Word: rocker
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...product of its own past, complete with eccentric uncles, country cousins and prodigal sons and daughters--different from one another, but still kin. Somewhere in the noisy postmodern collages of Beck one can find echoes of Irving Berlin. Though Chuck Berry may roll over when he hears it, devil-rocker Marilyn Manson counts among his musical offspring. Whether he likes it or not, Puff Daddy's pop hip-hop is a direct descendant of Hammer's Las Vegas-style rap. The Spice Girls may not be the apex of musical evolution, but they do have their links to Cole Porter...
American music, like America itself, seems too democratic for any title to endure. Ask almost any rapper or alternative rocker if Elvis is the King of Rock, and all you'll get is a sneer. Michael Jackson likes to call himself the King of Pop, but we all know the true king of pop is whoever has the No. 1 album in a given week. All told, there's only one monarch in music whose title has never rung false and still holds up--and that's Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul...
...Pretenders' hits. Indeed, Manson called Hynde up to ask her permission for the vocal homage. Says Manson: "A fax came through the machine saying, 'I, Chrissie Hynde, do solemnly swear that the rock band Garbage can sample my sound, my voice or indeed my very a__.'" When an established rocker is willing to give so generously to a new band, it's an indication of the group's promise...
...YOUR ROCKER Some seniors actually benefit from sitting in a rocking chair. For those with Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia, rocking 80 minutes daily seems to reduce anxiety and depression--and improve their sense of balance...
...album fumbles when it overreaches. Most High, a rocker that's meant to evoke the sounds of the Middle East, lacks a focus. And the album's finale, the raving Sons of Freedom, is a discordant, fuzzed-out mess. The disc was recorded and mixed by Steve Albini--he also worked on Nirvana's album In Utero--and his personal love for noise rock comes through too strongly here. Page and Plant are better off when they follow their own, time-tested instincts...