# Help me combat my rock & roll/popular music ignorance **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2009, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827 "2009-07-22T04:53:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827/41 "2009-07-23T17:10:09Z")
Ska: From what I understand is grouped into three “waves,” the first of which is centered in Jamiaca where the music was born. Second Wave (or Ska Revival) is primarily an English phenomenon of the late 70s and early 80s, typified by bands like Madness, The Specials, The English Beat, and Bad Manners, who combined Jamaican ska with British pop, rock, and/or punk. The Third Wave of the late 80s and 90s includes many American bands like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and No Doubt. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827/42 "2009-07-23T17:39:42Z")
> [@Rebo](#): > > I think you forgot Black Sabbath. > > 😃 > > More southern rock - Marshall Tucker Band, Little Feat, The Outlaws > > Surfin’ Music - The Beach Boys, The Ventures, Jan and Dean **Little Feat** was _not_ a Southern Rock band. Lowell George & Paul Barrerre attended Hollywood High School together. Keyboard player Bill Payne came from Waco, Texas. Richie Hayward was from Iowa. Lowell was the mad genius behind the band & died far too young. The other members were there either from the beginning or soon thereafter & have all played in later versions of Little Feat. Kenny Gradney joined fairly early & does hail from New Orleans; New Orleans funk, with its intricate rhythms, was part of their sound. But Little Feat was not one of The Flesh Eating Guitar Armies of the Southern Night. (That phrase is a bit rough; don’t know who invented it, but I’m sure I read it in _Creem_.) The Southern Rock Movement did produce some very fine music & might have progressed further except for a couple of motorcycle accidents & one bad plane crash. Anybody wanting to understand Excellence in Rock would do well to listen to Little Feat’s _Sailing Shoes_ & _Dixie Chicken_. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827/43 "2009-07-23T17:43:01Z")
Southern Rock - Hard Rock by Rednecks, for Rednecks - Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, Neil Young (although I hope he will remember that a Southern man don’t need him around), Ted Nugent, .38 Special ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827/44 "2009-07-23T17:56:13Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Southern Rock - Hard Rock by Rednecks, for Rednecks - {snip} Neil Young (although I hope he will remember that a Southern man don’t need him around) A left-wing, Canadian redneck, maybe. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827/45 "2009-07-23T18:00:46Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Southern Rock - Hard Rock by Rednecks, for Rednecks - Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, Neil Young (although I hope he will remember that a Southern man don’t need him around), Ted Nugent, .38 Special Except that Ted Nugent is from Detroit–he’s now living in Crawford, Texas. Not that I don’t find his politics & other attitudes repellent, but I _really_ hate him because I heard him play many years ago. Two nights in a rock club I worked at–no, I wouldn’t have paid to see him. Too damn loud & not worth the pain. Neil Young is Canadian. And I, personally, don’t consider [ZZ Top](http://www.houstonpress.com/2009-07-16/music/tres-hombres/) to be rednecks. Billy Gibbons was raised in Tanglewood–an almost-ritzy Texas suburb. And I remember him as a mild-mannered student and, later, as a serious art collector. However, the band is really loud & probably fits the Southern Rock category as well as any other. “We tried to write heavy, underlying, socially viable message pieces. But they sound terrible, and it’s hard to believe them from guys with two-foot beards.” ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827/46 "2009-07-23T19:52:04Z")
Correction on Young and Nugent. They would be considered more “country rock”, not being from the South. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827/47 "2009-07-23T20:07:10Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Correction on Young and Nugent. They would be considered more “country rock”, not being from the South. Neal Young can be a gentle folkie, a hard rocker, a country rocker–& several _personae_ harder to describe. I’ve managed to avoid Ted Nugent’s stuff for decades, but I’m not sure it’s all that country… ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827/48 "2009-07-23T20:15:06Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Southern Rock - Hard Rock by Rednecks, for Rednecks - Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, Neil Young (although I hope he will remember that a Southern man don’t need him around), Ted Nugent, .38 Special I already mentioned the Allman Brothers and Skynyrd, and none of the others qualify except maybe .38 Special, but they were a little more commercial and less rootsy than the others. ZZ-Top was more Texas Boogie. Ted Nugent is more Arena Rock or Hard Rock. Neil Young was Canadian, more in the folk/rock or singer/songwriter tradition. \*\* Blues Rock (all countries, all decades):\*\* Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, John Mayall/Bluesbreakers, Jonnie Lang, Colin James. \*\* 70’s Male Singer/Songwriter (all countries):\*\* Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, James Taylor, Elton John, Billy Joel, Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, Harry Chapin, Paul Simon, Neil Young **70’s Female Singer/Songwriter:** Carly Simon, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Janis Ian, Rickie Lee Jones. Adding a couple more to the ‘Geek Rock’ list: The Decemberists, and Oingo Boingo. ---
