poets write a lot about writing poetry, and there are probably proportionately more protagonists who are writers, but doesn't it seem kind of self-serving that soo many songs are about writing songs or touring or whatev? Thanks Kelsy. Fantastic. :)

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