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The Nation's Pulse
The Fun Won’t Last
But for now, Bill Haley has finally found a rock music successor.
The number one song in America is a rock tune. This isn’t as atavistic as a silent movie winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards. But in Chartland, where pop princesses and rap royalty reign, rock just hasn’t been part of the ruling class for some time. For the past five weeks at least, rock has ruled again.
“We Are Young” by the band fun. — as in lower-case “fun” period — is the first rock ‘n’ roll song to top the Billboard Hot 100 since the summer of 2008, when Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida” became the 999th number-one song of the rock ‘n’ roll era. Those are the only two rock songs of the last decade to claim the top spot. To put this in perspective, Adele, LMFAO, Rihanna, and Katy Perry have each spent considerably more time atop the singles chart over the last year than have all rock acts combined over the last decade.
Many purists might point out that the situation is even worse than the recent chart drought indicates. Neither “We Are Young” nor “Viva la Vida” is rock ‘n’ roll in any Chuck Berry sense. Who stole their guitars? The musical taxonomy perhaps owes more to what they are not (teeny-bop pop, rap, country, R&B) than to what they are, which is harder to pin down.
To be sure, a top-charting single has never really been the measuring stick of the guitar-bass-drums set. Neither Led Zeppelin nor The Who scored a number one hit in the U.S. But acts as diverse as The Edgar Winter Group, Fine Young Cannibals, Guns N’ Roses, EMF, The Box Tops, Simple Minds, and Don McLean all found number one without really looking for it.
Number one used to look for rock. Now it couldn’t find it with a search party.
But fun. somehow stumbled upon numero uno. The bestselling song of 2012 is upbeat and uplifting. Singer Nate Ruess does Lindsey Buckingham impersonating Freddie Mercury. The main instrument here is his theatrical voice. “We Are Young” is a soaring, sing-songy mantra: “Tonight, we are young/so let’s set the world on fire/we can burn brighter/than the sun.” If you didn’t initially catch this infectious ode to youth, it comes around again five times in a multi-tracked vocal accompanied by a monotonous beat and a reiteration of a single piano chord. Instead of boring, repetition becomes a habit.
The most recent rock ‘n’ roll single to claim the highest spot on the charts has much in common with rock ‘n’ roll’s first number-one hit. Whereas Bill Haley pledges to “rock ‘til the broad daylight,” fun. boasts of drinking to last call. Both understand their mission as supplying the soundtrack for the springtime of life. When Bill Haley and the Comets conquered the charts with “Rock Around the Clock” for eight weeks in the summer of 1955, they did so after a slow climb that began the previous year as a b-side. Similarly, fun. released “We Are Young” in September of 2011 only to reach number one in March 2012. Radio, the catalyst for most hits, proved a latecomer for both tunes. The television program Glee and a one-minute Chevrolet Super Bowl commercial catapulted “We Are Young” into public consciousness. The movie Blackboard Jungle did the trick for “Rock Around the Clock.”
Something went wrong for rock somewhere between “Rock Around the Clock” and “We Are Young.” Rock stars morphed from supernovas to red dwarfs. The genre became lyrically opaque, sonically dour, and stylistically inconspicuous. In a single generation, rock evolved from Elvis in sequins to Cobain in flannel, from Roger Daltrey swinging a microphone to Eddie Vedder staring at his shoes, from McCartney singing silly love songs to Morrissey sobbing that last night he dreamt that somebody loved him. The phrase “alternative rock” became a redundancy, as it pushed rock itself outside of the mainstream. The more seriously they took themselves the less seriously the public took them.
The success of “We Are Young,” coming within a genre that perversely now views success as a failure, may prove rock music’s last gasp as popular music. The rock acts looking down at number one from below play dark, depressing, uninspiring, inaccessible music that you can drink but not dance to. That’s just not fun.
