WHAT IS ROCK MUSIC?
Rock music is an extreme form of rock 'n' roll. Here are several definitions by well-known rock musicians and singers. These are experts in their field, and they tell us exactly what it is:
"Rock 'n' roll: The term is a blues euphemism for sexual intercourse."—The Rolling Stones Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll.
"Rock 'n' roll is 99% sex."—John Oates.
"Everybody takes it for granted that rock 'n' roll is synonymous with sex."—Chris Stein.
"Rock music is sex. The big beat matches the body's rhythm."—Frank Zappa.
"Rock 'n' roll: A general term with sexual implications, as rocking 'n' rolling, originally meant fornicating. It has been used to cover many styles and types of music since the early 50s."—Robert Fink and Robert Ricci, The Language of 20th Century Music.
"In a sense, all rock is revolutionary. By its beat and sound, it has always implicitly rejected restraint and celebrated freedom and sexuality."—Time magazine, January 3, 1969.
"You cannot take sex out of rock and roll or rhythm and blues. True, the quality of the mixture spans a wide range."—Kathleen Sullivan, quoted in Martha Bayles, Hole in Our Soul, p. 349.
Newsweek mentioned the concerns of a worried mother who, though personally addicted to rock, feared for her children.
"A mother who calls herself a 'rock freak' says, 'I am concerned about the number of hit tunes that can only be called porn rock, and about the tasteless, graphic and gratuitous sexuality saturating the airwaves and filtering into our homes.' "—Newsweek, "My Turn," May 6, 1985.
Although they may want to keep the parents fooled, those who sell the recordings know what it contains.
"In Alexander City, Alabama, record-store owner Tommy Hammond knew that some parents in town didn't have much patience for foul mouths and dirty minds. He'd sell the raunchy rock and rap albums, but he always kept them behind the counter, out of public view . . Johnson [the store-owner's attorney] argues that raunchy sexual language has always been a vital element of rock music."—Newsweek, Justice Section, October 16, 1989.
Each year the merchants of rock filth become bolder.
"Rock bands have responded vigorously to the difficult challenge of how to shock the already numb. You can see how the dial has been turned up just by looking at the names of current rock bands. Vulgar or sexual band names used to be ambiguous or hidden . . Now there are at least 13 bands named after the male genitals."—U.S. News and World Report, March 19, 1990.
Dr. Allan Bloom described it well in his book, The Closing of the American Mind:
"Rock music has one appeal only, a barbaric appeal to sexual desire—not to a pure, unselfish love, but sexual desire undeveloped and untutored. It acknowledges the first emanations of children's emerging sensuality and addresses them seriously . . Young people know that rock has the beat of sexual intercourse."—Dr. Allan Bloom, Closing of the American Mind.
Bloom's book was so devastating in its disclosures, that it received five pages of coverage in Time magazine (August 17, 1987).
The following statement was penned back in the 1980s; yet it describes young people today who walk around like zombies, with earplugs connected to rock on an Apple Ipod, in order to get an uninterrupted emotional kick.
"The big thing about rock music is its power of suggestion. Sensual singing, an insistent beat that builds, suggestive lyrics—these turn people on today. Music is used everywhere to condition the human mind.
"Our future music may be a frequency machine feeding impulses to our nervous system through electrodes, or something attached to the ear, giving us highs and lows more powerful than any drugs in use today."—Ken Lynch, Gospel Music, 1987, p. 8.
Mike Quatro is a well-known producer of rock shows and an expert at knowing how to bring in the paying customers. He describes rock in this way:
"Rock motivates you internally, gives you a sensual feeling. A girl can be turned on by the music. It releases her inhibitions. The beat of the drum has always been a factor . . A girl realizes her own sexuality through the music."—Mike Quatro, quoted in Ira Peck, The New Sound, Yes, p. 112.
"Jazz and rock to the pagan are the symptoms of a glorious release from the bonds of moral restraint . . These musical forms came from the slums of music, and they corrupted taste and manners."—Issa Goldberg, Tinpan Alley.
An article in the trade journal, High Fidelity, warned:
"If you ask me whether rock music has been a symptom or a cause of America's terrible problems with its young people, I would be inclined to say both—but primarily a cause."—Gene Lees, High Fidelity, February 1970.
In 1978, a music therapist in California investigated the effects of rock music on teenagers. He gave an emotional stability test to 240 school children, aged 10-18. Rock music was played during the test.
Without explaining how the test was given or who it was given to, the results were then handed to a psychologist to examine. He concluded that the test had been given to patients in a mental institution.
Checking into this further, the same therapist found that, in tests using an auto-driver trainer simulating actual driving conditions, listening to rock while behind the wheel increased the frequency of driver error by 34.4%.
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