They jumped, swayed, screamed, danced, and never seemed to quit moving as they experienced the rock band on stage. Despite the crowded conditions, the harsh sounds from the stage, the repetition of rhythm and bass line, and the nearly migraine causing pulsation of constant flashing lights, the approximately 30,000 people in the audience loved every minute. It was a rock concert and I was intrigued.
I have attended several rock concerts over the years but have never been a big fan until recently. I recall in high school coming home from a rock concert with a dull ringing in my ears, my clothes smelling of smoke, and an exhaustion that took several days to overcome. I was probably different from my friends and did not find the experience all that enjoyable. Of course in those days, smoking was quite common (no research on second hand smoke), and behavior was generally without restraint in large crowds. The average age was probably 20 and there was enough hair in the room to blanket a large city! Most people, I was an exception I suspect, did not attend to analyze the vocal quality or the harmony or listen to new timbres. Most were there to jump and scream and to rebel in some kind of way.
Now fast forward 30 years and I am really enjoying rock music. And I am not the only middle aged, established citizen with aches and pains and little hair who enjoys rock music. As I look upon the people attending rock concerts today, I realize that rock music spans several generations. Of course not everyone of all ages wants to enjoy the concert while standing on the floor for several hours and gyrating all parts of the body throughout the concert. It would just be too exhausting. But most of us "old guys" enjoy sitting in seats and jumping up when the time comes. Rock music is just pure fun.
I was a little nervous at the Snow Patrol concert in London. Would people be watching me and wondering why a Dean of Music were at a rock concert? But as I sat there looking around, I realized there were lots of people my age and older. Some looked elite, others looked like working class. I began to talk to the people around me (this, by the way, is a strange thing to do in London, but I did it anyway), and discovered a lawyer, a doctor, a banker, and a bus driver. These were people not caught up in their professions or what expectations others may have of them, but rather these were people who came to enjoy a great concert. So I got drawn into the experience and loved it. It was fun and I quickly got over the paranoid feeling of what a Dean of Music is supposed to like or dislike.
But with maturity, education, and knowledge, does come the power of discernment. Not all rock music is great (at least from my view). I like some of it and some of it I don't. I think some of it is incredible but other songs and groups seem rather ho-hum. Similar to my approach to art music, I recognize rock music for what it is--music for entertainment, for emotional expression, for cleansing, for moving, and mostly for fun! These purposes are not all that different from art music although in art music we tend to take a loftier, more sublime view of the experience.
Admittedly, art music tends to stick in my mind longer, to interest me more, to be more sensitive, more powerful, more personal, and have more depth. But rather than spending inordinate hours dwelling on the differences, I prefer to meld the concepts into one--after all it is just music whether "sophisticated" or "simple" or "classical" or "popular". I find myself no longer rejecting rock music as I once did, and instead I am embracing it as simply another style of music with a certain kind of appeal. And, truthfully, there are as many faces to rock music and there are faces to classical music.
Rock and pop music are as varied as any other art form. A discerning listener will find something to like and something to hate in any art form and in any genre. Such is true in rock music. While I tend to take an academic approach to the music, in the end it is about one's preferences and often about one's mood or even attitude. Time to relax and enjoy it. My musical journey may take many pathways and may enter some roads that seem less traveled or at least traveled by unusual people, but the goal is to learn and to enjoy it, whether that be rock, pop, folk, classical, ethnic, film, and the list continues.
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