Dear Rockers

Love them or hate them, some rock bands and musicians set trends that survive for years. Particular hair styles and clothing often accompany musicians’ trends. Black shirts with band names are a mainstay of the metalheads wardrobe whether spectators or band members on stage. Bands like Metallica have had hair that goes to extremes from long to very short. Regardless of length, they are all suitable for headbanging -another lasting trend. Certain songs provoke the inner self into irresistible movement.

In the 1960s, Jimi Hendrix helped solidify bell bottom Read the rest of this entry »

When was the last time you heard a good rock song? Something real about real emotion that wasn’t written specifically with a music video in mind?

Unfortunately it is becoming harder and harder to hear rock and roll on the radio. Some of you might think I am crazy. “Why just the other day I heard a great Nickelback song on the radio.” You pups! I’m talking about REAL rock and roll. Stuff that made you get up and start dancing. Stuff that sounded just as good live as it did in some stuffy studio. Well, I’ve got good news. If you have cable through cable-tv.com/cheap-cable/ then you could finally get the rock experience you deserve.

Major cable television providers like the one I just mentioned can offer customers hundreds of music channels. We aren’t talking MTV where the M ironically stands for “music.” These are real music channels that play nothing but music – each channel devoted to a different genre. You have the golden oldies, the jazz, the rap, and, of course, you have the rock – the true rock.

So if you’re tired of hearing what youngsters think rock should sound like, turn off the radio and turn on the television.

If you define the “Rock Era” of music to include the period between the mid-1950s to the end of the twentieth century, that gives you five decades in which to determine the five top rock and roll songs.

With that in mind, here are five songs, one from each decade of the rock era, that made the most important inroads into rock music.

The 50s: “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets. It didn’t “start” Rock and Roll but it gave the movement the kick in Read the rest of this entry »

You may think that boy bands like the Backstreet Boys, ‘NSync, and 98 Degrees are a relatively new phenomenon. These groups are meticulously designed by music business elite to drive young girls crazy so that they buy their albums in huge numbers. It works too. This is not a new phenomenon in the music business. Boy bands have existed for years even since the origins of the rock n’ roll era in the 1960s. Some may even say that one of the most popular bands of all time, Read the rest of this entry »

The vinyl record collection is something great to behold. This music on wax format has been around for years before it got overshadowed by the ever so popular digital age of music. Today the vinyl is something that is hard to find. A DJ may have a large collection, but that is about it. The average American gets more stuff of their music online.

Thankfully, there are people that want to preserve the spirit of the old school music collections. This is why Read the rest of this entry »

Pandora is a lot of fun, but it can be frustrating too. You want to hear the rock songs you love, but you’re getting pop and…was that country? Here are some tips for creating a station of your rock favorites.

You can use artist seeds or track seeds to create a station. Both give Pandora an idea of the kind of music you like, but track seeds show exactly what sound you’re looking for. (Most artists have Read the rest of this entry »

Old music may be old, but there are reasons it has endured all these years. It’s nostalgic and fun. It doesn’t carry the baggage that most of today’s music does, although that doesn’t mean it’s just fluff. Some of it is quite deep. It speaks of eras long gone but fondly remembered.

You can keep the legends alive by planning family parties around a particular era or decade. Want to recapture the 1950s? Find or make poodle skirts, leather jackets, and learn some of the dances. Have someone dress up as one of the famous heartthrobs and deliver some good Read the rest of this entry »