Scaruff Piero, A History of Rock Music 1951-2000, s. 330.pdf
(
7310 KB
)
Pobierz
111404421 UNPDF
History Of Rock Music(Compiled By Prodigy)
Index
1
Preface ··················································································· 4
2
The Beginnings(1951-1965) ················································· 6
2.1
Background: The 20th Century ···································································6
2.2
Rock'n'Roll 1951-57····················································································· 11
2.3
Before the Flood 1957-1962 ········································································17
2.4
Trouble in Paradise 1961-1964···································································20
2.5
The Flood 1964-1965····················································································22
2.6
Paradise Reborn 1963-1965 ········································································26
2.7
The Counterculture 1965-66·······································································27
2.8
Appendix: Best albums of the 1960s ·························································32
2.9
The greatest of the 1960s·············································································36
3
The Golden Age 1967-70···················································· 37
3.1
Psychedelia 1965-68 ·····················································································37
3.2
The age of the revivals 1966-69 ··································································45
3.3
Solo careers 1967-69 ····················································································50
3.4
Electronics and rock 1968-70 ·····································································55
3.5
Progressive-rock 1968-72 ············································································57
3.6
Canterbury 1968-73 ·····················································································62
3.7
Kosmische Musik 1969-72 ··········································································64
3.8
Hard-rock 1969-73 ·······················································································72
3.9
The Avantgarde ····························································································75
4
The Seventies(1970-1975) ·················································· 76
4.1
Psychedelic madness 1970-74 ·····································································76
4.2
Re-alignment 1970-74 ··················································································78
4.3
Singer-songwriters 1970-74 ········································································82
4.4
Decadence 1969-76 ·······················································································88
4.5
Sound 1973-78·······························································································91
4.6
The auteurs 1975-82·····················································································95
4.7
Disco-music 1975-80·····················································································98
4.8
The avantgarde 1976-80 ············································································101
4.9
The Best Rock Albums of the 1970's ·······················································102
4.10
The greatest bands of the 1970s ·······························································114
5
The New Wave 1976-1989················································ 115
5.1
The New Wave ····························································································115
5.2
Punk-rock ····································································································119
5.3
USA: The Blank Generation ····································································122
5.4
USA: American Graffiti ············································································127
1
History Of Rock Music(Compiled By Prodigy)
5.5
UK: British Graffiti ···················································································130
5.6
USA: Dance music for punks ···································································133
5.7
UK: Dark Punk ··························································································135
5.8
UK: Industrial Music·················································································137
5.9
USA: Hardcore ···························································································143
5.10
USA: College-pop ·······················································································149
5.11
UK & Australia: The New Wave of Pop and Synth-pop······················155
5.12
USA & Japan: Neo-progressive ·······························································160
5.13
USA: Minimal-rock····················································································166
5.14
USA, Australia & UK: Psychedelic Revival···········································168
5.15
USA, UK, Europe: The Golden Age of Heavy Metal····························177
5.16
USA & UK: Songwriters of the 1980s ·····················································183
5.17
USA & UK: Roots-rock of the 1980s ·······················································191
5.18
USA: DJs, rappers, ravers ········································································195
5.19
USA, Europe, Japan: the New Age ··························································201
5.20
USA: Space-pop··························································································206
5.21
USA & Australia: Extreme hardcore ······················································208
5.22
USA, Europe, Britain: Industrial-metal ·················································210
5.23
USA, Britain, Japan: Punk crossovers ···················································213
5.24
USA: Noise-rock ·························································································216
5.25
Appendix: Best albums of the 1980s ·······················································219
5.26
The greatest bands of the 1980s ·······························································223
6
The Nineties ······································································ 226
6.1
Noisier than rock ························································································226
6.2
Progressive sounds ·····················································································230
6.3
Post-psychedelia ·························································································234
6.4
Surf and garage music···············································································242
6.5
Lo-fi pop ······································································································245
6.6
Lo-fi singer-songwriters ············································································246
6.7
The second coming of Industrial music ··················································255
6.8
Slo-core ········································································································257
6.9
Dance-music in the age of Techno····························································260
6.10
Foxcore·········································································································266
6.11
Brit and non-Brit pop ················································································269
6.12
Grunge ·········································································································274
6.13
Rap of the 1990s ·························································································277
6.14
Roots-rock in the age of Alt-country ·······················································277
6.15
Hardcore in the age of Punk-pop·····························································281
6.16
From grindcore to stoner-rock ·································································286
6.17
Alt-rock ········································································································289
6.18
Gothic rock ··································································································291
6.19
Drum'n'bass ································································································291
6.20
Trip-hop ·······································································································292
2
History Of Rock Music(Compiled By Prodigy)
6.21
Post-rock ······································································································294
6.22
Ambient and glitch music ·········································································296
6.23
Appendix: Best albums of the 1990s ·······················································299
6.24
The greatest bands of the 1990s ·······························································302
7
2000 ···················································································· 304
8
Appendix: Chronology of Events ··································· 306
3
History Of Rock Music(Compiled By Prodigy)
History Of Rock Music
Written By Piero Scaruff
1
Preface
There is not one single history of rock music. There are several.
