Had a phone conversation with Wyatt a week or so ago trying to determine the meaning of "Classic Rock." I think I have reached my final view.
"Classic Rock" is not simply oldies. Oldies used to be rock and roll from the 50s and 60s--that is, it was hit singles from the initial creation of rock and roll and popular culture targeted at youth in the post war era and early 1950s. Classic rock is more tightly focused around music from the late 1960s through the 1970s to the early 80s. It excludes psychodelic rock, folk, punk, and new wave, but includes glam rock and southern rock.
Furthermore, as wikipedia points out, classic rock is a term that came into being in conjunction with a certain style of radio station. This is what explains the wide range of music that is considered"classic rock."
But for the radio stations to exist, there had to be a market that desired a certain type of music. Radio stations are constantly changing format in order to appeal to changing demographics. What happened with classic rock, however, is that the radio stations were enduring enough to reformulate the genre.
The question then is what was this demographic and what did classic rock represent? I think classic rock became a genre in itself because it represents a period in rock and roll when rock reached a specific height of mainstream acceptance and support. It's largely a result of the history of rock as an art.
In its first couple decades, rock and roll was a rebellious form of art that rejected more adult focussed forms of popular music like jazz, folk, swing. It relied heavily on blues influences, used electric guitars, and introduced the back beat. And it was made by and targeted to teenagers.
By the late 1960s, rock and roll had triumphed and became the dominant popular musical form. It went from being rebellious to being the official art. It was backed by large, well funded record companies. It was still targeting young people, but it was being made by more musicians who had matured under the rock paradigm. These musicians were targeting the people who initially grew up with rock and not just teenagers. Rock and Roll had developed. It became more complex, but in many ways, song structure became more rigid with the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus developed by The Beatles.
But there were moves that were more expansive from bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd with Freebird and a lot of Led Zeppelin where instead of the normal pop structure, the songs would build in intensity over time. The themes of rock also changed to reflect an older and more experienced audience.
Nonetheless, what all this represented was the fact that rock and roll had become the official
art. It was what all the popular kids at school aspired to. Like Jack in John Mellencamp's classic, the even the football star dreamed of becoming a rocker. Rock and roll represented the middle class, white dream.
And all the ended in the early 1980s under the simultaneous assaults of punk, new wave, resurgent pop by Michael Jackson and Madonna, etc, and ultimately by hip hop. Hip hop killed rock and roll, in turn became the official art, and is now suffering it's own assaults.
So, classic rock is really classical rock because it was the last time that rock and roll was the dominant genre. It's like classical music generally which was the officially supported court music that dominated Europe in the late 18th century.
That's my argument at least.
