What Is Rock?

Before I jump right back into our little timeline through music history, I’d like to espouse my ideas on what exactly is the genre referred to as “rock”. Until we establish this basic principle, I think it’s very hard to categorize any music. Rock is such a broad category of music that it encompasses a lot of variety. It has seen a pathway similar to that of plate tectonics in that its subgenres are slowly shifting away from one another in a very divergent manner.

Because of this, as we move through time, the ability to pinpoint a specific piece of music and point-blankly state that it is some type of music (like rock) gets harder and harder to do. Currently, I would say it is almost impossible to clearly identify something as one, and only one, type of music. While we, as humans, like to classify things into neat little packages so our minds can understand, interpret and share with others, we tend to mix things together until we get something we like. I see people’s view of music similar to, say, a chocolate covered strawberry. Someone, one day, decided that they liked chocolate and they liked strawberries. So why not make a strawberry COVERED in chocolate? This constant mixing and interconnectedness also applies towards the ART we consume.

So when someone asks me if a single piece of music is considered “rock”, I hesitate to answer decisively. Maybe if we’re talking about the early rock of the fifties, it would be a different story. But for the most part, the hesitation is a result of the fact that not ONE song is any ONE genre. Each individual piece of music is unique and is heavily influenced by everything that the artist has consumed up until that point in their lives. I don’t believe that anything can be so neatly classified and packaged up into one box as humans so desperately desire to do. I think because there are so many aspects of music, every piece contains a little bit of metal, country, rap, classic rock, classical, jazz etc. While certain qualities may be more pronounced than others, everything is very similar.

Now you’re probably wondering, “Well thanks for all that blah nonsense but you still didn’t answer the question of what rock is!” Well, because music is constantly influenced and changing as generations and time pass, rock has evolved in order to serve its audience. The whole idea that rock is the sound of rebellion makes sense because this has no boundaries and merely fuels the constant evolution into an unknown frontier of musical consumption. I think of rock as more of an idea rather than a specific sound of music. Rock is the idea that causes people to stand up and protest. Rock is the idea that molds the attitude of the younger generation and rock is the idea that GETS molded by the younger generation. Rock is a highly circumstantial concept and what may have been considered “rock” to the people of the seventies may not clearly match the “rock” of the nineties.

To put this whole blog rather bluntly: Rock is a very broad classification of music that is forever changing as time passes and interests change. To confine any one piece of art to a specific music genre is also not appreciating the true nature of ALL aspects of the art. Only the individual can decide whether they believe a certain piece of music serves that rebellious need for the idea of rock because rock is not the electric guitar. Rock is not a wild vocalist. Rock is not an insane drum solo. All these things make up rock and roll but the genre itself goes far beyond in its meaning approaching a constantly changing idea of rebellion.

And that, is rock.