There is the history of the hits. Most books on rock music are histories of the hits. The charts decide, i.e. the
masses decide. Marx would have loved it, except there is a catch: the masses tend to buy what is publicized by the
media, which is what corporations pay money to publicize. Marketing decides the charts. Invest a few million
dollars on me and even I, regardless of my musical talent, will break into the charts, i.e. will become part of "that"
history of rock music. Most books on the subject are, in fact, books about the music industry. Very often, the
profile of a musician is simply a list of her/his successes in the Billboard charts ("that album broke into the charts",
"that album hit #5", "that album sold one million copies"). In other words, books on rock music tend to treat
musicians like corporations or start-ups, judging them by their revenues, profits and marketing strategy.
Then there are national versions of the history of rock music. Italians have been more exposed to British music
than American music. The Eagles and Creedence Clearwater Revival are hardly known, whereas the Moody Blues
and David Bowie are almost household names. The history of rock music viewed from Italy is sharply different
from the history of rock music viewed from, say, Boston.
Finally, there are the individual histories of rock music. Each person grew up with a different set of idols, and
tends to center the history of rock music around those idols, whether Led Zeppelin or Doobie Brothers.
My history of rock music is not a history of the charts (which I consider an aberration), it is not a national version
(I grew up in two continents and have traveled to some 70 countries), and it is not an individual version (I grew up
with classical music, literature and science, not with rock music).
I simply listened to a lot of rock music, and drew my conclusions. Very often, I was unaware of how many records
an artist sold (I learned it later, when thousands of fans sent me nasty complaints). Very often, I am unaware of
what was popular in Italy or Boston.
Also, I feel no particular sympathy for any rock musician. My "idols" are Ernst, Shostakovic, Pessoa, Coltrane...
not rock musicians.
This is the most subjective history of rock music that one could possibly write. But also the most impartial and
independent, fair and balanced.
It ends up being mostly a history of "alternative" rock music. While this is a gross approximation, it has become
customary to separate "mainstream" music and "alternative" music. If you do what I did (listen to the music
without letting marketing and sales influence you), it is very unlikely that you will end up selecting the musicians
who topped the charts, and very likely that you will be impressed by countless obscure recordings that were twenty
years ahead of their time even though nobody heard them.
Fans of mainstream music will claim that it all boils down to personal taste. I beg to disagree. There is an absolute
factor that bestows a form of primacy on alternative music. Tell anyone (alternative or mainstream musician) that
s/he is playing mainstream music and s/he will get upset. Tell anyone (alternative or mainstream musician) that
s/he is playing alternative music and s/he will be flattered. Fans may buy according to the media and to marketing
campaigns, but they, too, implicitly recognize the primacy of alternative music. If you tell a Beatles fan that the
Beatles were mainstream, you risk your life. The evidence is just overwhelming: even the most mainstream
4
History Of Rock Music(Compiled By Prodigy)
musicians tacitly agree that alternative music is more important, and even the masses that buy mainstream music
tacitly agree that alternative music is more important.
