"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT NOISE?"
When I was a kid (late 1980s / early 1990s) rock music was on the way OUT. I grew up in South Phoenix, AZ where hip hop culture had fully taken hold at this point. It was decidedly uncool to listen to rock music. The main genre played at our school dances were R & B and hip hop. The only rock music I had been exposed to was boring and old. Punk rock didn't come onto my radar for another five or six years. I responded by being completely oblivious to all music until my teenage years. I opted instead to occupy my free time with sports, comic books and riding my bike. I had no use for girls or music.
Have you ever heard rock music drifting from a small, portable, shitty sounding radio? All your auditory senses pick up are the high, tinny notes that bleed in and out of total imperceptible noise. The bass is essentially non-existent, the vocals are lost among the screeching feedback and it's useless to try and pick up what the singer is saying. This is rock music at its' rawest and most primal. Several bands embody this better than any (Mc5, Sonics, Stooges, early Damned). This kinda of music is generally unpleasant to the average person. It is hoarse, skull-rattling and not the least bit commercial. My dad would slap the shit out of the radio if any of those bands started playing. He is much more in tune with soft, aurally pleasing bands like Bob Seger and the fuckin' Eagles. Punk rock makes him want to shit his pants violently.
The MC5 were such a great group, and they also signify something that scares / excites me about being in a rock 'n' roll band. What if you were responsible for someone's violent reaction to music? You'd spent hours and hours crafting what seemed like the perfect tune, only to have someone react in such a disgusted, hateful manner. If you could craft a song that would simultaneously repulse and attract different sets of people, the EXACT people that you were aiming for - that must be what success is all about. Isn't that an exciting idea? It is to me.
I had a glimpse of this once. We released a song / video combination for something I'd written. We were very proud of it, and had spent a rather long time (and a lot of money, by our standards) creating the video, involving all our friends. The finished piece is out there garnering more internet plays all the time. It's something I'm proud of. Anyway, at the time of it's release, most people responded quite well. But there was one person, who's name I never bothered to memorize that said something like "This is the worst music I have ever heard in my life!" My response to this wasn't a negative one. I laughed my ass off! I felt successful. Here we had so many positive comments and reviews, but this one person just could NOT stand our song. How gleeful it was. I still mark it down as one of my proudest moments. I hope I ruined that person's day with my little song. Maybe he went home and yelled at his kid that day because of that terrible song I wrote. Maybe his kid reacted in a sullen, introverted way that all the best artists would. Maybe the kid went into his room and picked up a guitar and starting bashing out harsh power chords and continued the cycle. This is what I choose to believe happened. It's a nice little fantasy.
Have you ever heard rock music drifting from a small, portable, shitty sounding radio? All your auditory senses pick up are the high, tinny notes that bleed in and out of total imperceptible noise. The bass is essentially non-existent, the vocals are lost among the screeching feedback and it's useless to try and pick up what the singer is saying. This is rock music at its' rawest and most primal. Several bands embody this better than any (Mc5, Sonics, Stooges, early Damned). This kinda of music is generally unpleasant to the average person. It is hoarse, skull-rattling and not the least bit commercial. My dad would slap the shit out of the radio if any of those bands started playing. He is much more in tune with soft, aurally pleasing bands like Bob Seger and the fuckin' Eagles. Punk rock makes him want to shit his pants violently.
The MC5 were such a great group, and they also signify something that scares / excites me about being in a rock 'n' roll band. What if you were responsible for someone's violent reaction to music? You'd spent hours and hours crafting what seemed like the perfect tune, only to have someone react in such a disgusted, hateful manner. If you could craft a song that would simultaneously repulse and attract different sets of people, the EXACT people that you were aiming for - that must be what success is all about. Isn't that an exciting idea? It is to me.
I had a glimpse of this once. We released a song / video combination for something I'd written. We were very proud of it, and had spent a rather long time (and a lot of money, by our standards) creating the video, involving all our friends. The finished piece is out there garnering more internet plays all the time. It's something I'm proud of. Anyway, at the time of it's release, most people responded quite well. But there was one person, who's name I never bothered to memorize that said something like "This is the worst music I have ever heard in my life!" My response to this wasn't a negative one. I laughed my ass off! I felt successful. Here we had so many positive comments and reviews, but this one person just could NOT stand our song. How gleeful it was. I still mark it down as one of my proudest moments. I hope I ruined that person's day with my little song. Maybe he went home and yelled at his kid that day because of that terrible song I wrote. Maybe his kid reacted in a sullen, introverted way that all the best artists would. Maybe the kid went into his room and picked up a guitar and starting bashing out harsh power chords and continued the cycle. This is what I choose to believe happened. It's a nice little fantasy.