To Rock or not to Rock?

This is a question that I often ask myslef, being that I am a rock star wannabe, and frustrated artist who dreams of a life where creativity is the job and partying is also the job.

BTW: Have a Happy 2005!

I notice, through reading and talking and simply being somewhat aware of contemporary culture, that we use the word rock in many ways. Not only does it literally mean that dense mass of minerals that lives within or on top of dirt, but it also refers to rock music. Nowadays, media and the rest of us consumers use the word rock to mean more than those 2 things mentioned above.

For instance, I have a friend who is really into folk music and is always telling me (in an attempt to convince me to listen to her CDs...and like them!) that this or that folkie artist "rocks". And how many times have you seen a TV show where they announce that this or that hip hop artist is a rock star? Shouldn't they be a hip hop star? So obviously, the word rock became a verb that can be conjugated as follows:

I rock
You rock
He/she rocks
We rock
You rock
They rock

And this verb describes the action of...um...Well. I just don't really know. However, I do try to think about what this action of rocking means to me. I go back and forward in my main musical taste, oscillating between really heavy and not so heavy rock. In this continuum, I discover that to me certain heavy rock bands don't actually rock, while certain more melow/mellodic ones do, and vice versa.

To me the action of rocking boils down to doing something with passion that doesn't become cheesy in the process...and yes! having lots of attitude! But then, who defines "cheesyness"? Like determining what rocks and what doesn't, this is also a question of personal taste. And what about attitude? Personally, I prefer the type of attitude that makes you come back with some witty remark that leaves the recipient with a big question mark on their face, wondering why the heck they picked on you in the first place. I also refer to rock attitude as that which makes you have no fear of what people may think of your ridiculous, shameless, sick, and goofy ass when performing on stage and doing ridiculous, shameless, sick and goofy things for the sake of shocking or simply entertaining. Oppositly, the attitude one can give a store clerk out of being cranky or whatever, because your credit card won't work (not really the clerk's fault), is not an example of bad ass rock n roll attitude. This type of attitude is simply stupid and rude.

In concluding my first blog, rock n' roll music has shaped, and continues to shape our culture in such a degree that to say something rocks is a good and desirable thing. I am very proud therefore of being an obsessive rock n' roll listener who often wonders whether or not she's rocking hard enough in her lifetime, and what she could do to rock even harder.

May 2005 ROCK all our little arses off!!!