Music nowadays is represented by an immense amount of styles and genres that can satisfy the most demanding listener. Rock music stands proudly among this variety of styles, being the most impressive, beautiful, and contradictory one. While some people consider it just a lot of noise, for me, rock is the best music style because of its powerful drive, emotional richness, and freedom of sound.
Rock is not just music, but also the unique cultural phenomenon of the last century. It is often associated with the outcry of protest against ingrained social norms, which is reflected in remarkably expressive vocal techniques, a showy closing style of the musicians, their impudent behavior, and often obscene lyrics. The rock bands always try to speak the same language with the listener and establish a high level of interactivity. Their audience is never passive; the listeners are engaged in very emotional communication.
The emergence of such an expressive music style was made possible by the invention of the electric guitar in the 20s of the XX century and by the social transformations of the postwar period. The electric guitar became popular among the jazz and blues musicians, who experimented with the sound and eventually came close to the creation of the new style. The beginning of the rock’n’roll era is usually connected with the formation in 1960 of the prominent The Beatles band, who became a world sensation.
The succeeding bands, with my favorite The Rolling Stones among them, made them sound significantly harder and crystallized hard rock and heavy metal. Further experiments with the sound, adding the elements of other music styles, led to the emergence of a vast amount of rock sub-styles. Among those are the psychedelic rock, folk-rock, glam rock, art rock, alternative rock, and many more.
The most significant peculiarities and the very philosophy of rock music can be shown on the example of The Rolling Stones band. With hundreds of millions of fans and the remarkable music legacy, they are considered the greatest rock band in modern history. From the start of their creative activity, The Rolling Stones positioned themselves as notorious naughty guys who disregard the social norms.
They cultivated their music style in the spirit of protest and eventually formed the canonic rock sound with its vivid distortion and catchy guitar riffs. From the first sound, their music may create a feeling of chaos and noise, but for a discerning listener, it is an extremely artistic masterpiece. Among the grooviest albums of The Rolling Stones are Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main Street, and Steel Wheels.
Thus, it can be stated that rock is a truly unique music art because it deals with the whole range of human emotions, gives the person a chance to forget all prejudices and to feel completely engaged in the process. Rock is more than a music style; it is an incredibly rich culture, the realm of freedom, and heaven for self-expression.