This rock/rap research journey has taken so many twists and turns. For one thing, the music that captivated and enchanted me from the outset has remained captivating and enchanting, almost without exception. I feel confident that is because the music has genuine merit musically and not just emotionally. In fact, as I live with the music longer and listen to a song for the 50th time, I keep finding more and more excellence in it.
On the other hand, there is music that at first I found unattractive at worst, bland and uninteresting at best. One group whose music has really grown on me is that of Guns N' Roses. I've struggled mightily with the issue of GNR's music because I so dislike Axl Rose's whimsical and seemingly random vocal technique. He sounds fine and then he sounds dreadful: harsh, scratchy, squeezed and strained. But I've come to absolutely adore the music of Guns N' Roses, Axl's vocal vagaries norwithstanding. I think 50 years from now when music historians tell the story of classic hard rock, the ORIGINAL band Guns 'N Roses, will stand as one of the top, if not the top, bands in rock history. If so, it will be in SPITE of Axl's on-again off-again vocal performance. Because I find their musical compositions simply incredibly excellent from every standpoint. I'm citing many GNR songs in the text because so many musical concepts are embodied in them.
Another band that has grown on me is Radiohead. I cannot find enough superlatives to describe how simply magical their music is. They sound great and the songs/compositions are filled with all kinds of marvelous chord progressions, metric variety, textural innovations, and just plain beautiful sound. I think Paranoid Android is kind of like Beethoven's Eroica Symphony: a completely new approach to an art form that raises the bar for alternative rock very high indeed.
I've blogged about 30 Seconds to Mars before and I'll say it here: this is a game-changing band. Jared Leto is a Paul McCartney for our time. It may not be recognized now but I am certain it will be and soon. I was part of an effort to turn 30 Seconds To Mars into a major #trendingtopic on Twitter when This is War, their last -- epic -- album was released back in late Fall 2009. It was one of the most exciting efforts I've ever been part of! This is War is that kind of album that you just can't listen to one song: you must listen to it all the way through. It is really an opera or perhaps a choral cantata is a better comparison.
I started out with a total adoration of Aerosmith and U2. I have not forgotten my old loves. I'm the type that never forgets a lover, that remains friends with them after the passion has ended. I am fight phobic and so I and my lovers have always parted peacefully, by mutual agreement, at least on the surface. U2 is still my spiritual anchor in rock music; and Aerosmith will always be my first love. Like the boy I loved in junior high school. My first taste of woman's passion. Never forgot that, or him -- even though he's now balding and overweight and old like the rest of us! Hs! But grown up love is different from adolescent love. It carries with it all the pain and joy and passion and disillusion that maturity brings to us.
And in terms of my "grown up" love for rock music, Alice in Chains remains for me the most beautiful sounding rock band I've heard yet. Beautiful singing, gorgeous Debussy-impressionist harmonies, deeply emotional lyrics and performances. At the end of the day, when all is said and done, I return to Alice in Chains. They are the A section of my rock music listening rondo. They aren't for most people: I think grunge is an acquired taste. But my love for opera, for drama, for lush harmony, for beautiful vocals -- inform and direct my tastes.
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