About "Good Music" - Part 2: Rock

This is the second part of my series of articles about "good music", which was originally planned to become a series of three. In the first article of this series I had talked about Progressive Rock. The plan was to do a follow-up on Electronic Music, and then one on Classical Music, but somehow I got inspired today to write about Rock Music instead, so I'm changing the plan a little.

As a preface I should again say that this is of course highly subjective. Tastes differ wildly, and talking about art is especially subjective. Why am I writing this? As a developer of a music player I simply get to hear a lot of music (all day, basically), and I've always been fascinated by music, although I'm personally not a musician. So, take all of this with a grain of salt. What motivated me to write this second part is that I did actually get some very nice feedback on the first article, including a fellow KDE developer talking to me at the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit about this article, which I thought was really nice. Apparently there is some interest in talking about music, so let's just do that

Now I should explain why I originally didn't plan to write about Rock Music. The reason is a bit weird: I am somewhat ashamed of admitting that I do enjoy Rock, simply because there's so much crap in this genre. Again, this is highly subjective, but I just don't consider run-of-the-mill Rock very exciting. However, some bands managed to do Rock with a twist, either by adding components of other genres to it, or simply by being freaking good. Most of these "freaking good" bands also are versatile though, and they do incorporate different styles into their music.

Queen

It is pretty hard to describe Queen briefly. It's also pretty hard not to hit superlatives when talking about them, because they were very super in many regards. I personally consider Queen the best rock band of all times, that's probably the best way to sum it up. Queen also happened to be my first "love" in music, and to this day I love them just as much as I did when I was 14. What made them so special? First of all, their singer Freddie Mercury was simply as good as singers can get. Incredible vocal range, fantastic and unique voice. Freddie Mercury died in 1991 from AIDS, one of the first prominent victims of this virus. Back then this caused quite the media stir, as Freddie was more or less openly gay, and the media tried to do the best they could to explain that "the guy died because he was gay". I'm missing words to describe this stupidity, so let's switch to Brian May, their guitarist. May is in fact "Dr May" now, as he has recently completed his PhD in astrophysics, and he's currently listed at #39 of Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". It's hard to call the man anything else than a genius, if you have ever listened to his compositions and guitar work.

Freddie Mercury was able to switch effortlessly between Falsetto voice and Modal voice (what you would consider the normal voice), without really pausing or causing a hitch in the transition. As far as I know, this is pretty difficult to do, and not mastered by many. In my mind, I always had the image of him using his voice more like a musical instrument than just a voice, much like a trumpet. He was able to start deep, and then lifting it up, higher and higher. If you try that at home, chances are you'll end up with a sore throat next morning.

If you care about music at all, you should listen to some Queen songs. Some recommendations for especially good songs: "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Who Wants To Live Forever", "The Show Must Go On".

U2

This band is a bit of a strange bag. I have some sort of love/hate relationship with them, caused by a moral dilemma: Their music is among the best you can get. Their believe system is comparable to a fruit cake.

U2 is an Irish band, but these days they are more like a worldwide corporation. Their singer Bono is a bit of a controversial person. On the one hand, the guy is simply a good singer. On the other hand, he tends to get a bit over his head, meddling in politics, trying to cure world hunger, and kissing the Pope's ring. One of his latest escapades even made it to Slashdot. You be the judge if this man can be liked. My opinion: It's important to separate the personal from the professional. And professionally, this band simply is damn good. Bringing us to the next important band member:

The Edge, who is the guitarist and main composer of U2. I personally find him more likable than Bono, but all this is of little relevance. What is relevant to me is that Edge is a very good guitarist, with a unique style that is different from most other guitarists. His electrical guitar soli are rarely there for showing off, but more for creating a mood, and that he does masterfully.

It is important to note that most of U2's brilliant albums (they also made some crappy ones) were co-written by Brian Eno, who is widely known as one of the most influential persons in the music industry. My suspicion is that Eno is the true mastermind behind U2, as all albums with him tend to be masterful. The rest, not so much.

Some recommendations for U2 songs: "One", "With Or Without You", "Unknown Caller".

Honorable Mentions

Here are some more "rock" artists that I enjoy (they are all not classic rock'n' roll bands, but let's keep it at that):

The Verve

Guns 'N Roses

Pink Floyd

Frank Zappa

R.E.M.

I hope you enjoyed this article a bit, thanks for reading! And as always - I'd love to hear some feedback