Is rock music moving on without us?

[westen44]

Grand Funk Railroad may have actually devolved, though, by that time.  Loved their early stuff as a power trio.  Of course there are those who disagreed.  But I'd call their early albums rock. 

[Dave W]

That GFRR video was worth sitting through for the Gilligan's Island babes. Lovey Howell was hot! 

[slinkp]

My drummer took his kids to see Imagine Dragons a couple months ago.
This led, among other things, to some intra-band ranting via text message. Lost the thread but in my memory it went something like this:

"Were there dragons?"

"No"

"Why not?"

"I guess you have to imagine them"

"..."

"What kind of shit is that"

"If I paid for tickets I'd want to see some damn dragons"

"George Clinton didn't make people imagine the mothership, he landed it in the damn arena!!"

"Did Pink Floyd call their tour Imagine The Wall? No they did not"

"Spinal Tap didn't make people imagine Stonehenge ... or ... wait"

[doombass]

I nearly sprayed my morning coffee all over the computer.

[Basvarken]

You know it's rock when you feel it.
If it goes pop, it's not.

 

[doombass]

You know it's rock when you feel it........

......and you start stompin' your feet and nodding your head.

[uwe]

The dandruff test ... agreed, even major chords are then RAWK!!!

[uwe]

Grand Funk Railroad may have actually devolved, though, by that time.  Loved their early stuff as a power trio.  Of course there are those who disagreed.  But I'd call their early albums rock.

If GF(R) weren't rock in all their incarnations, then I don't know. And I liked the Craig Frost-augmented line up even better, it added depth to their music and brought out more of the soulishness. Frost was a heck of a hammond player and made them sound even beefier than the already mighty trio format.





I'm even an avid Flint listener though that album tanked so bad at the time.

[westen44]

Grand Funk probably didn't have the talent or depth to quite make it as a power trio.  But they gave it a try and the results were admirable.  Just their cover of "Inside Looking Out"  is noteworthy.  I found it a lot harder to get into their later music, though. 

[uwe]

I never understood why the critics hated them so much - they were grooving, very organic in their approach, the Motown influence was audible through all the white-boy-volume and I didn't think they were bad instrumentalists at all, not one of them. Farner was no Jeff Beck, true, most guitarists weren't/aren't, but he had grit, swagger and emotion. His voice (and Don Brewer's gruff vocals) I always liked. Mel Schacher, otoh, was a better bassist than in most bands playing high energy music around that time, but of course no critic ever listened closely to what he did.

Composition-wise, even a late piece of work such as Born To Die (recorded when the band atmoshere was less than happy) is a masterpiece.

[gearHed289]

I'm wondering who this "us" is exactly. Boomers? Gen X-ers? Anyone over 30? I honestly don't mind ID and pretty much consider them a rock band. I also consider new wave to be rock. You can have rock with no guitars at all as far as I'm concerned. 

[westen44]

I never understood why the critics hated them so much - they were grooving, very organic in their approach, the Motown influence was audible through all the white-boy-volume and I didn't think they were bad instrumentalists at all, not one of them. Farner was no Jeff Beck, true, most guitarists weren't/aren't, but he had grit, swagger and emotion. His voice (and Don Brewer's gruff vocals) I always liked. Mel Schacher, otoh, was a better bassist than in most bands playing high energy music around that time, but of course no critic ever listened closely to what he did.

Composition-wise, even a late piece of work such as Born To Die (recorded when the band atmoshere was less than happy) is a masterpiece.

Mark Farner's vocals were excellent.  I can guarantee you not one of those critics would be able to sing that well.  Of course, it was mostly his guitar playing which they seemed to criticize.  One of the main things that appealed to me was how loud the bass was.  They were a unique band, though, and much more than just a garage band which some people seemed to be saying.  The lead guitarist in my band at the time loved Grand Funk.  Although a very laid-back person, he pushed us to learn their songs.  So we did and it was fun for us and everyone else. 

[Highlander]

That GFRR video was worth sitting through for the Gilligan's Island babes. Lovey Howell was hot! 

 

Big fan of GFR, early and late... Uwe, there (sort of) is a second Flint LP floating about out there... as for BTD, this outro to side 1 is one of my fave tracks, but then I always liked it when you interweave sax and guitar...



And as for late GFR power "pop" this is also a fave... ignore the nonsense of the first 25 seconds for the 45 edit, which I still have, or go for the Zappa produced LP version below it... the LP tanked but is very good, mostly...

[Chris P.]

Imagine Dragons. I was thinking why two songs were pissing me off on the radio and both seem to be that band. I remembered their song Radioactive (Basvarken will know that, if he wants or not, haha) and that was not a bad (pop)song. I also read a gig review in British Q magazine, they played in the biggest indoor venue in The Netherlands and it sold out. Still hate those two songs.

I still don't like them but they seem to do something good. I always try to be informed about music and what's happening and if a lot of people are talking about a band I will check it. If I like 'm or not. I always dislike people who instantly dislike a band without knowing them or say things like 'never heard of them and not interested'. If you are interested in music you should broaden your horizons - and only keep what you like of course.

In The Netherlands there seem to be something against good pop music and I think this is striking:

Robbie Williams was just out of Take That and the whole rock world hated him. He played at a free Dutch festival with teenagers throwing toy cuddly animals at him. Then he played a big rock festival and he really stole the show. I was there on both occasions btw. He stole the show but the rock guys threw fruit at him and in the press everybody hated him. Fast forward some years and Robbie Was playing stadiums and even the critically rockers went to see him.

Fast forward some more years: Justin Bieber comes to that festival... again all the critic people hate it...
And Harrry Styles' Sign Of The Times is one of the best pop songs of 2018 imho. Wasn't he in a boy band too?

[westen44]

A lot of the time it can be the song itself which is the main thing to consider.  In that horrifying Quincy Jones interview which came out not long ago, he did actually make some good points.  One was that if a song isn't good enough enough, then nothing else much matters.  I can remember Talking Heads came out with a song that I utterly despised.  But then they came out with another one that I loved.