Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, John Perich, and Matthew Wrather discuss the movie Rock of Ages, delving into what makes rock rock, the the class and racial bases of 1980s nostalgia, and the music the Overthinkers were listening to when they came of age.
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One more anal-centric podcast name, and you might have to change Overthinking It’s motto to “We all up in dat ass!”
Every time Lee says “jukebox musical” I want to hug him for some reason. Maybe because I’ve heard so many reviewers talk around the definition of a jukebox musical without knowing enough to know the term or the trend.
It’s so cute to hear you discuss what women find attractive. You really should try and find a woman to be on the podcast. My answer? Michael Fassbender. Or Clark Gable. But in general I think it’s difficult to pinpoint one model of what women find desirable at any given period in time.
About wearing a Japanese flag, there was this feeling that the Japanese loved glam metal in the 80s. There were plenty of videos of glam bands playing japan to screaming fans. The example of being big in japan was the Cheap Trick at Budokan. Bands would come back and gush about how they were treated in Japan.
I think you are missing the mark with fans of Crew of Guns being on the save wavelength as the people who saw Japan as a threat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheap_Trick_at_Budokan
What’s south of downtown Detroit? Canada.
I went with my girlfriend to the mall one time. It wasn’t the dinky local mall, it was the big one a few towns away. We went to a bunch of different stores, trying on ridiculous outfits. We waded in the fountain in the center of the mall, and then started a splash fight. We cursed loudly at video games. We threw food at each other. We stopped right in the middle of the concourse and made out. I don’t think I felt sad or insecure even for one moment. It was just one of those days, where we didn’t care about anybody else in the world except for each other. That’s what I think “Don’t Stop Believin'” is about. And that’s why the song is so popular – everybody knows those moments are fleeting and unsustainable, but they’re still one of the best things about being alive.
So I was listening to an interview with Ice-T recently, and he made the point that Rappers are more similar to to Percussionists than Singers or Guitarists. This suggests to me that Rappers are less the heirs of Van Halen and more the legacy of Phil Collins.
I’ve not seen Rock of Ages, but I’m curious: Given that you spoke about about class and Blue Collar-ness, is there any Springsteen in the show?
“I’ve not seen Rock of Ages, but I’m curious: Given that you spoke about about class and Blue Collar-ness, is there any Springsteen in the show?”
Good question. There’s no Springsteen in “Rock of Ages.” Musically, Springsteen is too R&B influenced and not metal enough. Interestingly, that brings us back to race and away from class…
Lyrically, Springsteen’s on a totally different level than “I Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore” (the one with the AAAAA rhyme scheme) and “Heaven” (with the memorable likening of the color of a girl’s eyes to “blue suburban skies”).
That’s a long way of saying that his music would be out of place in this show for a variety of thematic reasons.
The short way would be to say that Springsteen – even at his “Glory Days” cheesiest – is far to good for this movie, which is very specifically about schlock.
Here’s a question: Is there any big, bombastic party music left that you’re not supposed to dance to? I think that’s what 80s hard rock/hair metal was about: People being sexy and having fun without having even the vaguest sense of rhythm. Explains the disco hatred quite well.
Some ideas on current pop music in relation to male sexuality:
“Sexy and I know it” LMFAO, a lot of their library has similar tones (think their other hit “Yes”). Other than this, I would say that a lot of the shift has been towards masculating (if I may) through degrading women in some fashion.
Hrm, you guys kept saying, “Whitey tighties,” but I’ve always heard it said the opposite way, “tightey whities.”
Hey, I was willing to be on the regular podcast, so that’s on you, bros. ;p But anyhoo, when it comes to what females are attracted to and what they aren’t, that blogger you read, Perich, was pretty on it. Hyper-masculine is rather a turn-off for women. Also, let’s not forget that comics are about male fantasy. That’s usually a universally accepted way of describing it. But if you take it from a slightly different angle, you can call it male aspiration. In theory (I’m not accusing anyone on the podcast of this, I’m talking about comic art and why it looks the way it does), men desire for their females to look a certain way, emphasize certain aspects of their physiques and such. So the T&A Perich was describing is a, let’s call it Platonic Form, of what the men for which the comics are drawn want to have in their real lives. So the women in comics are what men aspire to have. Then there’s the muscular men in the comics. It’s not necessarily a desire to be with or have them, but to actually be them. They want to be indestructible, glowingly attractive, and chiseled as if carved out of stone/ivory/etc. by the master hand of some fantastic god that wanted to make the perfect being- again, a Platonic Form. Yeah, there’s probably some homoerotic undertone as a thin layer of part of the foundation, but the main takeaway is that the hyper-masculine men in comics are what the men reading aspire to be. And ultimately, for comics, it doesn’t matter what women/girls want, because comics aren’t written for women/girls. They’re written for men/boys. Have I brought up the first edition of Catwoman from the New 52 yet? ::end rant before I get too huffy::
How about the cars in hip hop? Or just the fact that they rap about women as objects to be conquered and acquired in droves?
Guys! Guys! The next movie that will feature Bryan Cranston in his whitie-tighties will be TOTAL RECALL:
http://www.slashfilm.com/total-recall-theatrical-trailer-story-super-size-scope/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+slashfilm+%28%2FFilm%29
Enjoyed the podcast as always! One quick comment about Don’t Stop Believing: it actually DOES have one line in the first person: “Working hard to get my fill.”
It definitely complicates things. First verse is sort of a fairy tale, second verse seems like more of a confession.
Honestly, even though I was the one to do the Don’t Stop Believing Musical Talmud, I didn’t really do it justice. It needs to be revisited.