Second Blog Post 4/1/11

            In this week’s reading I found the distinction between Grand Funk Railroad and the Beatles to be very fascinating.  You can see the roots of metal in GFR because they really put an effort into appealing to a certain crowd.  They were not interested in appealing to everybody for the sake of good reviews or better record sales.  They were more interested in connecting with the crowd.  As stated on page 39 of This Ain’t the  Summer of Love, “the Beatles were universally appealing, but GFR is taking their people out of the population and catering exclusively to them.”  They were also accused of not only fragmenting the audience but dividing it.  I think this is important because we see that division within the rock/metal fan base as rock/metal evolves.  Each new genre seems to exclude an even wider portion of the population and cater to a more exclusive, narrower portion.

This can also be linked to the idea of dis-enchantment.  If we look at GFR, their publicist Terry Knight pretty much sold the band as the non Beatles.  And if the Beatles had become accepted as normative, then there was nothing enchanting left about them.  They were simply a part of the norm.  Therefore GFR was the anti-establishment band of their time.  They took what had been accepted as “rock and roll” and pushed back to find what was really exciting about music.  And by doing this they pushed away some of the rock and roll fan base but those who were attracted to them were even more invested in the music and the band.  And those individuals who were attracted to GFR found themselves being re-enchanted by the music.  Also, in contrast to the Beatles, who tended to attract arena’s of teenage girls, GFR was able to attract tens of thousands of people, mostly men, who were attracted to the message GFR had to offer because the people themselves were in a state of dissatisfaction with their own lives along with society as a whole.

Overall the ability that GFR had to connect with the crowd was ground breaking because prior to that it was the audience was just viewing a show, where with GFR, the audience was a genuine part of the experience itself and it really paved the way for future acts in rock and metal.

The reading concerning Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop illustrated how they took the norms of rock and pushed the envelope even further.  What GFR was to the Beatles, Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop were to GFR.  Although Alice Cooper focused much more on the theatrics of performing a show where Iggy Pop focused more on the physicality of a show, they were similar in the sense that they were pushing the boundaries of rock were it has never gone before.  They were singing about death, sexuality, rebellion, drugs, etc but they were also performing it live at their shows.  I do not mean they were doing drugs or having sex on stage, but through Alice Coopers theatrics and Iggy Pop's physical self abuse, they were able to illustrate what it was they were singing about.  Their connection to the audience was not the same as it was with GFR, Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop were more shock and awe.  This shock and awe is important to the evolution of metal because it is the first time a rock show had been taken over the top in its theatrics, props, makeup, and wardrobe.  The experience of going to a rock show was no longer about the music and lyrics, although they do play a role, and no longer about participating with a larger community of like minded individuals, it was about viewing a spectacle that stimulated all of your senses.  It was also ground breaking in a sense that there was a feeling of spontaneity and maybe even perhaps danger because no one really knew what was going to happen because in all actuality, anything could happen.  This resulted in the fan feeling more alert and alive.  The rock show became a place where an individual could escape the monotonous routine of life and experience something somewhat chaotic and scary.