Pabs Music Musings. Episode 2. Is rock music dead? (And has anyone checked?)

Is rock dead? How many times have we heard that question being asked. Many times.

I was reading my latest copy of Sound On Sound in which they review a music submission by a band called Teenage China, an artist from our very own Scottish shores. In the review there is a statement ‘ The distorted guitar/crashing drums combo has been done to the point exhaustion in the multi-pronged world of rock’ Now that statement almost had me reaching for my acoustic guitar and writing Quiet Act 2. The reviewer went on to give Teenage China an enthusiastic thumbs up. A fine achievement from this excellent magazine.

So as a fully fledged vocalist in a distorted guitar/crashing drums band I wonder if the music world has once again shifted its sonic tastes into another dimension.

Kurt Cobain said great music happens every decade or so, I’d say every 20 years. So here we are now, and no one is entertaining us. There is no scene. I search obsessively for new music (see last musing) and yet ‘proper balls out original rock ‘ appears to be buried deep in the servers of our music providers.

I love acoustic, folk, electronica, mix them up, indie, a bit of trance, however I miss a primal scream, not the band of the same name but a vocalist who yells so hard down the mic with such passion that you clench you fists, grit your teeth and thank god you are not the only person on this planet that has had a bad day or two. Indeed Mr Cobain had that scream but Mr Plant perfected it well before him.

I thought we’d have a scene when the recession hit. Then I thought the riots would piss off some youngsters holding a guitar or two, then there was the cuts and the empty pockets and the run down schemes and shameless poverty that countless rich politicians and richer musicians have tried to eradicate, but nothing. There is no scene.

The music is there, buried deep in the Soundclouds and Bandcamps. Lost in a fuzz of commercially controlled search engine algorithms that recommend artists based on your listening habits. I really regret listening to ABBA when I was pissed.

Anyway that ‘celeb’ that pisses herself has just won big brother so I’m going to rock out to Teenage China.

Pabs, primal screaming lead singer of a guitar solo obsessed rock band that has loud drums and deep bass. Musically Fashionable? In 20 years I guess!