Girls rock!! – The Runaways

Hello there! (: well I won’t reference this time or maybe just one source because I think I can say a lot about this girl rock band :D As I said in the previous post, in the 80’s there were female rockers, like Joan Jett and Lita Ford. Well, these girls started their band, “The Runaways” in 1975, when everybody thought Rock n’ Roll was for men, and they showed everyone not. A lot of you might know Joan Jett from the song “I love Rock n’ Roll”, but she along with Lita Ford was in The Runaways before going solo. As shown in the picture, they are: Lita (the most amazing girl guitarist I have heard by now), Jackie (who played bass), Joan (who played rhythm guitar, sang, formed the band and is so cool), Sandy (who played drums, and very well), and Cherie (who was the controversial singer). They were so young when they started, Cherie was 16, and the rest where 17 ,I think, just like our age! : D I find that really exciting, when I saw their movie I wanted to leave IB.. XD. In the seventies and eighties where there was more easy to leave school and become a rock star, because as I said everyone loved Rock n’ Roll back then.

Joan Jett was a teenager who wanted to learn guitar but nobody would want to teach her, so she had nothing to do (I never saw her doing her homework in the movie) so she spent her nights going to clubs to dope herself and try to find girls like her. So she found Sandy West, the drummer, and their future producer, Kim Fowley, who helped them find the rest of the members of the band. Cherie Currie wanted to be a singer and she did many times at her school, but the people did not like the music she sang and how she dressed (awesome) so they would throw things at her. Lita Ford was the daughter of Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore (very good guitarist, people say, but an a**hole because he treated my man bad) and already had a guys’ band before, but when she met Joan and Sandy she liked the idea of a girl rock band, I like it too XD. So after they met, the first song they wrote was Cherry Bomb, I think about the singer Cherie Currie. They became really famous and did tours even in Japan.

There is a movie about them :D but I think it never came out here in Mexico, because my rocker friends : P didn’t know about it, but I discovered it online and bought it later ;) That movie is based on a biographical book by the singer Cherie Currie, so the movie is REALLY cool because it shows to a very good extent how things were back then and also the actresses seem too much like them, Kirsten Stewart plays Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning plays Cherie Currie : D they act very well, I recommend you girls the movie, and guys also. These girls were all rebel and bad XD something like that, well for some things you will see in the movie XD. Oh, and the movie has and awesome soundtrack :D My favorite songs from them are (they say some nasty things but XD): Cherry Bomb, I love playing with fire, I want to be where the boys are, California Paradise and Hollywood.

This is “I want to be where the boys are”, in the live version which is better, to me. Joan sings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3vXozzdqRw

And here is the trailer of the movie ;) Hope you like it if you see it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIpQ9w27NNo&feature=related

Rock n’ Roll in the 80’s

In this decade Rock n’ Roll was the most popular music together with pop; its sound and style did not change very much from the one of the 70’s, its beat continued depending on electric guitar and bass guitar and it was characterized by heavy beats and fast tempos, meaning a relatively fast rhythm. However, there was a change in the music when some bands started playing with a tougher and hard-edged sound, which is now known as Heavy Metal; it started in the seventies but consolidated in this decade. Other variations also came up in this time (library.thinkquest.org).

Hard Rock and Heavy Metal were the main sounds of the 80’s, Rock n’ Roll variations that had a heavier sound and a harder look. This music was loud, unapologetic and wild with heavy electric guitars and driving beats; bands like Poison, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, and Bon Jovi represented this rock style. There could be lighter and more mainstream sounds and also angry and dark music, for example like Metallica (theclassic80s.com).

A very important point is that Rock n’ Roll wasn’t all about men in the 80s. There were female rockers like Joan Jett, Lita Ford and Pat Benatar who made a name for themselves and contributed to Rock n’ Roll history with their special styles. There were bands like Vixen, Blondie, and Heart that put female rock on the map and made the 80s the decade where the ladies rocked just as hard as the guys. That opened a door for new female bands after the 80s. I will dedicate another post to talk about this! (theclassic80s.com).

