Why We Need To Reclaim Rock Music

*This little rant came about when I heard some radio DJ praise an artist for their "rock" music, when the artist was anything BUT rock*

The definition of rock music is swiftly degenerating. It no longer means a couple of guys playing heavy, thrashing, head banging music. It no longer represents the outcasts and all the people who refuse to be force-fed corporate pop stars. It no longer provides an outlet. It can hardly be used to express feeling, or to just be enjoyed.

No longer do the members of the band actually write the songs, or the music. All we hear is the "music" of a group of people who have nothing better to do than control what people listen to and hear. Today, almost anything with a sound even resembling that of a guitar can be passed as rock.

This is not how it should be.

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake are not rockstars, and yet you hear people (ignorant people) praising their "rock lyrics". How it has gotten to this point, I do not know. But I do know that we have to change. We are quickly moving towards a future without real rock musicians and we have to change that.

All is not lost, though. There are bands who have remained true to the definition of rock. They are highly outnumbered, but more join them everyday. The bands who first defined rock are also making comebacks. Their best years may have past them by, but they refuse to let their work be forgotten and to let fakers take the title they created.

I know that there are enough believers out there, true believers - not people who'll follow any fad - to bring back real rock. All we have to do is support it.

I know there will be people who say, "You don't know what you're talking about. True rock doesn't have a definition. It just is." You, my friend, are wrong. Rock, metal, thrash, screamo, whatever you listen to has something that defines it. Rock started out as a rebellion against normal society. The artists went against what everyone else believes. Don't try and tell me that all rock is still like that, because it isn't. Not when you have pop stars being called rockstars. There is a difference.