About the Author
Daniel J. Flynn is the author of Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and the Everyman Elevated America. He blogs at www.flynnfiles.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (51) | Leave a comment
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Trebuchet| 4.6.12 @ 9:00AM
If you want to hear some early 70's style Rock remenicent of Led Zep, Bad Co. and Deep Purple get hold of a CD of "Black County Communion". Joe Bonamaso is a guitar master in the mold of Page and Blackmore. If you were more the Delaney, Bonnie & Friends, Joe Cocker, Allman Bros type buy some Derrick Trucks Band. These two groups really capture the genre of late 60's early 70's Rock.
Benjamin P. Glaser| 4.6.12 @ 12:56PM
Ditto 100% to this. BCC is phenomenal.
Alan Brooks| 4.6.12 @ 6:21PM
One o' clock one o' clock one o' clock rock
One o' clock one o' clock one o' clock rock
One o' clock one o' clock one o' clock rock
One o' clock one o' clock one o' clock rock
gearjammer| 4.6.12 @ 9:47AM
Sound like a bunch of effeminate whiners. No kick ass. Can't imagine these wimps souping up an old Ford coupe. No kick ass at all. Seriously.
Doorgunner| 4.7.12 @ 10:58AM
Effeminate is right. Flynn is a total maroon; the guy.is singing about his lover- his GAY lover.
And the song sucks. The lyrics are trite, the melody has the dynamism of plain yogurt, and the singer.has the vocal range of a kazoo.
And it's a song about GAY LOVERS; kicking is not what they're doing to ass.
Flynn, really?
Occam's Tool| 4.9.12 @ 2:57AM
Again: AC/DC and ZZ Top good, strange #1s not so good. C'mon, the Knack had "my Sharona," for cryin' out loud.
Vaughan Man| 4.9.12 @ 11:46AM
Yeah, the song definitely sucks and it does not ROCK. But I didn't know "maroon" was an insult.
Not Special Ops Bill| 4.6.12 @ 10:05AM
For Frank Zappa, the decline of rock began with the addition of the fuzz tone handle to the electric guitar.
Alan Brooks| 4.6.12 @ 6:23PM
Zappa was subversive- he had actual talent-
good thing he died, eh? he was a threat to the music industry.
Douglas Fletcher | 4.8.12 @ 12:42AM
You fuzz tone box or pedal, don't you?
Not Special Ops Bill| 4.9.12 @ 10:11AM
I was ignorant on that point. But although I was wrong on the details, Zappa was right.
JP| 4.6.12 @ 10:09AM
There's an entire industry of post grads whos study, the socio-political of music as well as its evolution. It should be noted that Bob Dylan came about just when the old 50's style Rock-n'Roll was peaking. His introsepctive, philosophical navel gazing set a tone that still finds inpsiration in the newer "Indie Rock."
Perhaps, we should just call today's music , "Pop Music". Rock and Roll died a long, long time ago.
albert constantine jr.| 4.6.12 @ 10:35AM
The first time I heard this song I thought REO Speedwagon had released a new single.
albert constantine jr.| 4.6.12 @ 10:52AM
Also, regarding the Bill Haley reference, Albert Constantine Sr. is not the Al Constantine who used to play the accordion for Bill Haley.
Vaughan Man| 4.9.12 @ 11:48AM
Ha. Yeah, exactly. When the hardest rocking song on the charts sounds like REO then yes, Mr. Kravitz was right: Rock is dead!
Bob| 4.6.12 @ 11:03AM
I wouldn't be celebrating this song. It reeks of hipster culture, and telling youths to set the world on fire isn't exactly good for anyone.
Vern Crisler| 4.6.12 @ 11:47AM
I've never heard the song; but maybe because I'm immersed in Hawaiian songs and banjo music right now. I stopped listening to three chord "rock" long ago, after Yes released Tales From Topographic Ocean. What was the point after that?
Mike Hawk| 4.7.12 @ 9:36AM
Have you heard about the wife who fed her husband lots of beans and pinapples?? She liked Hawaiian music.
