What is your opinion of Rock as a composer?

I'm just curious to see what you guys think about rock.

Theres a lot of sub genres and things some would consider rock but others wouldn't, but for the purpose of this thread we will just call it all rock.

I really love a lot of classical, especialy anything with counter point. But I love rock too. I become bored with most chorus/verse songs but I do like a good many, from all different eras too. I like progressive rock more than other types.

But what makes music rock? Fast tempo? Lots of repetition of 16th note drones? Thick sounding instruments? Low levels of polyphony?

It does seem like a pretty simple style. Is there really any merit in it past pleasing the masses?

I have a great love for rock. It's what I started out playing/listening to. I will love rock until the day I die. It's as much a part of me as classical.

I'm just curious to see what you guys think about rock.

Theres a lot of sub genres and things some would consider rock but others wouldn't, but for the purpose of this thread we will just call it all rock.

I really love a lot of classical, especialy anything with counter point. But I love rock too. I become bored with most chorus/verse songs but I do like a good many, from all different eras too. I like progressive rock more than other types.

But what makes music rock? Fast tempo? Lots of repetition of 16th note drones? Thick sounding instruments? Low levels of polyphony?

It does seem like a pretty simple style. Is there really any merit in it past pleasing the masses?

Yes, it doesn't matter if anything is complex at all. People forget that the only purpose is for enjoyment. I personally enjoy listening to Dream Theater over Bach any day.

The Doors are in my Holy Trinity. (alongside Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen)

The Mars Volta!

I absolutely love rock to bits...along with classical music, baroque music, electronica, blues, trance, jazz, reggae, folk, dub, electro, incidental music, funk etc. etc. Music to me is absolutely amazing. Whatever kind of style it is in. True, I rate some styles above others, but that doesn't mean I don't like the other styles

I listen to a lot of different genres, and rock definitely forms a large part of my spectrum. I'm into people/bands like Joe Satriani, Dream Theater (as previously mentioned by TMOL), and Led Zeppelin.

I used to be into a lot of Rock and (more so) metal, now the only 'rock' I listen to is Iron Maden, Judas Priest and now and again Megadeth.

Just like in any genre of music, there is bad rock and there is good rock. The rock I like is the more genre-bending kind of experimental-ish stuff like Oingo Boingo, Beck, They Might Be Giants, and Bjork. Intelligent music, rather than mindless trite harmonic progressions and the tired old guitar-bass-drums formula. Oingo Boingo bends a poppy new wavey 80's sound into progressive rock with their intelligent harmonies and especially intricate rhythms, and adds a horn section to make it ska-like, with off the wall vocals and occasionally poignant and profound lyrics. Danny Elfman's love of african instruments and Steve Bartek's crazy electric guitar solos add together to form an unusual although entirely unique sound.

... stuff like Oingo Boingo, Beck, They Might Be Giants, and Bjork. Intelligent ...

TMBG is awesome. Other than classical, I listen to Sinatra, Regina Spektor, and a variety of other things, but I'm not exactly devoted to one particular artist/band.

The Doors are in my Holy Trinity. (alongside Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen)

I love Joni Mitchell! I heard she cut an album with Chuck Mingus--I SO wanna hear that!! I'm a rock fan myself. I love a lot of various artists (overall, but also within rock), such as:

Duran Duran

My Chemical Romance

Bowling for Soup

Mindless Self Indulgence

2 Gryphon

Blackfield

Queen

Richard Marx

Ludo

Savage Garden

Sixpence None The Richer

Chicago

... Well I don't listen to rock :laugh:

Maybe I've only heard the bad kind.

... Well I don't listen to rock :laugh:

Maybe I've only heard the bad kind.

"Good" and "bad" are subjective. If you just don't like rock, then pretty much ALL of it will be "the bad kind" to you. I know for me, I can't STAND that bubble-headed 50s rock (a la "Little Shop of Horrors"). It makes me want to strangle kittens.

"Good" and "bad" are subjective. If you just don't like rock, then pretty much ALL of it will be "the bad kind" to you. I know for me, I can't STAND that bubble-headed 50s rock (a la "Little Shop of Horrors"). It makes me want to strangle kittens.

Well I despised every single rock piece I've ever heard... and yes, quite right, 50s rock is despicable.

I do have to say that I HATE rock bass.

Ugh it makes me so mad. I'm generalizing extremely but all bass does in rock is drone or play exactly what the guitar plays. Then it gets mixed out of the recordings so it obviously wasn't neccecary anyway. At least when you have two guitars in a band they do different things, but the bass player hates to be challenged I guess.

Hey, anybody heard hardcore or grindcore punk? Aw man its awfull. Its all based on dissonance. And I don't mean "fourths are considered dissonant and should not be used" I mean half-step dissonance. It pretty much goes powerchord, powerchord, dissonance, dissonace, etc. And all the vocals are screams too. Pretty neat huh.

