Queens Of The Stone Age - No One Knows

Band:  Queens Of The Stone Age
Song:  No One Knows
Album:  Songs For The Dead (2002)
Genre:  Grunge

As a general rule, I dislike anything Dave Grohl touches. I find him to be a pretentious dick and it's really hard to see past that to enjoy his music sometimes. And honestly I wish I could say it was just him, but then I read an interview with the main guys in his band, and they say the same trash Dave spouts about how "rock is dead" and "we've gotta protect it" which is straight BS.

Let's look for a second here. Rock was rebellion, plain and simple. Once rebellion becomes the norm, you have to change what you're doing to continue it being a rebellion, because that's how rebelling works. That's what Rock used to be, and after a while bands like the Stones and The Beatles brought "that noise" into the home and started to normalize it. Rebellion moved toward harsher sounds as it went on, and as it will continue on till it inevitably loops back into some sort of weird, protest-based Jazz band or Indie Rock outfit and the whole cycle starts over again. Rock as a whole became Pop Rock, as it was accepted by the general culture.

Be honest. When I say Pop Rock, I'm sure something comes to your mind. Something like, poppy or something. I'm going to assume you don't always think of something like Foo Fighters, right? But that's the thing: they're popular rock, a.k.a. they're stagnant and churning out the same nonsense that's been selling them records for years.

I don't at all mind that they do this; everybody has a job and makes money, right? I don't object to the band's existence; I object to their self-proclaimed stance as "the last bastion of Rock music." They aren't protecting Rock, they're just holding it in one place. By trash talking bands that include non-traditional instruments, they only cement themselves into an increasingly obsolete position.

This is, of course, not something people will realize until they are faced with something that's better. You never know what you're missing ‘til you find it, so if you have bands with large followings—and people who listen to what they say—actively putting down the concept of bands who stray from the singer-guitar-guitar-bass-drums setup, you'll have a hard time getting people to go and create new sounds outside of that. People will stray from this formula all the time, but in the Rock community if you try to include other sounds then you pretty quickly get branded with some other label. Probably into the College Rock or Indie Rock category or something.

I dunno though, maybe I'm the one wrong here, but the way I feel it's something that needs to get broken out of its rut as a culture.  Maybe that's the downtrodden metalhead in me that just wants my favored genres to gain more acceptance.

Either way I'm still gonna trash talk Dave Grohl till he cools his jets.

This song is pretty slick by the way, so don't let my dislike of Dave and his attitude hurt that for ya.  The guitarist in this band is amazing.

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