DAN BROWN:
Rock 'n' roll goes underground again
CBC News Viewpoint | April 13, 2004 | More from Dan Brown
I was at a wedding a few weeks ago with my girlfriend, Amanda. As always happens at these things, after the dinner had been served and the speeches had been delivered, the guests took to the dance floor to boogie the night away. And, as always happens at these things, I watched from the sidelines because I don't dance.
My no-dancing policy doesn't mean, however, that I can't appreciate the music. In fact, I really appreciated all the oldies that the disc jockey was serving up, stuff like Chubby Checker's Let's Twist Again and Bruce Channel's Hey! Baby. As out-of-date as they are, those records still have the power to get butts wiggling. One song in particular, Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley and the Comets, sounded as fresh as when it originally charted.
When I heard its first tell-tale notes, I leaned over and said to my amour – because I'm a know-it-all and Amanda, at 26 years old, is nine years my junior – "Did you know that many people consider this the first rock 'n' roll record?" She didn't, bless her heart. My Amanda is a million times more hip than I am, so she's more in tune with today's music.
This week, as people in tune with music trivia know, marks the 50th anniversary of when Haley recorded his signature hit. And despite what I told Amanda, it's more accurate to say it was the song that took rock 'n' roll from the fringes and put it on the musical map, rather than the first true rock 'n' roll record. Partly thanks to the film Blackboard Jungle, Haley's creation went to the top of the charts and caused a sensation, paving the way for decades of radio and chart dominance by rock artists.
These days, however, rock is a spent force. The music world is dominated by hip hop and dance music. In a sense, the music that Haley embodied has come full circle – back in the early 1950s, his breed of song was on the edges of the mainstream; now, five decades later, rock is again on the cultural margins, having been pushed there by the likes of 50 Cent and Jay-Z. (If you don't believe me, just check Billboard's Hot 100 chart. By my count, seven of the 10 most popular songs are currently by hip hoppers.)
Which brings me to Bob Seger. I was born too late to experience Haley's music when it originally came out (I knew Rock Around The Clock by heart because it was the opening theme for Happy Days in its early seasons), but my tastes were formed in the 1970s by the acts who were his heirs, who grew up listening to Haley. Seger was one such act.
I spent much of my childhood in southwestern Ontario, which in terms of radio play was an extension of Seger's power base in Michigan. The Canada-U.S. border couldn't stop Seger's music from seeping into my corner of Canada (along with all that acid rain), and he's the perfect example of the sort of straight-ahead rocker who was beloved by the record-buying public in the '70s, who had the ability to fill stadiums and sell millions of albums. He was huge back then.
The bearded singer is probably best known for the 1978 song Old Time Rock & Roll, which was made famous a few years later by another movie, Risky Business. It's an upbeat number, although the message it sent was a depressing one: that music was in a state of decay, that it was better in the past. The song was Seger's way of celebrating his musical heritage while lashing out at disco.
I think Seger is a genius, but even I will concede that Old Time Rock & Roll is a thoroughly unimaginative tune. There's nothing subtle about it, I'll grant you that. But at the time, people loved it. There was no record that was more mainstream, as the mainstream was defined in those days. For a spell, it was the second-most popular song played on jukeboxes, just behind Patsy Cline's Crazy. Call it what you will, it was incredibly popular.
The passing of time has changed all that. Bob Seger is no longer a chart topper. He hasn't had a hit in years, and if not for classic-rock stations he wouldn't get any airplay at all. He doesn't appear on magazine covers. His videos aren't played on MTV. His songs don't make the lists of the most-downloaded tunes. He may not like to believe it, but Seger is a musical outcast. That's because today the mainstream is OutKast.
In other words, rock has gone underground again. The music I love is out of favour with the taste makers, which is exactly how I like it. I'm not sure how Seger feels about being relegated to the artistic periphery, but I can't help thinking that it's kind of cool.
Who knows, maybe I'm as hip as my girlfriend after all.
LETTERS:
As a middle aged white man who really likes many genres of music I would argue that Jay Z and 50 Cent are part of rock and roll. Sure - it might not be Bob Seger - but hell, doesn't 50 Cent and others (Eminem for example) exude the rock attitude? Its basically an in your face up yours attitude which is what the cutting edge of rock has always been in my books. In the '70's many would have said that the Sex Pistols and The Clash were not Rock and Roll - but I bet most would say that they are a part of rock now. Maybe Rock is evolving and you are simply stuck in the past with preconceptions about what rock and roll has to be.
Roland Stieda | Ottawa
An interesting article in some ways, but it really puzzles my why you'd
choose Bob Seger as your example of someone who "hasn't had a hit in year".
Perhaps his recent induction into the hall of fame brought him to mind, but
a simple internet search would have indicated that he hasn't even RELEASED a
new album since 1995's 'It's a Mystery'. Everyone wants to jump on the old
tired "rock and roll is dead" bandwagon, but surely it isn't. Old timers
like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty & Bob Dylan continue to release million
selling albums and tour to sold out houses, and the new breed of rock stars
such as the White Stripes and the Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, amongst
others, are regularly in the charts and considered hip. Dan, your article
would indicate that you are certainly not hip.
Geoffrey Holland | Burnaby, BC
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DAN BROWN
ARTS EDITOR
Dan Brown is the site's senior arts editor/reporter. Before joining us
he was a lineup editor and senior writer for Newsworld International.
Dan helped to launch the National Post's Arts & Life section, where he
was a columnist and reporter. A former editorial writer, copy editor and
journalism instructor, Dan has degrees from three universities.
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