Brief History of Rock & Roll & Songwriting

Video Transcript

"So, in light of all that, when we write rock songs, it's important to remember that rock songs grew kind of as a counterculture movement against some of the traditional forms of music, especially some of the church music. And on the other side, some of the more popular streams of music that were growing, that was within popular culture and accepted within the church culture is things like country music. So it kind of actually grew juxtaposed to country music. So, whenever you're writing a rock song, a theme to remember, because of the history of rock and roll, is that this is supposed to be countercultural. This is supposed to be kind of in your face. It's supposed to be a little, it's supposed to catch you kind of off guard a little bit. And, in rock music, really historically, what it eventually became was kind of the music of the generation. It was the anthem of the generation. And a good, a good goal to set while writing a rock song and a good thing to keep in mind, is that what you're really doing is trying to write an anthem for your generation. Something that your generation will care about. Something that you guys are up in arms about, something that would be counterculture. Something that would be progressive, possibly. But that's ultimately what you're looking for in writing a rock song and that's how the history of rock music will factor into your songwriting."