Crassus| 4.6.12 @ 11:56AM
Here's an interesting story about Bill Haley. It seems that Haley and his first wife were locked in a bitter divorce with the main bone of contention being which party would get control of the marital house. The divorce court awarded the house to Mrs. Haley. Not long afterwards, the IRS began hounding Haley for back taxes. Since the couple had filed joint returns they went after the former Mrs. Haley too and ended up taking the house away from her. You know that the Father of Rock and Roll had a good laugh about that one.
Douglas Fletcher | 4.8.12 @ 12:44AM
Yeah, he was laughing all the way to the taco stand.
It's A Cunning Plan, Actually| 4.6.12 @ 12:07PM
I became a jazz fan not only because I enjoy the music, but also because the kind of rock 'n' roll I grew up with is dead or worn out beyond repair. I listen 88.5 WXPN, the University Of Pennsylvania's radio station in the work vehicle & they are all about new music, but all of it is alternative non-rock music (Foster The People, Bon Iver, Belle & Sebastion, etc.) . Why do I listen to this station? Because there is no cd player in a company truck & the only alternative is "classic rock" stations which have killed this music with their hits only setlists & "album-oriented rock stations which play nothing but boring, repititious heavy metal, alternative crap, & punk rock with a few Led Zeppelin songs here & there. No thanks. Most of the '50s & early '60s era "Chuck Berry" type rock 'n' roll has been run off the airwaves by the utter nitwits who run "classic rock" & "oldies" stations, even Elvis' music has been whitled down to 3 to 5 hits which are played. When is the last time you heard Ricky Nelson on the radio? Dion & The Belmonts? Bill Haley & The Comets? Chuck Berry? The FM radio dial sucks from end to end & the idiots running the stations believe they know what people want to hear more than the listeners do. The chart toppers today have probably never been exposed to early rock 'n' roll. "Classic rock" radio is a perfect example of what is wrong with radio today. How many are sick of hearing "Freebird"? "Sweet Home Alabama"?, "Hotel California", "More Than A Feeling"? Any Fleetwood Mac featuring Stevie Nicks, especially the "Rumours" album? Any '70s era Pink Floyd? Classic rock radio has destroyed the album oriented rock of the late '60s & the '70s. The stuff which was most popular anyway. There was no such thing as "classic radio" until the film "Forrest Gump" became a big hit in theaters. This is where the wearing out of the hits of late '60s & '70s rock began. They say good music is timeless, but I am so sick of the "classis rock" I grew up with that I would much rather hear jazz, especially by Miles Davis or John Coltrane, some old Chess blues, bluegrass music, classical music, or '50s & early '60s era rock & roll. I went from being a "Led Head" to not touching their albums for going on three years now. Want to see a band that truly inspires me & they rarely got played on the radio in their brief heyday & NEVER get played on the radio now. I picked up a guitar due to the founder & leader of this band. Watch:
http://youtu.be/RtmW2ek7WkQ
Mike Hawk| 4.7.12 @ 9:39AM
Disco killed R&R. I hate disco, ergo processed music.
AhiaGuy| 4.7.12 @ 11:31PM
Boy, you got that right. There were some good songs written & played in my youth, but they weren't good enough to hear 5000+ times.
If I never hear "Moondance" again it'll be too soon.
Dick Nome| 4.8.12 @ 9:38AM
I never could stand Michael Jackoff.
Dave | 4.6.12 @ 12:57PM
Being a grizzled, retired vet of 33 years as a rock 'n roll radio jock from the '60s through mid-'90s, I can testify to the comment that "most artists never really look for a number one song, it sort of finds THEM." Back in the day and going forward, most recording artists who managed to land a working contract, simply hoped one of their initial offerings would make it onto ANY station's playlist, much less nail the top spot on Billboard. Again, when it comes to predicting which (select one) platter-tape-c.d.- download will grab the next top bullet, it's still a game of "let's just see how it goes." Sometimes it goes better than anyone at the recording session dreamed.
