What does it mean for a piece of music to "rock"?

it's telling BTW that chuck considers it "trolling" to ask what he means when he says something "rocks." that seems like the kind of basic, deceptively simple (actually quite complicated) question that rock critics should be asking themselves more often!

i mean rock criticism is so rife with received wisdom, imprecise impressionistic description, etc. that asking what we mean when we use terms like "rock," "dark," "light," "heavy," etc. etc. to refer to music seems like a very productive exercise, even though i understand some people here will always think it's literal-minded or pedantic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinary_language_philosophy IIRC

clearly no music--even styx--actually "moves" in the sense of being propelled forward in any literal sense

anticipating objections: obviously brass bands/marching bands often "move forward" literally, but that can't really be said to be a (literally speaking, non-metaphoric) inherent quality of the music.

the whole lyrics debate is one big false dichotomy, no? sometimes you care what the person is saying, sometimes you don't. some people care, others don't. what's the big deal?

i still am not sure what this thread's about

i mean i feel like i get a lot more out of e.g. mahler's kindertotenlieder if i know what the singer is singing and how the music interacts with the words. but i wouldn't care if someone else just enjoyed the music. although i'd get annoyed if (like some folks on ILM who will remain nameless) they decided to make it their "project" to tell me that the words don't matter.

i still am not sure what this thread's about
― Neanderthal, Friday, August 5, 2011 5:41 PM (45 seconds ago) Bookmark

it's about what it means when people say something rocks.

These sound like Jack Black quotes from School of Rock.

incidentally I was just quoting the house music monologue and replacing "house" with "rock"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NSn5RfxoXs

imo music that "rocks" tends to a) sound like someone broke a sweat playing it or b) like you'll break a sweat if you move to it in the way that it inspires you to, but not necessarily dancing.

i judge how much music "rocks" by counting how many people I challenged to a fight while the song was playing

Don't know if there are any musicological studies on the question, but honestly, I'm not sure that it merits it. Tend to think that Chuck's off-the-cuff definition is actually pretty adequate. (Wouldn't include an emphasis on swinging, though. Rock can swing but doesn't have to.)

it may not mean a thing but can still rock

Well, like "School Days" swings but "Johnny B. Goode" does not.

dude, amateurist, if you can't figure this shit out in 8 years maybe its time to get another aggravating hobby.

what do you mean? are you satisfied with the definition chuck gave? i'm not.

every time i criticize or mock chuck eddy i get more vitriol than if i had just made the same points w/o mentioning eddy, so obviously a lot of folks here have got his back. which is fine.

in other words i grant the chuck eddy-baiting part is aggravating if you don't share my antipathy to his writing but if the other questions about music are "aggravating," well i dunno sorry. i guess we think about music differently. i still think you are awesome.

also dude scott i'm guessing you have some concerns and interests that you had 8 yrs ago no? even if baiting chuck eddy and wondering what a definition of "rocking" might look like aren't among them.

Well, why is the definition unsatisfying?

it doesn't rock

i already explained why. it begs the question of what "forward motion" might mean in musical terms!

Chuck's words were "to propel with forward motion." "To propel" is, I think, key. And, again, I don't find this, as at least part of the definition, to be vague or inadequate.

This is like asking what makes pizza " delicious"

lol i cant believe amt is still carrying this beef around with him. i remember the great what-is-rock wars of 03 - heres the thing, if you're so interested in chuck's definition of it, just read his shit for a while and it becomes easy to anticipate what he will find to be 'rockin' after a while

tbh i can count on one hand the number of rock critics who i think dont deserve to be thrown on a giant barge and floated out to the middle of the arctic ocean where they'll have to kill and skin each other to create mounds of blubber they can survive off of, and chuck's one of them

TamTam will u marry me?

rock is its own reward

read his shit

This is like asking what makes pizza " delicious"

― fappin' duke (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, August 5, 2011 11:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

how so?

does tetzuki akiyama rock?

lol tam tam shill

some irritating troll somewhere

^^ missed amateurist display name opportunity

MUSIC CRITCS ARE THE ART OF PRETEND FORGETFULLNESS

Cootie Williams on swing: "Define it? I'd rather tackle Einstein's theory!" Holding one man's feet to the fire on what it means to rock seems sort of obsessive. Probably the best you can ask of a non-musician is to give examples, and he's been more than accommodating.

tbh chuck's writing style and circular logic drive me nuts a lot of the time and i kind of enjoy amt's archnemesis thing w/ him but this "rock" debate is just pointless

actually i don't care what chuck's opinion on this topic is. he was just the impetus to ask the question. i don't think he takes the concept for granted any more than anyone else, really.

sorry for being so grumpy these past few days! i've been stressed IRL.

I would be pretty stressed too if I didn't even know what rock was

Rock is cowbell

Rock is tin he spaces between the beats

Rock is a ham hock in your milkshake.

Not precisely, but Marcus has made more or less the same point: "If the artist made a record intending to convince all right-thinking people to send money to the I.R.A., but the record is in Swedish and nobody can know that, it's sort of pointless to discuss the guy's intentions. What you really have to discuss is what is it like to hear a record in Swedish, and does it have a good beat?"

I like the idea that no one could conceivably understand a song that was written in Swedish.

actually it's just an english-language record running backward

This is like asking what makes pizza " delicious"

― fappin' duke (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, August 5, 2011 11:47 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is that because the answer is obvious and/or because the question isn't worth asking?

b/c the simplest answer is that pizza is delicious because it is sweet and salty and fatty. but a lot of foods are those things, and chances are we wouldn't find all of them delicious. i guess i find some questions interesting that other people don't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvABt2uXRzY

if you gotta ask, you'll never know.

rot

styx rocks

ranking ac/dc songs that say 'rock' in them