Collegiate Times

As far as I'm concerned there are three simple commandments to the modern American experience, and those are sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

 These tenets may be simple to point out from an outside perspective, but instead of pondering their moral ambiguity or the consequence of living in a material culture, today I've set out to answer the question: What is rock 'n' roll in a modern context?

Facing a generation weaned on "gangsta" rap and auto tuned pop, the modern listener's ability to answer this question will determine whether rock 'n' roll is able to live another century as a prolific genre or is destined to fade out and away.

In my own listening experience the majority of hip-hop has never rung true. Sure NWA and Public Enemy had a message to their music and an intense way of expressing it, but to artists lately it's been all about the bling, the sneakers and fancy cars. What does this have to do with rock 'n' roll? Everything! The same trend that has followed hip-hop -- this transition from an emphasis on the music to the lifestyle that results from it -- is the same trend that has faced rock 'n' roll.

The development of this aesthetic idea over a musical one, starting with Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground in the '70s, has driven the fragmentation of what is known as rock 'n' roll today. This very fragmentation between music and aesthetic is going to have to be compromised in some fashion if the listener wishes to understand rock music.

Now let me pose a question: Are Ray-Bans and tight jeans rock 'n' roll? Your answer to this question is going to vary based on musical experience. If you are able to identify who Metro Station is, you are much more likely to answer yes to this question.

If you're one of the privileged thirty-years-or-older age group, you're much more likely to answer no. Making a massive cultural generalization, I'm going to say that the older folk got it right and that Ray-Bans and tight jeans are not rock 'n' roll, because rock 'n' roll is music. Rock 'n' roll, according to my esteemed professor Steve Mooney, is "the musical expression of a cultural ideology."

Of course, this varies from generation to generation, but what of ours? As the post-millenial fragmenting of the rock genre continues, will this generation have any music to call its own? I say this because since the formation of this music there've been universal experiences, bands and songs that have defined these musical generations.

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