Often, the usual suspects would end-up grabbing the top rung (Elvis, Beatles and the rest) but occasionally, one of those "Man, we didn't see THAT comin' " lands on number one.
Which ones?
Well, anyone remember the classic chat topper Ballad of The Green Berets? Or how about that legendary finger popper from Larry Verne in 1960: "Please, Mr. Custer?" There's a few more on the list, but those two just jumped off my own Back Pages. How about yours?
The dark horses will still roam the country. I guess g.q. public still loves an underdog. But I figure the song Chuck Berry landed on the charts in '64 breaks it down best: "(goes to show)You Never Can Tell."
And I think that's kinda' fun.
Musicdad| 4.6.12 @ 1:03PM
With all due respect to the other posters and Mr Flynn, there is a ton of excellent rock n' roll out there today. Pop hits and chart toppers have always been a tightly controlled market. Ton 10 rarely includes innovation or art or "kick a**" feel. Those who dismiss 'alternative' or 'indy' are cutting themselves off from a whole world of music.
I was born in the 67 and missed alot of the popular music that came through the social upheavel of those times - however looking back through You-tube, Pandora etc. I get a great view of music over time. It seems to me that the golden age of Pop was the result of cultural sharing between several demographics over different regions as radio began to migrate to FM. It seems that once the radio became a viable marketplace to the masses, the whole system began to promote mediocrity as record execs and companies played safe by offering only what they knew would sell to the largest demographic. Thus Pop has been reduced to what safely sells and not what informs (artistically) or entertains.
I can't even listen to the radio today because they don't play anything of any interest to me. I sympathize with those who are tired of so called 'classic rock' stations. Though I get most of my entertainment from Pandora and You-tube, my son has turned me on to a slew of current 'indy' bands. The cool and hip today get all their music from the web. Try these: MGMT, The Killers, Black Keys, Franz Ferdinand, Bon Iver, The Shins, Deathcab For Cutie, Iron and Wine, Cold War Kids, Band of Horses, Mumford and Sons.
albert constantine jr.| 4.6.12 @ 1:11PM
I make CDs and play them in my vehicle when I'm not listening to talk radio. One advantage is in addition to whatever crap they listen to on their Ipods, my kids know Gene McDaniels' "Tower of Strength", and can identify Elvis and Roy Orbison tunes.
Ron| 4.6.12 @ 2:51PM
Mr. Flynn,
The reason rock has fallen so far, is that it has become an even greater arm of the left...Whiny, preachy condescending claptrap without just plain fun (pun intended) in it...Even Van Halen's new single "Tattoo" has some BS about the union fight and struggle still going on...I mean, come on, really?
Then there was the abomination sung by Julio Iglesias' son back just after NerObama was elected with the ling "partying with Barack on the White House lawn."
Get real...Rock is about fun, chicks, and partying, and should never have become the mechanism for political BS...Bono should be ashamed...As is anyone that really believes their art should be "activism." Just get back to being entertaining!
But, not to get too far off topic...Bowling For Soup is a Texas punk rock band that has really fun music to listen to. Check out a song called "No Hablo Ingles" for a tongue in cheek view of their thinking.
Mike Hawk| 4.7.12 @ 9:44AM
It began with John Lennon's 'Imagine', the anthem of the the anarchist/gimmefreeshit leftists typified by the Occupy slobs.
gearjammer| 4.6.12 @ 5:05PM
we live in the everything blows culture. I hike now-no radio-no ipod. i like it better. nothing much is authentic. so when you do watch a movie-even a dazzling spec effects deal-it is good. a nice change. but day in and day out of this barrage and you get numb-well i do. wonder were these kids plugged into sound and video non stop since days one are gonna be at my age.
Seek| 4.6.12 @ 5:47PM
The reason for this state of affairs is that the main demographic market for singles, blacks and young females (especially non-college-bound ones), are completely pop & hip hop-oriented. They're just not rock people. Most are total airheads, frankly.
