You know, that The Beatles: Rock Band trailer was pretty amazing. Seriously, watch it. Repeatedly. But what if the Beatles weren’t either the saviours or progenitors of modern Rock and/or Roll, but the people who destroyed it? That’s what’s asked by the totally reasonably and not-at-all-controversially titled How the Beatles Destroyed Rock and Roll. Carl Wilson reviews the book in the Globe with some good counterpoints, but perhaps the more interesting bit is on his blog, where he asks what “How _______ Destroyed Hip-Hop” book will be written in 20 years. The first response is NWA, because of the way the crew mapped image onto a lifestyle i.e. ‘we are the music, man’, thereby instituting a need to ‘keep it real and street’. Smart, huh?
(Also, came across the mainstream review from the blog, not the other way round. It’s, like, the future, man. Or like the past five years. Whatever).
#1 by Matthew Gallant on July 6, 2009 - 10:59 pm
Have you read Duncan’s take on The Beatles: Rock Band? Great stuff.
#2 by Nav on July 7, 2009 - 12:26 am
That was great. It’s an interesting question: whether BRB is about an aimless kind of nostalgia or healthy rejuvenation. I’ve never played Rock Band but it certainly seems like a new way of interacting with and engaging music. But I also see Duncan’s point that, whenever we transition to something new, something is also lost and, though that’s frequently a good thing, it isn’t universally the case.
For example, I think I will miss the album. I like the way you could get carried along in a flow of emotion and it’s sad now that we all kinda’ jump around from track to track (or at least I do most of the time).
Oh, tangent: I was playing Sonic 2 a while ago (yep, Sonic 2) and it reminded me of the album, in that it seemed to have these really great shifts in tone and atmosphere when you moved from level to level, just like a good album. Felt like it’d make a good blog post but haven’t gotten around to writing it yet.
#3 by Matthew Gallant on July 7, 2009 - 12:37 am
I look forward to reading it!