Hybrid Essay Remastered

Jonathan Matlalcuatzi
English 114B @ 9:30
Sean Pessin 

Hybrid Essay: Rock Music

The blog that I created simply focused on rock music. Its main theme was to inform people of how rock music came to be and where it has gone since. While informing people through my posts I was also able to learn things myself and I was able to explore a variety of rock music styles.

It was interesting to know that rock music was not always called rock. Before the term “rock” this genre had other names that eventually led to the title it has now. Here is the process that it went through:

• First, Paul Silvester Pier coined the term “race music” which simply was black music.
• After that Scott Pelver changed race music to rhythm and blues.
• It was Alan Freed who first introduced the term “rock” to this genre when he coined the term “rock and roll” in 1942.

Through this I learned that it was not only the genre that constantly changed over time but as well as its name. I believe that the different change in names was influenced by the genre itself. Whatever was heard and whatever was played is what led to the change in name in the genre.

The task of searching for articles that contradicted my topic seemed a bit complicated to me. I didnt know why would people contradict rock music other than because some think its the devils music. I looked for articles that described a problem or flaw in rock music. Upon doing this I stumbled upon an idea, flaw, contradiction, whatever you want to call it. While searching I had found two articles that had the same idea, their thesis was that rock music was dying. It was interesting to find out that some people opinionated that rock music was dying and it was simply not the same as it was before.  These articles looked at some statistics like how many rock songs have been best sellers and top hits. Through this they assumed that rock music is slowly dying and that it has lost it root. I of course, like a great rock music fan challenged that opinion through my blog. It was there that I stated that rock music was not dying. In my opinion rock music has evolutionized and has gotten outside of its comfort zone and there has been more creativity added to it. I also believe that people are only focusing on the main rock genre rather then exploring all these sub genres it has like:

• Indie
• Rock pop
• Punk
• Hardcore
• Alternative 

Exploring these sub genres would change the opinions of many and would lead them to think that rock is not dead.

Searching for articles that related to rock music was not such a hard task. I had found a few quicker than articles that contradicted rock music. I had found an article that had to do with a music festival and one that suggest a band if you liked another specific band.

Above is a picture of a festival in Japan. This festival is known as the Fuji Rock Festival and it is one of the biggest one in Japan. While looking for an article that had to do with rock music I stumbled upon one that spoke about this rock festival in Japan. This rock festival was something new to me and was introduced to me through this article that I had found on the internet.

There is another article that I stumbled upon through my search. This article had to do with both old and new rock music. The article basically matched you to a certain modern rock band if you liked a different band from the past. This was pretty cool because you could see how rock bands and music from the past influence modern day rock bands and music. You can also see how the genre’s root is still there in these modern day bands and songs.

Through this blog I also wanted to show people the variety of rock music that is out there. It was my opportunity to show the audience the songs that I liked. This worked out well because while I presented to them to music that I liked I was also able to show them a variety of songs from some of the sub genres of rock music. I was able to put up music videos of the songs I chose with some information of the band that played the song so the audience could know a bit about who played the song. In this process I was also learning some things that I didn't know of as well.

The reason why I choose to do my blog on music is simply because I just cant live without it. I don't think anyone can. Although it is true that not everyone likes rock music but to each his own. Whether it be rock, hip-hop, blues, R & B, jazz, country, etc. people just cant live without music. I choose rock music in specific because it is what I like and what I listen to the most. I thought this was a great idea because it was my opportunity to show people what I was interested in.