On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 22:26:17 -0800,
Post by Dirk van der HeideAaron, please do not be angry with me. I point out that ABBA has guitar
because you said that hard rock music is characterized by this instrument!
You're not reading what I wrote. Hard rock is frequently characterized by a
very loud, distorted guitar, bass and drums. Examples of hard rock songs
are Highway to Hell, the final half of Stairway to Heaven, White Room and I
would even include Revolution (not Revolution 1 from the White Album, but
the faster single version). Fernando, Dancing Queen and SOS sound nothing
like that.
Post by Dirk van der HeideAnd ABBA uses it, so you cannot exclude them from hard rock on this basis.
Further, their drums and percussion are loud and, as you put it, "thudding."
Abba is not hard rock. Hard rock is bands like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Black
Sabbath, Deep Purple, Cream and Jimmi Hendrix. Go listen to these guys, and
then tell me that they're in the same genre with pop bands like Abba.
Post by Dirk van der HeideI have only a passing acquaintance with the music of AC/DC, but I would
remind you that they sound as different from the Beatles as do the Beatles
from ABBA (or any of these from Leo Sayer). Yet if all of these are hard
rock, ABBA is as well, for the reasons presented above!
I'm beginning to wonder if you're just a troll. I can't believe anyone
posting to a group like this would be as ignorant of various forms of modern
music.
Post by Dirk van der HeideI am not sure why you feel the need to stress that the "volume" of
percussion and bass instruments has changed over the years. This has not in
any substantial way changed their timbral qualities or made them difficult
for a listener to recognize, any more so than turning up your record player
might change the tonal character of the song playing on it! Perhaps you
mean that they are played in a different register?
Perhaps I mean that you are largely ignorant of a major type of rock and
roll music whose roots can be found in the late 1960s but found its widest
expression in the 1970s. Abba isn't even a rock band, let alone a hard rock
band. Few if any of its songs reflect any kind of rock or blues
progressions. In fact, I can't think of any Abba songs that fit the mold.
I can, however, name damn near every AC/DC song, large numbers of Zeppelin
and Beatles songs that do fit this general pattern.
Abba isn't hard rock, it isn't even really rock.
Post by Dirk van der HeideAt any rate, I only mentioned percussion and bass to point out that I can
tell them when I hear them, despite my "advanced middle age"!
It's isn't the presence of percussion, which has been around a very long
time, but rather that rock, and even hard rock, have distinctive styles.
Post by Dirk van der HeideIt is difficult to communicate sometimes across the gap separating the music
afficionado from the "pop" consumer, Aaron. This does not mean, though,
that I am unwilling to try. It is only a matter of finding a vocabulary
that we have in common, and agreeing to use it. I think it should quite
reward the effort, don't you?
I think you don't know what you're talking about. I have a suspicion that
you are likely a troll, but it is possible that you are, in fact, nearly
completely ignorant of what constitutes rock music. If you wish to go
around proclaiming Abba a hard rock band, then I guarantee you will be
greeted with laughter whether it's a rock fan or an Abba fan.
--
Aaron Clausen
***@hotmail.com
"Will you kindly explain to me the reasons to debar individuals in certain
branches from rising by merit to commissioned rank? If a cook may rise, or a
steward, why not an electrical artificer or au ordnance rating or a
shipwright? If a telegraphist may rise, why not a painter? Apparently there
is no difficulty about painters rising in Germany!" - Winston Churchill