Violent Entity Music Project

Rock music is often associated with heavy instrumentation, reverberating through a sound system, and played by hyperactive musicians wearing all-black garb. This kind of music has enjoyed over half a century of popularity with its strong beat and catchy melody.

Rock music started in the 1940s and the 1950s as a fusion of rhythm and blues, gospel music, and country music. Originally known as rock and roll, as branded by disc jockey Alan Feed from Ohio, rock music combined influences resulted in simple blues-based style that was fast and danceable.

Instrumentation for rock music often include electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, and keyboards. Others add to their line-up reed instruments like the saxophone and the French horn. String instruments like the mandolin and the sitar are occasionally seen in the realm of rock music. Of all these instrumentations, it is the guitar that is considered to be the star of the show. Guitars come as solid electric, hollow electric or acoustic.

The electric guitar was played rock and roll style by early rock legends Chuck Berry, Link Wray and Scotty Moore. Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan played a fusion of blues and rock. As multitrack recording was developed by Les Paul along with electronic sound treatment by Joe Meek, it was not long after when rock music artists like Jackie Breston and Bill Haley came out with their first rock and roll records. Breston released his record Rocket 88 under recording label Sun Records. And then several years after, Haleys Rock Around the Clock was launched and topped the charts of Billboard magazine in terms of record sales and airtime plays. Sun Records also produced rock and roll king Elvis Presleys first single labelled Thats All Right (Mama). Shake, Rattle & Roll of Big Joe Turner was also topping the Billboard R&B charts during this time.

The fusioning of rock music extended into the 1960s and the 1970s, with rock music being combined with folk music to create folk rock, with blues to create blues-rock, and with jazz to create jazz rock. Electrical instrument ambiance was incorporated into rock music to create the carefree psychedelic rock. Influences from soul, funk and latin music were integrated with rock music to pave way for subgenres as soft rock, heavy metal, hard rock, progressive rock, and punk rock.

Rock music took a metallic turn in the 1980s and 1990s with the entry of rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Queen, Aerosmith, Kiss, AC/DC and Black Sabbath. Hard rockers heightened the commercialization of rock and roll with albums and concerts being launched all over the country. Arenas and other similar big venues were used as a places to gather crowds and crowds of rock music fans. Live performances in rock concerts had rock fans screaming and going wild over rock bands performing to full performance level complete with stage design and pyrotechnics.

Some of the other developments in rock music are retro style grunge, theatrical glam rock (Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, and the New York Dolls), intense Britpop (John Lennon and the Beatles), indie rock and nu rock (Police, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, and the Culture Club).

Rock music has not been as popular with music critics at some point in time owing to its dark and overly loud metallic sound. But innovations and developments in look, style and sound has slowly developed a following for rock music not only in the young crowd but for the public in general as well. Rock music still manages to chalk up big hits in popular music.

by John Hook

Beach Music? Many define it by its geography and the kinds of songs it includes while describing ‘friendship’ and ‘good times’ as the glue which binds it.

If you’re like me you’ve thrilled to square dancing in bright costumes, two-stepping in country bars, bumping and hustling in discos, and line dancing in modern clubs. They’re all filled with friendship and good times; making those insufficient illustrations of what makes Beach Music what it is.

1. Beach Music in the East and the West are similar, but not the same.

Both coastal communities celebrate individuality and self-expression. At the center of West Coast beach culture is the surfer community encouraging private quests marked by athletic achievement while the East Coast dance culture inspires a new form of social success.

2. East Coast Beach Music nurtures new ideals of social equality, romance, and improvisational self-expression.

Fifteen years before Rock and Roll, white teenagers in the Southeast embraced Black music as their own. At the same time they developed a new dance to express themselves. From that mixture the Shag evolved.

3.  Many found the secret rites of Shag and Beach Music at the Beach.

Like the “soul surfers” of the West Coast, the “soul dancers” set new standards for the ‘good life.’ At the beach, personal and hometown histories stayed home while they assumed nicknames and developed new personalities.

4. Rhythm and Blues and Jazz were foundations for the Shag.

In addition to early black music, soul dancers often flipped over national pop hits to see if the ‘B’ side had the right beat and mood for carefree shuffles in coastal and inland pavilions.

5. Society sometimes misread them as mere ‘rebels.’

Like their West coast alter-egos they weren’t rebelling as much as forming new communities and social hierarchies of greater equality with rights of self-expression.

6. Balmy days and nights, sensual Shag moves, and their own ‘coat of arms’ embraced giddy summer romances.

The Shaggers’ dress code included Bass Weejuns, no socks, cashmere sweaters, and madras shirts. Like knights of old, girl-partners were revered.  When they danced, *she* was the most gorgeous woman in the world.

7. East Coast soul dancers enshrined the Art of Play as equal to Hard Work.

As such they considered social life equivalent to work life. While they worked summer jobs to support themselves, they worked just as hard at “not working” on the dance floor.

8. It looked like a sexual revolution.

It really wasn’t focused on sex. Self-confidence and cool were guiding principles and the ‘safe date’ was integral to Beach Music. They put dancing before drinking–unlike some who need a ‘boost’ to drop their inhibitions.