Then again, as a rocker, this doesn't trouble me all that much. Are the White Stripes, the Raveonettes and the Dum Dum Girls any less fun and cool because for not having had a Number One hit with a bullet? Do old-timers like Peter Wolf or Leon Russell care that they're not likely going to get that fluke single that gets played to death on Top 40? I don't think so.
Todd Powers| 4.7.12 @ 3:02AM
I've never understood hip hops appeal. You're right in that is what young people listen to today. It just bores me. Like an earlier post, I've been listening to more and more jazz. And there is some good stuff out there. All you old rockers should give it a try.
Mike Hawk| 4.7.12 @ 10:43AM
Hip-hop and rap are not music. It lacks, rhythm, lyrical quality, melody and other factors. Those factors they do have are crassness if not vulgarity, a synthetic annoying beat and mindless yammering. I find it interesting when a car pulls up behind me at a stop with windows closed and I can feel the low pounding thud whump, whump of whatever is eminating from the speakers inside that often makes it feel like my vehicle is vibrating. Alas, in their old age those yoots won't be able to listen any more as their ears will be blown out. Somehow I can't picture hip-hop as a golden oldie.
Skippy| 4.7.12 @ 3:10PM
Oh, c'mon.
You mean you can't see a day when we sit on our porches and hold hands while Tupac's haunting lyric which boils down to: “Don’t
motherf--- with me, you motherf----- ,
or you’ll wind up like all them other motherf------
motherf-----s (Repeat until
fade)".
Ah, sweet memories.
Dick Nome| 4.8.12 @ 9:41AM
Yeah, ya muh-fuh, Ya gots a point. Do we get a drive-by shooting with it??
Ted R.| 4.7.12 @ 3:28AM
"The more seriously they took themselves, the less seriously the public took them."
You could might as well say the same for groups like Pink Floyd - who certainly take themselves more seriously than the Rolling Stones. Likewise for R.E.M. The Stones have some great lyrics, but seldom do they go in the direction of poetry. Great music should be about poetry.
Maybe what you're doing, really, is just using music as a proxy to complain about the 60's all over again. I have to inform you, that Bob Dylan taught Rock 'n Roll what real creative things could be done with the genre; when 60's artists learned that, we got an explosion of musical creativity - which includes the Beatles, extends through Floyd, the Sex Pistols, and U2, and on through The Smiths (and Morrissey), Radiohead, and Arcade Fire.
Their songs are often "dour" because it's popular music for adults. Rock has left the bubblegum to the kids. Yet here you are complaining about it!
Vaughan Man| 4.9.12 @ 11:50AM
Radiohead, Arcade Fire and The Smiths is music for adolescents too. Don't kid yourself, man.
Trebuchet| 4.7.12 @ 12:49PM
It is so sad that music today has lost the punch of the early Rock. Like I stated in my earlier post there are some bright spots in music but they get no air time because of the way the industry is controlled by people with agendas and tin ears (although he’s a fading influence David Geffen comes to mind). The heads of the music industry today think they can make STARs, where as in the early days even up through the 70’s the industry found stars. There was Cadillac Records (Chuck Berry) and Specialty Records (Little Richard). These guys originated the hard driving Rock and Roll that even today when played right can get people jumping. I was lucky enough to see both perform live in the 60’s and they would have the whole place jumping up and down. I remember Little Richard closed his show with Good Golly Miss Molly and by the end he was on top of his piano jumping up and down as was the band and everyone in the crowd, I thought for sure the stage was going to collapse. Same thing when Chuck Berry closed with Johnnie B Good. And what was it about that beat that got everyone going? Why did it become known as Rock and Roll? Little Richard said the beat came from the Steam Locomotives that high balled past his place when he was a kid, it was that CHOOchoo-choo-choo, CHOOchoo-choo-choo as they rocked and rolled down the track that gave birth to Rock, it’s at its heart. That beat in one form or another stayed there through the Beatles, Stones, Yardbirds, Who, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin. But now it doesn’t matter how loud music is it is still flaccid and relies on gimmicks (could you see Eric Clapton wearing a meat dress?) I have the DVD of Hendrix Live at Monterey. This was his first American performance; there was no pyrotechnics no enormous set pieces, no half naked dancers, no tone loc, no lip-synching and very little media hype except word of mouth inside the industry. Hendrix steps in to the spot light and strafes the audience with the opening high voltage machine gun riffs of “Killing Floor” and when Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding launch their assault in behind him, there it is the Heart of Rock, that grab you by the throat, smack you in the face beat. Nobody made Jimi a STAR he was a STAR. My one fantasy is that if I had a time machine and I could go back to 67 and bring Jimi and his band forward to today and have him open for Lady GagGag. I can bet you Jimi would still become a STAR and Lady GagGag would go the way of The Archies.
