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Underground > Radio & Music >

How do you Rock?

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Brigade du jour

20:14 / 19.12.02

People say things like 'they rock, they fuckin' rock!' (I have done this myself btw) about lots of different bands and artistes, but what exactly do they mean?

Is 'rocking' something one can strive to do, or should it be sort of accidental, something that happens naturally, even organically?

Or indeed, is it something we should not try to understand?

20:43 / 19.12.02

You rock by fuckin' *rocking* OUT, motherfucker!
You rock, y'know, really hard and then, whoaaaaah, it's like you totally rock! DUUUUDE!!!!!!

The Return Of Rothkoid

21:27 / 19.12.02

How do I rock?
With fists of steel.

Rock is, pretty much. If I think "hey, that rocks", it means there's a certain indefinite quality to it, which is sort of related to originality and spontenaiety, but not thoroughly dictated by them. It's hard. Maybe there's a bit of wishful thinking involved in rocking? As in "that's so shit-hot, I should be doing that"? Rockin' is maybe a bit of a leveller: I think it's very difficult for me to consider a wanker as ROCK! - or maybe, someone who appears to be a wanker.

Oh I dunno. I just know if something rocks. It either does or it doesn't. Perhaps pictorial examples would help?

And power chords sometimes help.

Brigade du jour

21:28 / 19.12.02

Sounds like the natural organic thing then. Cheers mate.

By the way, I do rock myself. Just not sure how.

Brigade du jour

21:29 / 19.12.02

Power chords, definitely. If you have pictures I'd love to see them.

A

00:09 / 20.12.02

It's my own personal theory that, when it comes to rock'n'roll, the "rock" and the "roll" are two separate things which, in combination, make rock'n'roll the wonderful thing that it is.

The "rock" makes you want to jump up and down, trash the theater you're watching Blackboard Jungle in, and run down the street looting and singing songs.

The "roll" makes you want to grab the nearest person and make sweet love to them down by the fireplace all night long.

Tune in next week when i explain the global economy.

00:58 / 20.12.02

If I say 'that rocks' I either mean it's really, really good, or that bit of the music makes me want to dance be energetic (or both). I would definitely say that rock music rocks more than say, dance music because of the loud crashy guitar sounds. 'That rocks' definitely indicates a real energy to the music, a real drive. Guitars and drums and live music just do that so well.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

06:11 / 20.12.02

Personally, I rock like an absolute bastard.

I always think "rock" is more in the attitude- Monster Magnet, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Motorhead- these all rock. Gavin Bryars, on the other hand, who I love dearly and consider a musical genius, doesn't rock, except in a very loose sense of the word (in the same way a really nice sunset can rock).

Throbbing Gristle rocked hard, despite not being a guitar band. Travis, the Stereophonics, all those other fuckers, despite being guitar bands, do not rock. At all.

10:25 / 20.12.02

Rock, Rocking, Rocking Out etc.

Basically, if you don't understand, you never will..

It's a very broad term, applicable to anything that makes you want to leap in the air and go "WOO!" and spin on your head and drill a hole to the centre of the earth. Or whathaveyou.

It's noticable when watching bands perform that there's a very precise line between those who ROCK and those who fail to ROCK.. nothing to do with differences in the kind of music being played, but more something to do with attitude and energy.. cynics may claim I'm refering purely to looking cool and jumping up and down, but there's more to it than that..

12:29 / 20.12.02

Apparently I rock a massive amount.

Brigade du jour

19:47 / 20.12.02

OOh Stoatie, you mentioned Travis.

Do you know I had to watch them at Reading last year (well I didn't have to, nobody put a gun to my head, it was a solidarity thing for the people I was there with. Anyway ...) and they lived right up to my expectations of being the sort of sub-Doonican easy-chair shite even my dad would say "blimey, that's a bit dull" in response to.

To cap it all though, right at the end they said "right we're finishing up with something a little bit different now, a song from our early days - it's called 'All I Wanna Do Is Rock'".

My ears pricked up like a rabid Jack Russell's at this point, I snapped out of my delirium and prayed to a god I don't believe in that we were in for a treat. Could this be one of the early, half-forgotten punkier kind of tunes I was unaware of, or was it a carbon copy of 'It's Pishin' Again' or whatever it's called?

Slowly I closed my eyes ... the drumsticks clicked together four times ... and I woke up. It was another dreary mid-tempo acoustic bag of shit.

Bastards.

At least Eminem put on a fucking show.

19:52 / 20.12.02

Then there's "Rock On," which carries a wonderfully reassuring you're-beautiful-don't-ever-change kind of connotation.

I have been known to rock on with a frock on, meself.

19:55 / 20.12.02

As to the specifics of how one rocks, here's a handy diagram:

20:58 / 20.12.02

listen to AC/DC, duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude!!

Brigade du jour

21:48 / 20.12.02

AC/DC? They certainly used to rock, don't know much about their more recent activities.

Aerosmith rock, too. It's like a rich vein of sex and joy coursing through the rocker in question's body. You can quote me on that.

The Return Of Rothkoid

23:27 / 20.12.02

There is a song called "All I Wanna Do Is Rock" that appeared as a You Am I b-side. It may suit your rocktacular needs. Lyrics are:

All I want to do is... rock.
All I want to do is... roll.
Oh, I need your lovin' as well.
Hey, pretty baby now, can't you... tell?
[huge riffage]

There's a couple of "rock!"s thrown in. And windmilling.