In a sense, rediscovering alternative rock and giving it its dues is also a way to restore the reputation of rock music
among the more sophisticated audiences. Too many rock critics blindly follow the instructions from the major
record companies and hail whichever "next big thing" happens to get a larger marketing budget. Rock critics who
cannot break free from this commercial slavery have done a huge disservice to rock music. Anyone who is into
Beethoven's symphonies or Wagner's operas and is told that the Beatles' three-minute catchy tunes are the
masterpieces of rock music will simply smile and politely nod, but never listen to rock music again, and will thus
never learn that rock music has also produced 20-minute avantgarde suites and hour-long electronic poems that are
far more complex and futuristic than most of contemporary classical music. If the Beatles are at the top of the
pyramid, who in heaven wants to listen to the rest of the pyramid? But if the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Michael
Jackson, etc. are at the "bottom" of the pyramid (and in my opinion they are closer to the bottom than to the top),
then it makes a lot of sense for anyone into serious music to investigate the rest of the pyramid.
From this "alternative" point of view (one that puts creativity before sales) there were three watershed years in the
history of rock music: 1955, when Chuck Berry "invented" rock'n'roll as we know it; 1966, when Bob Dylan,
Frank Zappa, the Doors, the Velvet Underground and others caused a massive revolution in a slumbering music
scene; 1976, when the "new wave" and punk-rock caused a similar revolution in a similarly slumbering scene.
Each of these golden ages was followed by an era of "re-alignment" in which creativity was replaced by sell-out,
as the record industry (and commercial bands) capitalized on the innovations of the previous years.
One could also add 1987-88, the years when Pixies, Fugazi, etc invented indie-pop, and 1996, the year of post-rock,
although they are not as clearly marked as the previous ones.
Traditionally. books on the history of rock music begin by defining rock music as the meeting of country music
and rhythm'n'blues, which is roughly correct (I believe that the rhythm'n'blues component was much stronger than
the country component but, of course, it all depends on whether you consider Chuck Berry or Elvis Presley as the
founding father of rock'n'roll). However, this definiton is out of touch with today's rock music. Today, rock music
is a genre that employs sampling techniques, electronic instruments, digital/computer technology, cacophony, and
ethnic sources (beyond African-American and Anglo-Irish). The roots of today's rock music lie in the technical and
stylistic innovations brought about in the first half of the 20th century. Rock music is also part of a stream of
"popular music", whose beginnings can be dated even further back, to the end of the 19th century. In fact, it would
be more accurate to define today's rock music as the meeting of avantgarde music and popular music. Therefore,
my "alternative" history of rock music begins much earlier than most books on the origins of rock'n'roll.
For further reading, my website "
www.scaruffi.com
" has thousands of pages on the musicians mentioned in this
book. It also contains a draft of the chapters on the 1990s.
Piero Scaruffi
Note: the number in parentheses after the name of a band or musician is a way to rate their/her/his career. It is a
three digit number that summarizes how many albums I have rated 9,8 and 7. So, for example, Captain Beefheart
is a 214, the highest rating in the book, whereas Frank Zappa is a 167. When the number is only two digits, it
means there is no album worth 9/10, and when it is only one digit, there is no album worth 8/10. In ratings the
albums, I was totally indifferent to whether the album had sold ten million copies or only two copies (neither piece
of information says much about the quality of the music). There are many many more fans of famous stars than of
obscure musicians, so I imagine that my ratings for famous albums will shock many more readers than my ratings
for obscure albums. That, too, does not say much about the quality of the music.
Main Bibliography
P.S.: My main regret is that I did not end the "Eighties" in 1988. That is the year when a new paradigm shift
5
Plik z chomika:
Rozniste
Inne pliki z tego folderu:
Freddie Mercury - Biografia definitywna - Lesley Ann Jones.txt
(815 KB)
Frank Zappa - Takiego mnie nie znacie.doc
(1314 KB)
Daniel Wyszogrodzki, Satysfakcja - Historia zespołu The Rolling Stones.txt
(1551 KB)
Beznadziejnie romantyczny pesymista - Nick Cave - Robert Leszczyński.txt
(11 KB)
Bądź jaki bądź - Historia zespołu Nirvany - Michael Azerrad.txt
(745 KB)
Inne foldery tego chomika:
Akustyka
Analiza muzyczna
Antropologia muzyki
Biografie i monografie
Estetyka
Zgłoś jeśli
naruszono regulamin