Another new sound that was created was soft rock or light rock. It had a sound that was friendlier to conservative and older listeners and the radio was filled with the lighter sounds of bands like Foreigner, Journey, Hall & Oates and REO Speedwagon (theclassic80s.com).

Rock n’ Roll bands occupied a place the same or even more important than pop bands, in the charts and in the society in general, a lot of people was interested in it…….(Now this becomes sentimental)………..Unlike today, what I see in my school and my city is that now people prefer pop and hip hop music, almost just the people that were teenagers in the 80’s really like Rock n’ Roll. It is ok, I guess, what they like, but sometimes I would like to go back in time when the majority of people appreciated Rock n’ Roll music, when everybody thought it was the best thing :D

I like Rock n’ Roll so much as you can see, besides from its amazing music, skill and creativeness, because it is like freedom to me, as I said in the first post, and because it is fun. Scorpions along with my favorite band Van Halen is an amazing band that played the Rock n’ Roll I like. With the fun and positivism of their music they make me love it (: For example, with this song and video    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmE_l_dN9UM&ob=av2e   (tell me what you think about it : P), I can dream that I leave IB and become a rock star XD…..no but I won’t leave IB, because I like it ;) I like being both a nerd and a rocker.

Anyways o.o all what I have said is mainly the reason why I started the blog, because I love Rock n’ Roll and because I would like to make other people like it..! :}





Works cited

“Rock and Roll in the 80s” theclassic80s.com. TheClassic80s.com. n.p., n.d. Web. September 22, 2011.

“Rock and Roll in the 80’s” library.thinkquest.org. Oracle Think Quest. Oracle, May 2, 2009. Web. September 22, 2011.

AC/DC: Hard Rock since the seventies

Hello there! I will pause the historical writing a while and talk about one of the first great bands on Hard Rock, because contributions to music from bands like this simply make history. As I mentioned in the previous article, in the 70’s a new Rock n’ Roll variation was heavy metal, but it had come from hard rock, a previous variation of Rock n’ Roll. AC/DC is a hard rock band, or high voltage band as many people would say.

AC/DC was officially founded in 1973 by the brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. They lived in Sidney, Australia, where Rock n’ Roll had already had its influences through musicians like Chuck Berry; Malcolm and Angus were amazed by his playing and started to have interest on playing guitar. They were also influenced by his older brother George who had his own band: The Easybeats, authors of the famous song “Friday on my Mind”. So Malcolm Young became playing electric guitar, and so Angus, because he would pick up the guitar when his older brother left it aside. Angus Young became more and more interested in playing guitar, and when he was 17 he would practice with his band Tantrum right after school. Malcolm also had a band, Velvet Underground, but he proposed Angus to join his band as a second guitarist in 1973. He needed someone capable of sounding hard, with long hair and high boots. It would be their sister who suggested them the name “AC/DC” for the band, what meant “alternating current/direct current” referring to the high energy of the group (ac-dc.galeon.com).

Since then AC/DC would start their presentations, filling the audience with energy and amazement, as they could not believe what they were seeing: some short guy dressed as a scholar, joined to a guitar, jumping around like crazy, “with high voltage on his veins”. Before dressing as a scholar, Angus would play dressed in awkward and funny costumes, such as a gorilla, a swordsman, TV characters, and comic characters like Superman. In 1974, they move to Melbourne, where they would get a manager, who would get Bon Scott for them as the singer of the band. Before, Bon had been a truck driver, and obtained some degrees as a percussionist in school when he was 16. The band was very successful with him, playing tours around the world. But he died in 1980 tragically after being drunk, and the band then hired Brian Johnson, with who the band remains today and involves in tours (ac-dc.galeon.com).

In Angus Young’s words…. X)

Guitar World Magazine, January 1993 (Maile, Ashley).

Your performance style is so strenuous. Have you ever hurt yourself onstage?