I do have to say that I HATE rock bass.

Ugh it makes me so mad. I'm generalizing extremely but all bass does in rock is drone or play exactly what the guitar plays. Then it gets mixed out of the recordings so it obviously wasn't neccecary anyway. At least when you have two guitars in a band they do different things, but the bass player hates to be challenged I guess.

Yeah I can totally agree with that as I'm a bit of a bass player myself. I kind of hate it when it's just a copy of all other parts. That's why I don't like rock bass in general neither cause it's just too boring to play. There's no freedom at all in rock bass like in jazz/fusion/funk/progressive rock and some pop bass. I just can't stand when you barely can hear the bass on recordings like it doesn't matter. I think bass is very important in rock/electric music and should be emphazised more in recordings and in live situations (I hate it in lives when they have that kind of "boom" bass where you almost can't hear what note is being played)

Anyways, my favorite rock genre has to be progressive rock because of it's eclectic style not only picking one kind of sound. And prog is in general more advanced than ordinary rock so I guess that's why it appeals to me that much. Something I value is originality and I guess that's what prog rocks give to me. Of course, in ordinary rock/metal sometimes there are exceptions that make these overused progressions work because of some reason, but those are exceptions and every genre has them.

[EDIT]Anyways, if you guys haven't heard Gentle Giant, I think you should give it a shot. It's high quality prog from the lovely 70's :( Here's some great videos you might wanna watch

That's one thing I love about Iron Maiden, a great bass player, who's equally audible live and on their CDs.

I agree, as a bass player myself, that most rock bass is pretty boring, but there are notable exeptions, especially in funk rock.

Flea from RHCP= Awesome bass player.

Yup, a lot of the time in Rock the bass guitar merely acts as a "slave" to the other guitars, doubling the lowest note of the chord an octave or two below.

If you are looking for exceptions to this, check out Queens of the Stone Age's earlier recordings. I recall that they had a particularly renowned bassist who unfortunately departed from the group a little while back. Dream Theater also boast more detailed writing than most rock groups (I guess they are prog rock, technically), so you will hear quite captivating bass parts in many of their works.

My favorite genre of rock is progressive by far. Of course, there are so many prog subgenres that thats a little bit a generalization (I don't particularly like progressive metal, speaking in general) and a lot of my favorite bands have since , unfortunately, gone more towards mainstream rock. My favorite groups are, in no particular order:

Yes

Gentle Giant

Genesis

Kansas

Spock's Beard

Jethro Tull

Queen

to name a few. I love the beautiful, elaborate, and complex musical textures these bands often produce, often involving heavy counterpoint and other such devices. Even though 70s Queen is really only part progressive, they're still my favorite band, or at least my second favorite.

So yeah, I like rock a lot, but especially progressive,

-Landon

EDIT: More of the Giant

On Reflection - Really Beautiful Song

Excerpts from Octopus - Contains one of my favorite acoustic parts of all time + a madrigal (how often do you see that in rock?)

I guess a lot of you know it, but:

It's a blues guitarist and a rock guitarist talking about music.

Blues guitarist says: "Oh, I'm bored from playing to same three chords over and over again"

Rock guitarist answers: "Uh!? What's the third one?"

Some "rock" tunes are better than other, but in general, all the new punk, punk-rock, emo, etc. is just not enough innovative for my tastes... the first musician/composer to make extended use of power chords was a genius, other fade more and more into imitation.

Yes I know that saying and it isn't really true. Yes, there are some rubbish, unoriginal bands out there, but I just don't listen to them, just as I won't listen to an uninnovative composer in another genre.

A lot of rock is more complicated than it sounds, just look at some of the chords Hendrix used.

And also, a lot of rock is the way its played, the feeling that is put into it, and, in a lot of cases, the aggression. You can't experience that if you haven't been to a live rock concert.

Very true. In fact, I find most of the new bands today pretty bad. Not to say there aren't some really innovative groups out there, because there are. Its the same with classical or traditional composers: there's some really original stuff and some not so original. There is some really original three-chord rock, even though the most original bands, in my opinion are the progressive groups.

Oh, and Kansas is coming through my way this May! I think a lot of people stereotype them for their more popular radio-friendly songs and dismiss their sprawling masterpieces like The Pinnacle, Magnum Opus, Icarus, etc

-Landon

For me, it's like this

Rock = 3 chords (possible innovation)

Emo Rock = 2 chords (no innovation)

Hard Rock = 4 chords (blunt music)

hehehe, every time I see this thread topic in the list, I keep thinking of that wrestler "The Rock" and wondering... gosh, does he compose now?