It's Got a Back Beat, You Can't Lose It

I like to think I have a fairly eclectic taste in music.

I enjoy the indie hip-hop of Atmosphere; the pitch-perfect vocals of Whitney Houston; the gangsta rap of N.W.A.; the soft, sentimental plucking of James Taylor; the electronic remixing of MSTRKRFT; the undefinable genre-bending of Beck.

But in the end, my one true, audible love is two guitars, a bass, and a drum kit. Regardless of whatever form it takes, be it indie or emo or college or surf or prog or grunge or pop-punk or nerd or post-hardcore, this is my musical preference -- it's what we all would colloquially call "rock and roll."

What I've always found interesting, though, is how ridiculous a term it is. Rock and Roll. Or even worse, Rock N' Roll. It just sounds silly. I don't often utter those particular words in that particular order...at least not unironically. Whenever making polite small talk to a person I've just met, I always seem to be confronted with the incredibly complex question of "what do you listen to?" I'll take a moment to collect my thoughts and proceed to give some long-winded answer, mentioning specific bands that I'm fond of, as well as the specific movements and sub-genres and styles and record labels they belong to. But I'll never actually answer "rock and roll" (on a side note, "rock and roll" is the second least-hip, least-informed answer you can give in this situation; the first being "everything," because as we know, anyone who listens to "everything" doesn't listen to anything good).

Rock and roll. The problem is, it's such a disingenuous phrase. Like a phrase that's trying too hard, somehow. It looks and sounds foolish. I can barely say it out loud without grimacing, without laughing, without feeling the corners of my mouth instinctively pull into an arrogant sneer. I'm not entirely sure why this is. Who knows, maybe I've just reached the point of no return as a music fan, the point when my own snobbish elitism will never allow me to enjoy anything ever again.

I think this can all be best summed up, best articulated, by Billy Joel. The other day,"It's Still Rock and Roll To Me" came up on my iPod, and that's exactly what I'm talking about. First, the song sucks. Second, and most importantly, Billy Joel doesn't have an edgy, rebellious bone in his body. I mean, he wrote "Uptown Girl." He's safe and radio-friendly and inoffensive (however, this isn't to say I don't like Joel at all, because "Piano Man" is one of the greatest sing-along songs ever). So it's just so perfectly and conveniently ironic that he wrote a song that tried to justify how his music actually is rock and roll (which it isn't) and that he felt the need to specifically mention it in the title (which is never a good thing). It's along the same lines of, if you have to say that you're cool, then you're probably not cool...or something like that. Anyway, the term "rock and roll" has become a joke, a caricature of its former self. Linguistically, it's evolved into something very different than its origin. It's one of those words, similar to rad or boss or word or true, that are said ironically by people who actually have a clue, and unironically by everyone else.

And I don't think I've ever used the phrase "rocking out" (as in, "I'm rocking out!") either. At least not sincerely.

Disclaimer: Chuck Berry wrote the song "Rock and Roll Music" and Ryan Adams titled an album "Rock 'N Roll" spelled backwards, but I actually don't have a problem with either. Go figure.