Word: rocke
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Which brings us back to the problem of trying to define rock 'n' roll. Rock is the cooing on "Gimme Shelter", the dripping guitars on "Purple Haze", the riff that brings Pete Townshend's nimble strumming to new heights on "Pinball Wizard." It's Thom Yorke's nasal voice on "Paranoid Android" and the way Nirvana somehow managed to sound loud and muffled at the same time. But is it the saccharine harmonies of Abba's "Dancing Queen"? Pudgy dudes in Led Zeppelin T shirts would probably say no, but the 30 music historians, journalists and industry executives who make...
...definition of rock 'n' roll is very broad," says Jim Henke, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's vice president of exhibitions. "It's not just skinny white guys who play guitar." Henke argues that in the context of the museum, rock 'n' roll isn't just a sound; it's a culture. That culture extends from doo-wop harmonies and dance routines to people who bite the heads off bats. And somewhere within that culture is a Swedish pop group that has sold nearly 400 million albums...
This year, Abba will be inducted along with Genesis (prog rock), Jimmy Cliff (reggae), the Hollies (British Invasion rock) and the Stooges (punk). "This is the perfect class of inductees," says Henke. "Rock 'n' roll has developed into all those subgenres. They're all related." As a rule, an artist's career must have started at least 25 years ago for Hall nomination. This avoids one-hit wonders and bands that drop off the music map after one or two albums. (Remember Bush?) But no matter who is picked, every year there's at least one inductee who inspires complaints...
Because of the 25-year rule, the Hall of Fame has not yet inducted any artist whose music career started after 1985. But soon the museum will encounter subgenre mania: contemporary rock music expanded exponentially in the '80s and '90s, shooting off one way into hip-hop, another way into alternative, still another into emo. With such a broad definition of rock 'n' roll, the museum may one day find itself struggling to fit acts like N.W.A. and Pavement into one induction ceremony. There really isn't one definition of what makes a song or band "rock" anymore. There...
...that's just me. I asked some friends and co-workers to define rock 'n' roll in one song. Here is what they came up with...