MISS PATRICIA M HEFNER ([email protected])
Tue, 1 Dec 1998 07:27:35, -0500
I don't think you can compare these two groups, because they are so
different. They came along at drastically different periods in the
history of rock music. When the Beatles came along, rock'n roll was
still sort of a diamond in the rough and still needed some definition.
Only some years before they came along, the first rock hit, "Rock Around
the Clock", by Bill Haley and the Comets, had first appeared. The
Beatles took the new genre and took it to places it had not been before.
They added some new elements into it that had never been heard. They
played a key role in defining rock music itself, period, an unbelievably
creative feat. When U2 came along, rock wasn't new anymore. In fact,
some big bands had gotten hold of the genre but a whole new generation
of people who were already rock fans couldn't relate to them. They
seemed cold and distant, and something was needed to upset the apple
cart and make the music sound human again. "Corporate rock" by groups
like Journey and REO Speedwagon came along in the early '80's. The whole
purpose behind these groups was the Almighty Buck. Heavy metal, a bad
rip-off of the early guitar heroes like Clapton and Beck, was also a
dominant form of rock. Something had to be done! Enter U2, REM, the
Police.....they established their places in rock and started to upset
that apple cart. "I Will Follow" knocked my socks off because I'd never
heard anything remotely like it. It was passionate, and it was highly
original. Rock in the early '80's badly needed these qualities if it was
to grow rather than wilt. U2 pushed rock into places it had never been
before with their originality and passion. Rock music was alive and
human again. The Beatles didn't have an apple cart to upset. U2 sure as
hell did. I love the history of rock, because I'm a historian by
training and it's fun tracing the development of a musical genre you
love. OK, this has been rather long-winded but that's what you get when
you talk history with me!! :-)
Pax,
Patricia
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