Classic & Current Contemporary Non-Schlock-Rock Metropolitan Music

1980s AOR Radio - Defining Rock & Roll

What is Rock? What is Pop? What is Hip?

A troublesome issue for some stations is how some of the newer sounds fit into their image of a rock and roll station. Culture Club may be hip, but is it rock and roll?

There is also a controversy brewing regarding the lack of black artists on AOR stations. Black artists charge that they are being denied airplay on these stations for racist reasons. AOR stations say they are playing rock, not soul. The irony is that rock and roll had its birth in black music. Listen to early Beatles, Rolling Stones, and The Who and you'll hear the influences of Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and Bo Diddley. But are R&B and Urban Contemporary stations playing Ozzy Osborne and Led Zeppelin? Are stations that feature Lionel Ritchie and Peaches 'N Herb playing Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix?

With the introduction of more soulful white artists such as Culture Club to its playlists, the "rock" defense is less relevant. Says WRIF's Jacobs:

"We're having a weird situation here with black music. There's been a fair amount of attention here as to why we don't play black artists. To what rock and roll is. We call ourselves the "Home of Rock and Roll" but I'm not really sure that's what we are. I don't think anybody knows anymore.

"Where the whole thing has blown apart sociologically is what happens when parents — people who grew up listening to RIF are now 35, 40 years old have kids who are of the age to be listening to the station and their parents still do so. I think that's where things have exploded. That's not to say that what's coming out right now isn't rock and roll, but I think rock and roll as a musical form — aside from the music — it was what the music signified, and it was what the music meant to people and it was music's place in society.

"The problem we are all having now is that there is nobody making any kind of statement. The kind of music that you are listening to is less and less defining to you as an individual. Music as a social statement or even as a personal statement about yourself — I don't think that exists as much anymore. That's why a lot of us are kind of getting a little bit lost in the weeds. Cause no one's really saying anything. I'm not sure the audience really wants to listen anyway. It's like "Here's a good song. It's by Culture Club. Who cares what Culture Club is? Who cares what they look like? Who cares where they're from? Here's a nice little song." And — bang! — it's on the radio."

So what is rock and roll? Is it a style? Is it an attitude?

"Rock is something that takes on serious definitive tones for you when you are in the formative years, 14-22," says Dave Logan, Program Director at KFOG San Francisco. "Rock is something you stand up for and you believe in rock and long live rock. Rock and roll is a style. Rock and roll is everything from Chuck Berry and Bill Haley and the Comets, Elvis Presley all the way up to The Clash."

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