Sure. I’ve lost teeth. I mean I don’t go out there to do myself a deliberate injury, but when you are on the road for that length of time, you’re bound to twist an ankle or something. (…) I’ve jumped off amps and fallen ass over it -made a complete full of myself.

What was your most embarrassing moment onstage?

Well, I’ve had my pants fall off. All of a sudden my wedding tackle was out there for all to see. You know, I’ve even had my shorts stolen a couple of times.

(…)

You’ve said somewhere that you can’t play guitar well unless you’re jumping around like a lunatic.

Yeah, well I go with the guitar, because I’m pretty small. On most people, a Gibson SG looks small –like a violin. On me, it looks like a big guitar. I’ve got small fingers, too. Now, when most people bend a string up, their finger bends the note. With me, my whole body’s got to go. [He mimes how he uses his entire forearm to bend a string.] I hug the guitar, if you want to get technical about it. Now for vibrato…[he convulses with laughter as he illustrates]…I’ve got to shake my leg a little. When you are a little guy, there’s not much pull on the strings, especially with the heavier gauges.

The most important thing for me onstage is playing the guitar. The whole epileptic routine –whatever I do up there –comes out of that. I do become a little… “possessed”, as Malcolm says.

(…)

One last thing: what’s the origin of the schoolboy get-up?

My sister. As a kid, I’d come right home from school and pick up my guitar, without changing out of my school suit. At dinnertime, I’d still be in the school suit, playing away. My sister always remembered that. She thought it was cute. (…) At least it’s worked for us.

Works cited

“Historia de ACDC”. ac-dc.galeon.com. ACDC: Let there be rock. n.p., n.d. Web. September 15, 2011.

Maile, Ashley. “Angus Young”. Guitar Legends 7 September 2010: 84-88. Print.

The Rock n’ Roll of the 70’s

In the Seventies rock continued on its path of fusion with other musical forms. Rock n’ Roll presented more and more variations to the point that new subgenres were created; it was in this decade that this music changed the most. For example, country rock and jazz rock was created; by the middle of the decade some of these variations started to miss the dancing that used to be part of rock n’ roll music. In the seventies, rock started to be produced just for radio and albums. That helped to start off a new fad, the disco fad, but it did not last long. From there, a new variation began, the disco fad returned rock n’ roll back to its beginnings, and new bands came up whose music resembled the original rock; they were called the “new wave”, and one example was Elvis Costello (rocknrollzone.com).

On this decade, society had not yet accepted rock n’ roll completely, and it came to the point of relating it to the devil when some teenagers and gangs started acting violently. However, nothing stopped rock n’ roll, in those years musicians now studied it to be true professionals. Also, people were talking about it as an artistic, cultural and social revolution (azheavymetal.com).

Progressive rock develops as another variation, which wanted innovation, progress and better messages. That is why bands of this music sound very different from each other, because they achieve new combinations for their melodies. Examples of bands are Pink Floyd and Genesis (azheavymetal.com).

Punk rock also came up in the United States, LA and San Francisco area, as a variation; this is the most aggressive descendant of rock n’ roll, it is violence applied to the musical instruments. The people in this movement had a new special ideology, they were against any form of authority that tried to impose a “must be”. Two bands of punk were the Ramones and Sex Pistols (azheavymetal.com).

And finally, Heavy Metal developed. Some of the bands of this rock n’ roll variation started to talk about satanism, and they had more energy and violence. Bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, the last two became a big spectacle due to their live performances because they liked to recur to satanic images. Other rock n’ roll subgenres came up from Heavy Metal, but I will talk about them in other post (azheavymetal.com).

Led Zeppelin represents in this video to a very good extent the evolution rock n’ roll had in the seventies, also how the social attitude changed and collective hysteria continued. It is also an AWESOME song ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlNhD0oS5pk&ob=av2n

Works Cited

“History Essay: Rock 'n' Roll in the Seventies”. rocknrollzone.com. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Zone, n. d. Web. September 8, 2011.

“La Evolución Continua- La Década de los 70” AZHeavyMetal.com. Historia del Rock n Roll. N.p., n.d. Web. September 8, 2011.