Seven Ages of Rock

There have been 3 more episodes of the 7 Ages of Rock on BBC since I last discussed it. One on Punk, another on Metal and the latest on Stadium Rock.

Except for Punk, I can consider myself reasonably knowledgeable about the other two genres and so I learnt little from the programmes but still found them enjoyable.

There were a few errors but on the whole the history was reasonably covered. In the stadium episode the bands featured were Queen, U2, The Police, Dire Straits, a bit of KISS and Bruce Springstein???

The inclusion of Springstein seemed a bit tenuous to me. Sure he might have played a stadium or two but he seemed to be included because his music contained a political message.

The fact that it was generally shite didn't matter.

Amusingly, many of his songs were misunderstood which proves, I believe, that it wasn't the message people went to hear. People go to rock concerts to hear good songs, be entertained and enjoy listening to music with like-minded people to be part of an event.

Queen certainly define this and I expect U2 and The Police were similar ( however the impact of a 3 piece in a stadium must be minimal).

The next episode features two of the crappest rock bands ever to be successful - Nirvana and REM. I don't think I could sit through an hour of that ( and I happily watched the punk episode and I'm certainly not a fan of that genre).

On another music note: I've now achieved another new years ambition by finally downloading music. I bought the three new tracks off Black Sabbath: The Dio years for 89p each. Saved a few pounds from having to buy a compilation album which I've got the majority of the tracks.

It was very easy and so I'll think about getting the odd track which I'd like which are from albums which I don't want to buy.