**Author:** ![maplekiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@maplekiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maplekiwi)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827/49 "2009-07-23T21:35:25Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > \*\* > 70’s Male Singer/Songwriter (all countries):\*\* Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, James Taylor, Elton John, Billy Joel, Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, Harry Chapin, Paul Simon, Neil Young > > **I would add Gordan Lightfoot.** > > **70’s Female Singer/Songwriter:** Carly Simon, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Janis Ian, Rickie Lee Jones. **I wouldn’t limit this genre to a particular decade. 🙂 I would add Joan Armatrading, Tracy Collins, Suzanne Vega, Tory Amos, Bic Runga, Sarah McLaughlin** ---
**Author:** ![tds1273](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df705f/32.png) [@tds1273](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tds1273)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827/50 "2009-07-23T23:04:55Z")
[Post-rock](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-rock#Musical_characteristics); notable bands include Stereolab, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions in the Sky, A Sliver Mount Zion, Mogwai, Electrelane and Sigur Rós. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827/51 "2009-07-23T23:15:14Z")
60s - 80s, the development of synthesiser and (predominantly) electronic instrumental music: Walter/Wendy Carlos (‘Switched on Bach’); Kraftwerk (‘The Man Machine’); Tangerine Dream (‘Ricochet’); Jean-Michel Jarre (‘Oxygene’); Klaus Schulse (‘FM Delight’). ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827/52 "2009-07-23T23:21:54Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Neil Young is Canadian. Now that’s cleared up, how about: **Canadian Folk / Country Rock / Alt. Country:** Blue Rodeo, Cowboy Junkies, The Sadies (frequent backing band for Neko Case and awesome in their own right), Melissa McClelland (awesome singer), Luke Doucet (awesome songwriter and even awesomer guitar player), Great Lake Swimmers (just simply awesome). ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827/53 "2009-07-24T00:06:45Z")
Oh, it’s also worthwhile to throw the shoegazers in there, as my favorite album of all-time, My Bloody Valentine’s _Loveless_ came out of that subgenre. Shoegazing is a very thick, guitar-heavy, effects-heavy, textural style of rock , and is so-called because the stereotypical shoegazer performance was one in which the band stood motionless, staring at the floor/guitar pedals/etc., completely entranced in the sound of the music. In terms of mainstream rock, you’ll find the influence of shoegaze probably most obviously in The Smashing Pumkins’ work. Shoegazing: My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Lush, Slowdive You might also want to check out M83 as a sort of modern, electronic take on late 80s/early90s shoegaze rock. If you like the sound of the shoegazers, you might want to check out some of the dream pop/proto-shoegaze/related bands like Galaxie 500, Cocteau Twins, and Jesus & Mary Chain. ---
**Author:** ![mj\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@mj\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mj_2)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827/54 "2009-07-24T01:58:45Z")
> [@Small\_Clanger](#): > > Oops, sorry people, The Undertones were Irish, let’s say _non-American_ Punk. So this reminds me of a story. See if anyone remembers this the way I do. It was 1986 and I was listening to this band all my friends were raving about called U2. It was a live broadcast on radio. Anyway, during the show Bono has a newspaper or a column written by a critic who describes U2 as just another English band who think they have something to say to the world. Bono then goes on to say that he would like to tell this mother\_\_\_\_\_ that U2 are from Ireland and yes, they do have a whole hell of a lot to tell the world. All of us listening in the room went crazy as did the crowd at the show. I don’t know the venue or how much detail of that I got exactly right. Anybody else remember that story? That my friend, is a story to help knock the ignorance off your Rock and Roll knowlege. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-combat-my-rock-roll-popular-music-ignorance/503827.md?page=2)