Brigade du jour

23:47 / 20.12.02

I just hope the legs are akimbo as well. Essential rock position, and please let's not forget it.

Gives whole new meaning to 'bury me in a y-shaped coffin'.

The Return Of Rothkoid

00:14 / 21.12.02

Yeah. or there's the jumping.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

00:46 / 21.12.02

There's also the classic song by Thor "We Live To Rock", as featured on that classic movie "Rock'n'Roll Nightmare" (released in the UK as "The Edge Of Hell"-

"We live, we live to rock
We live, we live to rock
This kind of music won't ever stop
We live, we live to rock."

In case you were wondering, it doesn't.

Brigade du jour

01:44 / 21.12.02

Hey nobody's mentioned the Ramones yet. Damn!

They rocked for like two minutes at a time. But they crammed a heck of a lot of Rock into their rocking moment.

A

04:15 / 21.12.02

Yes indeed, the Ramones did rock. In fact, they pretty much saved the very idea of rocking, and for this we should all be grateful.

I think that You Am I song is a cover, but I'm not sure who did the original. I don't think they put songwriting credits for the b-sides on that single. In any event, I seem to remember hearing another version, which, interestingly enough, didn't rock anywhere near as much as the You Am I version.

Something important that should be kept in mind is that rock'n'roll is largely about making kids go nuts. It is not about hipsters in their mid-30's with their arms folded scowling at any band who doesn't sound enough like the Stooges. It always annoys me when some idiot rock critic reviews some boring, no-fun bar band and syas something like "only all the idiot kids who buy records by the Hives would listen to this band, the world would be a better place". No. Fuck off. It wouldn't. Rock'n'roll is about kids getting silly to the likes of the Hives, not about some guy who owns every Sonics bootleg evr made stroking his beard over some borong crap.

Whew, glad that's out of my system.

One of my favourite "rock" moments occurs in the filmclips for Twisted Sister's songs We're Not Gonna take It and, appropriately enough, I Wanna Rock:

Dad- "What do you want to do with your life?"

Kid- "I wanna ROCK!"

Beautiful.

A

04:16 / 21.12.02

Oh, and this gets my vote for Official Best Thread Ever. Long may it rock.

09:40 / 21.12.02

Yeh. Makes me feel like going and ROCKING OUT. Although everyone else in the house in asleep, so.. maybe I'll have to ROCK OUT later. Lazy sods.

Brigade du jour

20:12 / 21.12.02

Oh Count Adam, I'm wiping a little cyber-tear from my eye. Best thread ever? I'm glad at least one person thinks so (other than me heh heh).

You can rock internally, btw, I was doing it on the bus tonight on my way into work - Motown Junk was in my head, and I gently tapped the drum beat on the seat in front with my fingers. But nobody really noticed so hopefully I didn't look like a drunk psychopath.

Singing very, very quietly can be a temporary release for all that pent-up rock'n'roll frustration as well (rock'n'roll frustration? sounds like it could be another Manics song).

22:36 / 21.12.02

While "rock", "sock" and "cock" all rhyme, it is my contention that the Chili Peppers do not rock.

What is the mythical "fat one" that some are said to rock? Is it like a giant Weeble? Where can I get one?

Brigade du jour

23:06 / 21.12.02

People 'rock a fat one'!? That's a new one on me. I've heard of 'they rocked a snow leopard's ass' before though. Maybe it's a fat snow leopard.

But then would a snow leopard be fat? You don't put on much weight from eating snowflakes and penguins I would have thought.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

23:36 / 21.12.02

I rock, but not in a traditional sense. I tend to rock quaintly back and forth. Or in my head.

Sometimes I accidentally fall over, but that's as far as it goes.

03:16 / 22.12.02

there's a lot of calories in a penguin

· N · E · T ·

08:20 / 22.12.02

I rock spasmolytically to the discordant grinding of Meshuggah.

It's voodoo music... dangerously hypnotic...

08:38 / 22.12.02

First of all: if you have to ask... jesus.

Secondly:

there are various types of Rocking for various people. I have several:

"rock" = "pretty good"
"Rock" = "this is a pretty good piece of Rock music that was designed to Rock"
"RAWK!" = "possibly not so sincere. and even more rock-by-design"
"RAWK POWAH!" = "obvious"
"rock on a stick" = one of my highest accolades for anything, and I really don't know where it came from. I just say it occasionally to describe things which are just too fucking brilliant for conventional words.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:49 / 22.12.02

'Tis a shame Wesley Willis isn't here, for he seems to know all the ways of rock.

18:31 / 22.12.02

\m/

RAWK

18:43 / 22.12.02

It's the bigger-haired brother of 'Talent'...

Pirate Ven Will Teach You To Lambada (The Forbidden Dance)

19:50 / 22.12.02

Ah yes, the Internal Rock.
If not caught in External Rock, I feel the internal rockocity flowing within my very veins.
Gets kinda awkward when I'm in a public place and begin externally rocking unintentionally.
But then I just pretend it never happened, and everyone around me begins to question their sanity.

But yeah, rocking is more of a biological thing.
You either are born to rock, or you go to a quarry with a guitar and things get awkward.

Regrettable Juvenilia

22:05 / 22.12.02

If you really want to hear people rock these days, you probably shouldn't listen to guitars bands. At least not ones with too many Y chromosomes.

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