gmanthesis - a selective history of rocknroll from a personal perspective.

“Echoes of reggae comin’ through my bedroom wall
havin’ party up next door but I’m sitting here all alone
two lovers in the bedroom and the other starts to shout
all I got is this blank stare and that don’t carry no clout at all”

The house shakes. Jonathan, up in his bedroom with the door closed, pounds his 36” Easton metal-bat electric guitar as he growls the lyrics with just the right inflections.

“Destination unknown, Ruby ruby ruby ruby soho!!!!!!!”

I’ve heard it a hundred times before. He loves Rancid. They have cred. Green Day sold out. The Ramones were the first punks, Jonathan says. No wait, he says in his animated I’ll-TELL you-the-way-it-IS manner, it was the Velvet Underground. Yeah, they were THE ones; raw, edgy, way cool. Dad says look at the Who. That they were Mod rocker tough-guys who followed the Beatles, but weren’t so nice and cute; smashed guitars, sang about being fucked-up kids- “hope I die ‘fore I get old. Talkin’ ‘bout my generation.”

That is a common scene in the Kennedy household – my brother upstairs listening to Rancid, pretending a baseball bat is a guitar. My dad downstairs, creating websites and blogs for the rest of the FAM while listening to Joni Mitchell, or maybe he’s in the mood for the softer, yet just as soulful, Miles Davis. I took a Jazz History course in college. Liked it, more so because it was easy, rather than because of my appreciation for jazz – that’s for old people – or sorry dad, older people. Or that’s what I used to think, but now I feel all genres are for everyone to enjoy. At the moment, I don’t enjoy jazz, but I’m coming around, expanding my horizons beyond the music I use to listen to. I thought college would expose me to more music – didn’t quite happen. I learned I must expose myself to the music. I’ve spent much of my free hours, not in class, listening to music and listening to music. That is my excuse for not getting a 4.0, and I have my father and brother to thank for that as they have turned me onto more and more music. I spent too much of my teenage years listening to pop-music, music all over MTV (in which today I found out stands for Music Television). During those years, I listened to music all the time, but wouldn’t say I had a love for it. But now I do, and would like to share with you how my musical interests have evolved. But first I’m going to listen to some music to get me in the mood, an excuse I have used often in order to postpone writing this thesis. I’ll be back to the keyboard after a couple tracks.

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