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Sunday 29 January 2012

Genre - the comic side of pop

Did you know that Grindcore rock can be sub-divided into Crustgrind, Goregrind, Noisegrind and – let’s not forget – Pornogrind? I intended to post about pop/rock genres but not now. Nor, for similar reasons, will I study Aramaic

As pop/rock started in the fifties, academics who could sing mixolydian mode were invited to comment. One typed it “disposable”, forgotten in six months. In fact Rock Around The Clock, launched in 1953, was still on juke boxes in 1978 (see Tone Deaf, January 7) and the flame's still lit for Elvis, born the year I was. Genres, however, might well be disposable.

Take Nirvana whose Nevermind in the mid-nineties was identified as Grunge (distorted electric guitars, contrasting song dynamics, apathetic and angsty lyrics – doesn’t that sound unexceptional?) and Grunge got hot. Along came Foo Fighters (like Grunge, friendlier, more commercial) who attracted the unimaginative label Post-Grunge.

Thus Funk (no, I can’t be bothered to define it) became Deep Funk and Disco became Post-Disco. It was a game anyone could play though there’s a hint of desperation in some of the evolutions. Heavy Metal (definition: noisy) became as schismatic as the left-wing, giving birth to: Alternative, Black, Christian, Death, Doom, Drone and Glam. Anyone for Christian Heavy Metal?

Who profits? Not the consumers. None I’ve questioned had a clue about Garage Rock (Raw R&R; young amateurish performers singing about high-school; “naïve”). Managers, perhaps, claiming that their new Industrial Rock group is pushing back the frontiers. Falling leaves in the stream but fascinating. Sort of.

I may try out Baroque Pop.

PERFECT The Takacz Qt. Much admired by Tone Deaf (passim), played Haydn and Dvorak at a concert covered by The Guardian and were awarded five stars (out of five).

Blest Redeemer: 40,069 words (Another ten-thousand milestone passed)

5 comments:

  1. Reads like your getting things into perspective here.

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  2. The concert mentioned was repeated on radio3 and can be heard on Iplayer mrs BB

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  3. I love the thought of Garage Rock. I smell petrol and engine oil. I have never knowlingly listened to it, either.

    In Santiago de Compostela once during a music festival, I heard the sounds of an orchestra, tantalizingly negotiating (as I was) some narrow streets behind the cathedral. In a small square beside (I think it was) the south door of the Cathedral, a full orchestra, although it was the afternoon in black tie attire, was performing The New World Symphony.

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  4. Isn't all Christian music heavy metal?

    But I am excited to see a comment from Mrs. BB here! I must admit that I was the lead singer for a garage rock band in my younger days - The Sir Brothers. Never heard of them? Well, we didn't quite make it to the bigtime. But we did we a slam bam good time singing CCR and Janis and Simon & Garfunkel.

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  5. Sir Hugh: No, it's just the ex-journalist's sole talent for looking plausible amid the alien corn.

    All: Notice Mrs BB's blogonym is in black. Widow's weeds.

    Plutarch: Never knowingly heard Garage Rock. And, now you are aware of the definition, it's unlikely you'll ever do it knowingly.

    I like the idea of an itinerant orchestra, going from town to town, playing posh foreign music. In the face of stern local opposition. Also, assuming that this town is the one at the end of the pilgrimage, the possibility that the musicians started out as a rock band, or - even more historically - a skiffle group.

    RW (zS): Christians don't disdain strings and wood.

    What I want to know is: did you sit down and actually put the seminal question: Let's form a Garage Rock band. I feel your chosen title could have been juiced up. How about Donau Kampfers, Ishigura on Incense. In 1965 in Aschaffenburg, because we looked as if we had money, we were lead to the front of a cave to be exposed to The Marlins (a British group). Sounds that quickly passed through the pain barrier, caused us to retreat in embarrassment - abject and middle-class. Without having ordered a drink.

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