Occam's Tool| 4.7.12 @ 3:57PM
Hey, guys, I still like ZZ Top. I also like, a lot, ELO. But there's a lot to be said for ZZ Top, the legendary Texas Trio, whose music sounds like flat tires slamming at high speed down a dusty West Texas road, and whose only non-bearded member is named Beard.
aware| 4.7.12 @ 5:51PM
Plain to see from the posts here most of you are totally out of the loop. fun= rock and roll? I don't think so.
Here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhedP71N9gQ&feature=related
Or: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
As usual it's metal that is the serious rock and roll. See Symphony X, Vanden Plas, Circus Maximus, etc.
Who needs radio? It never was the place to find the real stuff anyway. Metal bands have never been better.
Ted R.| 4.7.12 @ 8:46PM
Metal? Now there's a example of a genre that takes itself too seriously. Especially all those guys who want to sound like the Cookie Monster.
A few more examples of great modern rock: The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, The Strokes, the Arctic Monkeys.
Douglas Fletcher | 4.8.12 @ 12:47AM
Sorry Ted, those bands all suck from here to Peking.
Vaughan Man| 4.9.12 @ 11:51AM
Jane's Addiction? Their last good album came out in 1990. 22 years ago, dude. Chili Peppers? 1986.
Steve| 4.8.12 @ 12:13AM
Rock music has been a graveyard for 40 years. There were a few isolated bright spots in the 70's such as Fleetwod Mac and Blondie but basically the day American Pie dropped off the charts is really the day the music died.
One exception, I'm a little embarrassed to admit it but I like the Jonas Brothers. They are quite talented for their age and they had some good hits for awhile that were reminiscent of the mid 60's. Too bad they pretty much stopped recording.
Douglas Fletcher | 4.8.12 @ 12:51AM
My date for the death of rock and roll is when Bachmann-Turner Overdrive put out "Taking Care of Business." What an absolute piece of brain-dead bleating that thing was, all the more sad when you compare it to some of the expansive music Randy Bachmann wrote for the Guess Who, like "Undun."
To me that record is the shot over the bow that rock and roll had decided to become simplistic and dumb again, instead of being a genre where musicians could really push themselves and sometimes even find audiences that would support that. And of course, punk was waiting in the wings...
Vaughan Man| 4.9.12 @ 11:53AM
Obviously the decline in Rock Music started in the 70's Prog bands like ELP, Yes, Genesis morphed into something garish and annoying. Glam bands like Queen were more concerned with theatricality. Pink Floyd, pseudo-intellectual pretensions. And most importantly: Punk and then so-called Indie music put the final nails in the coffin by teaching people that it wasn't cool to actually learn to play an instrument. The last great Rock N' Roll band? Simple: VAN HALEN!
Amanda| 4.15.12 @ 4:58PM
I love the way this singer's voice covers the verses--the first time I heard it I thought it was cover of "Miss American Pie." Am I the only one?
One other reaction: I love the musicality of the verses, and the chorus has a unifying, anthem-like appeal, but they don't make sense together, neither musically nor thematically. It's weird that a song like this is so disjointed--Are you this generation's "Miss American Pie," or are you "We are the Champions?"