THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 3, 1995 TAG: 9508030057
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
ROCK 'N' ROLL is Live, Green Day and Pearl Jam.
Rock 'n' roll is Little Richard, Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis.
It's Bob Dylan, the Velvet Underground and the Sex Pistols; Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors; Nine Inch Nails, White Zombie and Bush.
It's an aura, a style, an attitude.
There is no definition for rock 'n' roll.
Led Zeppelin is rock 'n' roll.
If nothing else, the readers who called Infoline last week did clear up one thing: Chances are better that people will agree on how the dinosaurs died and who built Stonehenge before they come up with a single, all-purpose definition of rock.
Don't take it personally. The program directors at several Hampton Roads rock stations - the guys who decide what gets on the air - didn't have a ready definition, either. As for a consensus? Unlikely, they said.
``A description may or may not have anything to do with what real people - the general public - decide is good music,'' said WNOR's Harvey Kojan.
``It's hard to define,'' said Chris Blade of WROX. ``I don't think any one person can tell you what rock 'n' roll is today.''
Blade's right, and he's wrong. Anyone can tell you what it is. Just ask. Fifty-or-so people took the Infoline challenge; they weighed in with 50-or-so definitions.
First, a quick recap explaining why the question - ``How do you define rock 'n' roll?'' - came up in the first place. There were three reasons:
1. Hampton Roads radio. Even though the stations promote different formats, the playlists at WNOR, WKOC and WROX share at least a half-dozen artists.
2. Billboard magazine. Its once-exclusive Album Rock and Modern Rock charts regularly list the same tracks by a wide array of musicians.
3. Neil Young. The rockingest man in the free world said recently there've been times when it seemed like he and rock were going in different directions.
Jim Edmondson of Chesapeake picked up on that last point. ``Neil Young is only confused because he's caught up in the same marketing hype (that) radio groups and sales are,'' he said. ``Rock 'n' roll is simple, up-tempo guitar and drums. If you fit that, you're a rocker.''
The real question, he continued, is how many forms of rock exist. Edmondson listed original, jazz, blues, country, hard-rock and, maybe, punk.
``Each has a mellow and a hard end,'' he said. ``Grunge is not a form, it's blues-rock. Old Neil has been labeled the father of grunge. He's confused because the bulk of his work is Canadian country-rock. Pick a group and see if it fits. Dave Matthews, jazz-rock; White Zombie, hard-rock; Nirvana, blues-rock; the Eagles, country-rock.
``If it's up-tempo, I like it.''
Charles Wooland and Bill Witt, both of Virginia Beach, said any definition has to be traced back to the music's birthplace - the Mississippi Delta.
``It's Southern in its roots,'' Witt said, ``influenced by the hymnals of the black slaves as well as the country music of the poor white farmers.''
Other callers were less specific.
``It's a state of mind.''
``An emotional noise.''
``The music you grew up with.''
``It's whatever anybody chooses it to be.''
Chuck Jennings' choice is whatever dares to be different. Pop Will Eat Itself, Shriekback and Big Audio Dynamite fit his bill.
``What I think rock 'n' roll is in the '90s is music that pushes the envelope, that takes a chance,'' said Jennings, of Norfolk. ``That may not have been true in past decades, but so much stuff sounds the same nowadays. The best out there takes a chance.''
Tom Anthony of Suffolk would probably take issue with that. His definition leans decidedly to the more familiar.
``Rock 'n' roll is definitely, like, Kiss, Ted Nugent and Queen, the stuff they consider classic rock,'' he said. ``It's not. It's pure rock 'n' roll. Other stations play too much progressive and New Age stuff.''
Several callers, among them Tami Peterson of Chesapeake, 'fessed up: There are so many styles of rock 'n' roll, it can't be defined. But they know what they like - Hootie & the Blowfish, Van Halen, U2, Better Than Ezra, XTC, Jellyfish, Aerosmith, the Grateful Dead, Stone Temple Pilots and Tom Petty.
Finally, a few readers had some advice for the folks in charge, namely, expand those playlists and cut out the chatter.
``Save for `The Art and Rollie Show' on WHRV, Hampton Roads still lacks a station that plays anything other than the Billboard hits,'' said Gregory Bryant of Norfolk.
``The main thing I'd like to hear on the radio is less talk,'' said Gary Roberson of Virginia Beach. ``Especially those stations that tell us they're going to play 25 minutes of music in a row then interrupt every song to say they're not going to interrupt the songs. It's disgusting.''
Harvey, Chris, fellas? Are you listening? ILLUSTRATION: Color illustration by John Corbitt
Hard rock, industrial rock, country rock, grunge rock
by CNB