Contemporary Rock N Roll and Pop Music

Contemporary rock n roll and Pop music are often linked. ‘Pop,’ short for Popular music, is a well-known genre. But what is it, exactly? It’s nothing and everything; it is a compilation of works from a multitude of genres with nothing in common except that it (pop music) attracts the “mainstream.”

Industry executives coined the term pop music to describe music they thought teenagers would love.

Pop music uses styles derived from other music popular in a certain time and place, whether it be R&B, urban, Latin, rock n roll, folk, country, or jazz.

For early pop artists, minimalism meant simplicity and conformity, without adornment, built on a basic rock framework. This, in turn, was interpreted as familiarity, the aspect of becoming commercial and accessible. The early flavors of the American rock bands could, at times, border on satire and irony. This genre was reminiscent of a bygone era. The singers embodied an unashamed artiness that was seen as a virtue rather than a vice.

Today, pop is anything but minimalist: Madonna’s stage shows, and later Lady Gaga’s, turned pop-dance music into a parade of extravagance, and with the advent of newer, more advanced technology, music could be manipulated without limits.

For those who are, or were, music die-hards—in R&B, Rock N Roll (hard, classic, metal, thrash, punk), American Country, and even Jazz—making it to the pop charts was the ultimate sellout of a “true” artist. Yet making it to the pop charts meant nothing more than attracting a wider fan base beyond the limits of that genre.

Bon Jovi, for example, was trashed by early critics who called the group a poppy garage band. Yet fans disagreed. The band went on to sell tens of millions of records, performed to sell-out crowds worldwide, and recorded a few top rock songs that became rock anthems, including Livin’ On A Prayer and It’s My Life.

Contemporary Rock N Roll, Pop Music and The Raskins

This year, a new group called The Raskins came out of nowhere to gain international attention with driving anthem-like rock songs, past performances in Australia, Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Canada, and their escalating presence online — their YouTube videos have been seen tens of thousands of times, and they’ve amassed hundreds of thousands of social media followers.

The group, named after the twins Logan and Roger Raskin, follow Bon Jovi with a mass-appeal pop rock style in songs like We Had It All, Lost In The Dark, and Need Another Hero, which they told me will be featured as they kick off the first stop of their limited 2013 U.S.A. showcase tour, “THERE AND BACK,” at the famous Viper Room in Hollywood on July 6th, 2013, with other dates to be announced via their website, Facebook page, Facebook Fan Club group, their Google Plus, and Twitter pages. An album is in the works to be released on Miral Records in early 2014 I’m told.

In its beginnings, Rock n Roll scared the hell out of adults during the ‘50s and ‘60s. Suddenly their kids got excited and lost control of their emotions, giving in to the power of the music. When Elvis gyrated his hips and drove the girls wild, television wouldn’t show him below the waist. That was the first day of the last day of the straight-laced, be-proper, act-proper 1950s.

Rock N Roll was something new. It was counter-culture man; it was rebellious daddy-o; it was hip, rad, bad, exciting, new, and has belonged exclusively to the kids of each era, a new form of expression born out of R&B. From Elvis Presley, to Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, and Aretha Franklin, the Beatles, The Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Michael Jackson, to Green Day — (all named top of the 100 greatest artists in Rolling Stone Magazine) — rock n roll is not manufactured; it’s organically grown and nurtured.

During the early ‘60s, the British invasion of the Beatles and The Rolling Stones redefined rock ‘ n ‘ roll from the previous decade. And no one can argue it became pop music—everyone loved the Beatles and the Stones! The Doors shifted the sound again, followed years later by Woodstock, the famous concert that catapulted the hippie movement and the careers of Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Sly & The Family Stone, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Joan Biaz, Santana, Grace Slick & Jefferson Airplane, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, to name but a few, as well as the legendary Bob Dylan, who is credited for infusing poetry into rock n roll music.

By the ’70s, rock ‘ n ‘ roll evolved into yet another interpretation with groups like Pink Floyd, Yes, Chicago, Genesis, Rush, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Queen. Oh, and the newly evolved Beatles were back — not that they had ever left. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band started their climb, leading Springsteen to the heights in the ’80s.

In short, rock ‘n’ roll has never been one thing: it’s an ever-changing evolution of sounds and expressions.