The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 6 of 17)

br> -- Paul Petersen br> Hillsboro, Oregon /p>

I wouldn't write rock music off quite yet. I would write off "rock radio," however. The over commercialized, talked over, tired FM DJ's used to be the radicals anonymously giving their contest winners 5 lb. bags of weed back in the early '70s. But along the way management realized that in order to compete and keep the lights on, they had to advertise. Advertisers and the advertisements civilized commercial rock, and the ad cycles clipped the artistry of the "long play" (LP).

The kind of commercial rock being produced these days is also turning away large segments of the young populace. We adults have all heard enough Zeppelin and Stones, but it's still popular because the young kids find it preferable to the navel-gazing introspective, dour musings of bands like Green Day and Staind. These days, modern rock music, like a lot of Hollywood, is producing "heavy Trips" instead of entertainment. They cannot blame piracy or Chinese knock-offs for a lackluster product. I'll buy it if I dig it. But what I dig ain't what they're tying their broadcasting successes to these days.

Some here may remember the Sex Pistols recently flipping off the "Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame" induction ceremony in "their" honor. When groups like the Sex Pistols and the Ramones where saving rock music from its Southern California malaise of the late '70s, commercial FM ignored them, the major recording industries wished they would go away. Eventually, they had to play catch up with lame imitations (see Hollywood remakes article) in hopes of getting in on some of the action.

p>Mr. Tyrrell may also recall an old Spectator article, (I forget the author's name) about veterans protesting draft-dodging Bill Clinton's speech at the Vietnam Memorial in D.C. early in his presidency. The author, a veteran himself, waxed an epiphany that the protesters of the liberals' savior, Bill Clinton, were the "new libertarians" or new radical protesters and that liberals now represented the crusty establishment "status quo." All the while Rush Limbaugh had turned the corner on immortalizing AM as the new underground hideout of the conservative think tank. Thus saving AM radio for the free thinkers and leaving FM to the "establishment." br> -- P. Aaron Jones br> Huntington Woods, Michigan /p>

Mr. Tyrrell -- I usually love all of your pieces and I even love the one you just wrote on Rock and Roll. However, I gotta tell you one thing. The Beach Boys may have a lot of social/mental/emotional problems but one thing they will always have is their "SUMMER" music.

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