Cuyamaca College Week 5 Rock and Roll Discussion
As discussed briefly in the Week 5 Content Page, the definition of Rock and Roll began to expand over time. Read the following brief article that describes an exchange between Gene Simmons from Kiss and Ice Cube from NWA regarding the definition of Rock and Roll:
After reading the article reply to this discussion post with your definition of Rock and Roll. Is Rock and Roll a musical style with certain musical characteristics? If so describe those musical characteristics. Is Rock and Roll more of a philosophy or mentality? If so describe what makes something Rock and Roll.
Week 5 Content
Welcome to Week 5!
This week we are moving forward in the history of rock to the punk revolution. Defining Punk Rock is difficult because so many people have such different definitions of exactly what punk is. In fact in many ways Punk is really defined more by rebellion and the rejection of any and everything including definitions of musical genres. To the extent that it is possible to speak in a general sense of punk rock what we see is relatively simple musical elements being employed with extreme emotional expression, usually anger.
Unlike the height of classic rock during the 60’s and 70’s, the punk era of the late 70’s into the 90’s saw a much more fractured and diverse popular music scene. Simultaneous to the Punk Revolution we see the rise of disco, the invention of Hip-Hop and an increasingly refined rhythm and blues. This leads to an expansion, though controversially, as to the definition of Rock. Rock and Roll begins to be thought of less as a specific musical genre as a philosophy or lifestyle that can be applied to several genres. In particular Hip-Hop artists begin to become associated with Rock and Roll with groups like NWA eventually being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Gene Simmons from Kiss famously spoke out against this to which Ice Cube replied with the following tweet:
For this week please study the following:
VH1 Documentary on Punk Rock
Documentary on NWA (watch the first 35 minutes)
MTV Documentary
