In Search of the Next American Bad Ass
I've been listening to Guns N Roses Lies a lot lately. When I was in high school, I used to listen to the last four tracks exclusively -- they're the acoustic, musical songs that are nice and melodic. Now I'm listening only to the first four songs, which are live, distorted, a little out of synch, and totally raw.
Why have my tastes changed? I think it's because very few people make music that kicks ass anymore. AC/DC used to. Metallica used to. GNR used to. George Thorogood used to. Alice Cooper, Poison, Ozzy, etc. But most rock 'n roll today is alternativish, introspective and conflicted, pouring out tortured thoughts and emotions in powerballads. What happened to music with loud guitars and a screaming singer? What happened to ENERGY? What happened to music that made you want to go home and learn the song on guitar?
(Two current exceptions come to mind: Kid Rock and Blink-182. But they're not exactly what they used to be...)
On that note, whatever happened to ass-kicking movies? Arnold and Jean-Claude are out of the picture, and the next big hopes (Vin Diesel and The Rock) hardly put out anything, and little that's watchable.
Do men no longer need these energetic outlets anymore? Hardly -- that's why the NFL, NASCAR, country music and wars are doing so well. In fact, maybe a new run of badassism would relieve us of excess testerone and make us less inclined to go invade foreign countries.
How about a reality show, American Gladiators meets the World's Strongest Man meets American Idol? There could be Axl impersonation contests, a street fighting component and a bench press competition, with regular steroid testing. Television producers, give me a jingle...
posted by Matt Stewart @ 8:59 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Sup Dude,
I can explain the disappearance of ass-kicking movies. It all started in the mid 90's when CGI and other technologies came out. Then the people in Hollywood realized that there was no limit to what you could put on screen. It started with movies like Jurassic Park. This led to a trend of movies that were all computer effects (some good like the Matrix and some bad like the other Matrix movies and Godzilla). As well as epic war movies (Gladiator, Troy). With all these computerized special effects there is no longer a place for a Jean Claude Van Damme spinning roundhouse and Belgian accent. It seems that Robocop has turned into I, Robot.
Keep on Roucking!
Looks like I got a little visit from the spam fairy! Lucky me!
I had the spam fairy visit me too. I turned on the comment word putter-inner thing and that seems to have cleared the mess up.
BTW, I agree with you about the music thing. Velvet Revolver is the only thing that comes close to not being alternative whiny crap.
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