Reaction piece to “The RISE and FALL of ROCK ‘N’ ROLL“ (not good)
No reviews this week. Not that there is a shortage of tunes, far from it, there is the new Bell Witch album, Re-TROS, Igorrr, Ivolve… Tons of music waiting to be reviewed. No, the reason is that with the holiday period happening, my schedule has been turned upside and down and there is not a single opportunity for me to sit down and attentively listen to an album.
However, there has been a video so cringy that I simply had to talk about it: “The RISE and FALL of ROCK ‘N’ ROLL” by SpectreSoundStudios. In case, you’re not familiar with the channel: it is run by Glenn Fricker, a part time producer, part time YouTuber and part time day jobber because neither of the previous two gigs makes enough money to pay the mortgage and the bills. He has some popularity and I followed him for a little while. Although I’m no longer subscribed to his channel, his videos still pop up in my YouTube-overview for some reason that only the YouTube-algorithm knows. In this particular video Fricker goes over the history of rock music, not just rock ‘n’ roll, and tries to build up to the conclusion that the labels are screwing over REAL musicians with REAL talent who play REAL instrument and REAL music is in the shitter. All that in a timespan of 9 minutes and 17 seconds with his typical, loud, obnoxious deliverance.
Bad videos are nothing to him but this one is just embarassing at every level. It is not informative, funny or insightful. One of the most blatant shortcomings is that Fricker doesn’t mention any band or trend that came after Nirvana. Based on his rambling you’d think that Radiohead, White Stripes or the whole Britpop wave never happened and neither did funk, hip hop, let alone the new wave of hip hop with Drake and Kendrick. It raises the question: has he stopped listening to the radio after 1994, is he really that narrow minded or is he just playing the part to pander to the views (and add revenue) from the metalweeabos?
Since I can’t imagine any somewhat serious producer being borderline autistic like him, I’m more inclined to speculate he doesn’t buy his own bullshit. In which case he is a phoney, just like the popstars from the 2000’s that he bashes in his video. Otherwise, he is incompetent and the best he can do, is sell his studio, pay off the mortgage and just start a manga channel.
Contrary to what Fricker proclaims in the video, there is no conspiracy against rock music or metal but as The Needle Drop’s Anthony Fantano explained in his video on the more or less same topic from THREE YEARS ago, rock is too busy kissing its once glorious ass to notice that other, fresher sounds has popped up: EDM had its hype but it’s still a major cultural phenomenon, trap exploded, there are some exciting and accessible things going in jazz. There is just a lot going on that is fresher, more exciting than ripping off Led Zeppelin and the music industry, not music charity, goes where the audience goes.
But even if rock is not the most popular music on the radio, does it matter? If you really love a genre, do you care how popular it is? I’ve got plenty of issues with the overly materialistic philosophy of trap but I just turned 37. What the fuck would I be telling to a 15 year old who is more cynical than me and has a better understanding of the world than I had at the same age? My time is over, Fricker’s is over and soon Lil’ Pump’s will be too. Music is a living thing and it is constantly mutating.
But his most disgusting statement is that rock is supposedly dead. Mainstream rock has been reduced to a handful of beerbellied 50 year olds playing 30 year old songs but there is plenty of great stuff happening in the underground. Hardcore punk has been revived again, bands like Ulver, Omrade, Re-TROS and in their own way Death Grips are taking metal and rock into the 21st century. Hell, most rockfans have had no problem embracing The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers or more recently Perturbator. In my opinion it just comes down to “acceptance”. Accept that a certain esthetic belonged to a certain era and accept that said era is over. Accept the sound of the present. If your standard in 2017 is still Judas Priest and early Metallica, it might be time to retire from music.
And maybe it is time for the older generations to stop trying to catch up with today’s music and telling their kids what good music is. Also, fuck you, Glenn.