9. Classic Beach songs include national hits and treasures unknown outside the Southeast.

Fifties Beach songs celebrated the good times in several ways. Although “Drinkin’ Wine Spo Dee O Dee” mentioned wine, it more loudly proclaimed the ‘good times’! Fifties hits included “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” “Sixty Minute Man,” and “Sh-Boom.” The 60s added hundreds more like “Under the Boardwalk,” “My Girl,” “What Does it Take To Win Your Love,” and “Brown Eyed Girl.”

10. The ‘Shag’ had other names including the ‘Bop’ ‘Freestylin” and ‘Fas’ Dancin’.

The music wasn’t named for 25 years! In the beginning most teenagers found it at the Beach. Eventually there were 500+ inland dance clubs, Pavilions, restaurants, swimming pools, and fishing lakes with dance floors.

Beach Music and Shag history show a culture celebrating individual uniqueness in the rituals of music and romance experienced by those who were dancing to their own destinies.  The Beach Music community was like a ‘beta’ version of MySpace, a ‘flat’ world where everyone was equal, each member was in charge of their own self-expression and the accumulation of friends with whom they had common interests.  The internet has simply made the field of dance partners much much larger.

To learn more about this fascinating chapter of American life that is still being written, follow this link http://www.beachshag.com/BMG%20SITC.htm

“Fessa” John Hook is a 39 year broadcaster captains the Endless Summer Network of Beach and Shag music on the net.

His three books on Beach music and Shag  are: “Shaggin’ in the Carolinas,” and the “Beach Music Guide 1945-2006, Vols 1 & 2″ and another, “Dancing On the Edge – How Music Freed the South,” coming in the fall of 2009.

“‘Shagging In the Carolinas,’ according to Hook, a Beach Music and Shag enthusiast, is a love letter that took 26 years to write.” –Sun Times newspaper

“Hook writes about how Shagging defied social conventions as carefree white teenagers were inspired by the possibilities inherent in improvisational black dance and music.” –Lexington Dispatch

“Hook knows what he’s talking about when it comes to Beach Music. As a broadcaster in the late 1980s, he was responsible for the first full-time Beach Music radio station in history….he chronicles the evolution of the dance….before the Lindy Hop, before the Jitterbug, came the Shag, a dance born and bred in the Carolinas.” –Our State magazine

Have you heard of YouTube before?  Even if you have never visited YouTubes’s website, you likely already know a little bit about what it is, as YouTube is often talked about among friends, family members, and coworkers.  You can also regularly find YouTube being discussed on local or even national news programs.  Although you may have heard of you YouTube, you might not have visited it before.  If you haven’t, you may want to think about stopping by, as you have the opportunity to view an unlimited number of free videos, many of which you may find entertaining.

Speaking of all of the free videos that you can find available for viewing online, you may be wondering what type of videos you can watch on YouTube, especially if you have never taken the time to explore the site.  In all honesty, there are an unlimited number of videos that you can find available for viewing on YouTube.  Just a few of the many video types that you may find online, are briefly outlined below.

One type of YouTube video that is rapidly increasing in popularity is that of the video blog.  Over the past few years, the popularity of blogging skyrocketed.  Blogging traditionally involves writing daily posts about your personal life or your work adventures.  Recently, many video lovers have started to create video blogs.  Instead of writing down their words online, they are talking into a camera and then posting the video for the entire world to see.  While it may seem awkward to watch a video blog made by someone you have never met before, you may find video blogs to be quite entertaining.  In fact, many video blog viewers have never meet the blogger in question and many have no intention of ever doing so; they just like watching their videos.

Another one of the most popular types of YouTube videos are those that are centered on comedy.  When it comes to comedy, you will find different comedy videos available for viewing on YouTube.  For instance, there are some YouTube members that create comedy skits, ones that are staged.  There are also some YouTube members who happen to get candid videos.  Candid videos are videos where the people in the video, often acquaintances, do no know that they are being video tapped.  There are also YouTube comedy videos that are combination of staged and candid videos. These types of comedy videos often revolve around people who know that they are being video taped, but just going with the flow of things.  Any way that you look at it, comedy videos are very popular on YouTube.

It is also possible to find music videos available for viewing on YouTube.  For the most part, the music videos on YouTube are videos that local bands or musicians made themselves.  Due to copyright issues, it is rare to find a music video from a well-known band or signer; however, YouTube is currently taking steps to change that.  Even though the selection of music videos on YouTube is sort of limited to up and coming artists, you may enjoy watching many of the music videos currently available on YouTube.  You can easily find a wide variety of different YouTube music videos, many of which are from different music genres.   

 

Educational videos or how-to videos are also popular on YouTube.  In most cases, you will find that educational videos include how-to videos, but there are other educational videos available.  For instance, if you are looking for videos that deal with pets, you may be able to find a few educational videos outlining the importance of properly caring for your pet.  A real how-to video would outline steps that you could take to properly care for your pet.  Educational videos, although they cover a wide range of different subjects, have one common goal, to educate you. 

As you can see, there are a large number of video types that can be found on YouTube.  What is absolutely amazing is that previously mentioned video types are just a few of the many that you can find on YouTube. To get a taste of all that YouTube has to offer, you are urged to visit the YouTube website and get entertained!